Talk:Oakland Hills, Oakland, California

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[edit] Creative Neighborhood Naming?

It's a highly questionable assertion that "Oakland Hills" is a named neighborhood or section of Oakland. There have been actual named neighborhoods in the hills of Oakland for decades, but none called "Oakland Hills". Certainly, people refer to neighborhoods as lying in the geologic hills, but I have never encountered any usage referring to any neighborhood ITSELF as the "Oakland Hills". A reference or two would help make your case, if one can be made, but I'm dubious. Besides, are informal terms fit subjects for articles on Wiki? That would seem to open up a huge can of worms, not to mention using up a whole lot of Wiki memory. Sure, that would seem to disqualify the geologic "Oakland hills" as well, but at least that has some demonstrable usage, albeit in error. (One wonders, in the interests of symmetry, why there shouldn't also be an article entitled "Oakland Flatlands"...or maybe there is one. I haven't checked that yet).

The redirects and the merge ambush with the Oakland hills (the geologic feature) article were no no's. They are duly reverted, with a provisional "see also" link to this article pending further consideration by the body politic. Tmangray (talk) 06:33, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion

How about simply adding a section in the article on the hills, listing the districts (linked) which lie in the hills? Readers need only click to those articles to get more detailed information about these actually-named districts, without the need to concoct an ahistorical district name, and avoiding needless duplication. The article would bear a close resemblance to this one, without the baggage. Tmangray (talk) 23:20, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sections, not Neighborhoods

It occurs to me that part of the problem lies in the designation of the larger parts of Oakland as "neighborhoods" when they are actually simply geographic sections, except possibly in the case of West Oakland. Even most of the neighborhoods are in practice referred to as "districts", as in "Montclair District" or "Fruitvale District". I don't know of any historically-named part of Oakland that is known as a "neighborhood", but perhaps there are some. But to the point of THIS article: the hills are a section of Oakland, but with no formality of title or name akin to the districts which lie in it, as this article implies. Tmangray (talk) 00:02, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm rushed and can't address your many questions except to say that yes, I agree the defining concept of Oakland Hills is more 'section' than 'neighborhood'. Perhaps redefining the Oakland Hills as a section would be a step in the right direction. Binksternet (talk) 11:56, 2 March 2008 (UTC)