Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a regular column exploring what you can rent for a set dollar amount in different neighborhoods. Today we head to Oakland to see if one person's studio another person's townhouse? Today's price: $2,000.
↑ Let's open up with a little place on the northern edge of Adams Point, a one-bedroom apartment on Perkins Street for $1,995/month. It comes furnished, and the building is advertised as "small, friendly, quiet " (which is the sort of gentle and non-threatening language you might also use to advertise a dog). There's something intriguing going on with the ceiling beams, but, disappointingly, the photos crop most of them out, so only those who tour will be in on the mystery. No pets.
↑ Here's a Victorian of impressive proportions just south of the Merritt neighborhood (but on the edge of Clinton, a few blocks from Clinton Square). Up on the second floor there's a one-bedroom apartment that's going for an even $2,000/month these days. The ad boasts about the vaulted ceilings, but, once again, we don't get much of a view. (Is this a trend?) Nevertheless, it's quite a pretty building in its workmanlike way. No pets here either, though.
↑ If you're looking for a refuge for you and your non-human co-tenants, there is a pet-friendly apartment not far away in the Clinton neighborhood. Though a bit snug at 500 feet, it's still two bedrooms for $1,988/month. The apartment is decidedly spartan with tile floors throughout, but there is something a touch alluring about the straightforwardness of the staging and photography, with all of its emphasis on hard lines. That the ad indicates the pet policy with an adorable puppy and kitten photo doesn't hurt.
↑ For something equally straightforward but perhaps a bit more elegant, this two-bedroom apartment rents right next to Mills College for $1,850/month. Whoever put this one together really, really loves the color slate, from the appliances down to the wood floors. The building is called "brand new," built on a spot that until recently was a singularly worn-out looking 1930 home. The new structure has a startlingly modernist take, right down to the gridded steel garage door. It's another no-pets building, however.
↑ At least Fruitvale loves our pets too, in this case via a two bedroom apartment on High Street for the perhaps puzzling sum of $1,883/month. This is at the old Kerwood Apartments near Bancroft Avenue, and again we have a place with a decidedly stark look that somehow seems Zen-like in its simplicity rather than just bare, at least in the ad.