Downtown Oakland Senior Center

Mary Elyn Bahlert

Downtown Oakland Senior Center is the BEST! Thank you to Jennifer, the director, who makes sure we receive the best programming, and that everyone is treated kindly and with respect. I feel privileged to be able to take part in activities there. Thank you!

Deborah Owens

Wonderful and beautiful entertaining center for the 55 and older young at heart lol. Lots of fun activity and people.

Rene Ramos

This is a great place for a lot of different activities. Every time I go there is some ballroom dancing happening in a big room. I go there to drop off a family member for the aphasia center. The people there are very friendly and kind this place is great for the community of Oakland and it's perfect for the elderly. I definitely love this place. One problem is that the parking is almost always full and hard to find parking, some people drive around to find parking.

Mr T.

I’ve been going to dance practice at to the 200 Grand Avenue for around 17 years. Up to 4 classes a week. Ball room, Salsa, tango and many others. Over the years I wrote letters twice to the Oakland city council to not close the center. I got letters back thanking me for my input. I mentioned this to the 4 classes I took and the students and teachers thanked me for doing this. On 3/18/17 Saturday I went to another dance practice. I showed up late & the class was over. As I walked out the tall, large security guard said I was trespassing & needed to leave. It became a 5 minute argumentive discussion as I told him I’m a student here who had taken classes for many years. He said the teachers pay to be here that’s why I don’t need to be there. I told him if it wasn’t for us students paying the teachers he may not have a job. It was 5 minutes before he let me leave. He was not doing his job by telling well dressed people who wrote letters to keep this place open, to leave. Who’s teaching these security? His job is to watch for any fights, panhandling, sleeping on the floor, talking too loud, disturbing the peace and that’s about it. Anything more there’s no point to come here. A security guard in K-Mart once tackled a man returning an item and broke his arm. The man was a surgeon who sued K-Mart and won. I’d like to see this security tell UC Berkeley students to leave and see how long he lasts. Somebody better tell these guards to leave people alone if they are not disturbing the peace or there’s no point in coming here.