Understand
What the locals call "the East Bay" is really two fairly distinct regions separated by the East Bay hills. On the bay side of the hills in the west, the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward rise from the edge of the San Francisco Bay up the western face of the foothills. The climate tends to be temperate, the culture diverse and the traffic horrendous.
On the eastern side of the hills, the towns of Walnut Creek, Pleasanton and Livermore lie in the area known as the Tri-Valley region named for the Livermore, San Ramon and Amador valleys. The climate here is more like that of the San Joaquin Valley, with foggy winters and scorching summers. The population is more homogeneous, but the traffic is still pretty awful. Originally, when the small towns of the Tri-Valley area began to grow into immense suburbs in the 1970's, many people commuted over the hills to work in the South Bay, the Peninsula or the City. Today, many large corporations have offices in the Tri-Valley area, and the suburbs of Pleasanton and Walnut Creek are growing into small cities.
However, due to the population exodus from "The City" due to $$$ high prices and low bang for the buck and the movement of some families from the west side of the hills it is growing very rapidly and the traffic is now as terrible as any place in Northern California. As the locals would say "The traffic is like, um like, hella bad here"
Contra Costa County in itself is divided into three parts simply referred to as: "West County" near Richmond, "Central County" for the booming area near Walnut Creek, Concord, and Mount Diablo, "East County" for the area near the Delta which includes Antioch or Brentwood.
The two main area codes are 510 for Western Alameda county and the "West County" region of Contra Costa, and 925 for central and east Contra Costa County and for the central eastern part of Alameda county near the fairgrounds Pleasanton and Livermore.
There are many malls and shopping centers in the east bay. Sunvalley Mall Concord, Stoneridge Mall Pleasanton, Bay Fair Mall, New Park Mall, Southland Mall, and Hilltop Mall are some of the largest.
There are three professional sports teams in Oakland: Oakland A's baseball, Oakland Raiders football, and the Golden State Warriors basketball.
The University of California Berkeley (http://www.berkeley.edu) is world renowned for it's educational standards and its liberal viewpoint of most things. The California Bears Football team plays in ancient Memorial Stadium, which sits right over the Hayward Faultline. Note: Memorial Stadium is currently undergoing major renovations and will reopen in 2012; all 2011 Cal home games are being played at AT&T Park in San Francisco
There is a Cal State school in Hayward CSU East Bay (http://www.csueastbay.edu/ - formerly known as "CSU Hayward"). There are many two year junior colleges here but one of the biggest is Diablo Valley College (http://www.dvc.edu), located in Pleasant Hill, CA Contra Costa County
