I've lived all over the Bay Area, but I've spent the majority of my life between Oakland and Martinez, currently in Vallejo.
Other places I've lived:
Daly City
Concord
Pleasant Hill
It didn't seem any worse than Concord. I went to San Jose for a Craiglist trade and it was in Alum Rock, people told me it was really bad there, but the trade went fine, and the neighborhood seemed average. If that's the bad area, I think that's pretty good.