I been to the Hyatt Regency San Diego a few times and the Piedmont Gardens are on par with the…read moreHyatt. They are most definitely the best rehab center in the East Bay. The staff like the other care centers are the best, with their system of care and comfort they cannot be beat. Now I know why it's almost impossible to get in for care. Their kitchen menu is like gourmet food, and you can order ala-carte. There is a rooftop garden, with a fantastic view. An atrium with a lush garden I want in my backyard. A real gem in Piedmont in Oakland. I don't want to go home. Two weeks isn't enough to spend there.

My grandparents recently had to have a couple of short term stays at Piedmont Gardens to recover…read morefrom a fracture and surgery. The members of staff at Piedmont Gardens were very helpful and friendly. They were always in contact with me during the stay and kept me informed of my family's status no matter what happened any time of day. Nurses were easy to reach and administrative staff was easy to talk to. Facilities were clean, well kept, and up to date. If there were any unfortunate reasons why we would have to go back, I wouldn't hesitate to reach back out to Piedmont Gardens. I would also like to thank Georgia and Rogger for helping me navigate the stressful time with my grandparents recovering from their hospital visit. Their help allowed me to get the best care for my grandparents.

I am writing this for my 94 year old friend. She is not happy here. She has had things stolen and…read morehas a great deal of fear. It's really sad. If you have your loved one stay here, be VERY vigilant and make sure protections are in place. Appearances are good here, food is fine - AND the elderly can be taken advantage of here. Be aware.

My mother has been very happy at Merrill Gardens for the past year and a half. Our family is…read moreespecially grateful to Merrill for its support in offering the use of the facility's lovely Living Room for Mom's 100th birthday party. Grace Ray, the Active Living Program Director, helped us all the way through the process, including suggesting the use of the Living Room and providing us with glasses, utensils, plates, water--and even providing balloon decorations. Grace was on-site during the set-up process to make sure everything was in order. We were able to add a table and some extra chairs, and she helped us with climate control in the room. We are very grateful, too, to the staff members who provided us all that we needed to be able to serve a catered lunch and who took care of the dish washing and cleaning up. This was an activities director and staff who went over-the-top to ensure a happy 100th birthday for a resident. It was a special day for our family. Thank you, Merrill Gardens!

Amazing team! Especially Trobedia and Anna, they are so compassionate and helpful! I would highly…read morerecommend this community!

Awful place for seniors. Look up their state citations. Management and care are the worst in the…read morearea.

My mother lived at Lakeside Park for over a year, and I just want people to be informed that the…read moreexperience was painful--I do not recommend this business. While the care staff was mostly kind, the food decent, and the common areas clean and homey, the administration was cold, unresponsive, and disorganized from start to finish. You can expect rent and care fees to increase by 40% in 6 months. They seem to have no capacity for digital communication and were slow to respond--except when raising prices. I was even mistakenly given another resident's financial and personal information, brushed off as a "mix-up." by the staff Due to their negligence, my mother's move-in date was delayed and I was told that she was "not allowed in the building" a day before. At one point, while I was out of town, she fell and broke her ankle in three places. I was initially told she only had a UTI that needed hospital treatment, it was only later that I found out about the badly broken ankle. Later, she developed pressure sores due to a lack of proper wheelchair cushioning. The day she entered hospice, they informed me same day that her care fees would now be at the maximum rate-- yet meaningful communication on other issues was nonexistent. Even after her passing, the reimbursement process dragged on for six weeks, with no response after multiple follow-ups. A heartbreaking and ironically uncaring experience from start to finish. Would never recommend Lakeside Park to anyone.

Last week I was invited to play music in the courtyard of a beautiful buiding with a flowery open…read morecourtyard thas I enjoyed playing violin at. It was a perfect setting for the classical music and their clients enjoyed the calm peacefulness of the performance. Their clients were well taken care of.

The business is poorly run, without care for individuals, only concerned with the bottom line. The…read morefacility is understaffed and not concerned with true improvement. Employee turnover is incredibly high, ask why if you visit.

Silverado Memory Care in Berkeley is a remarkable place doing innovative intervention and…read morecaregiving for what many similar facilities would find a difficult population. From the physical layout which is both beautiful and homey to the excellent staff, well versed in the needs of clients with dementia and how best to help them, this place is different in the best possible way. The advocacy for your family member begins before they ever arrive there. It is my profound regret that my husband passed away before he could move in. But I can say it was remarkable the outreach and advocacy that was made on his behalf with his hospital physician team and the hospital discharge planners to be sure my husband was getting the care he needed . I can't say enough how the support I received from Morgan,, the RN Administrator working with me, eased my anxiety and gave me comfort during the hardest time of my life. Please check Silverado out if you have a family member with dementia. The clients I saw on my visits there seemed to be enjoying their lives. There are dogs, cats birds, a bunny and beautiful gardens. Families are welcome to enjoy meals there with their family member. There are so many features of comfort and normalcy to help the clients navigate their challenges.

Date: 6/6/2026. Time: 5:25 PM. 67°. Sunny…read more Getting to this senior center from Alameda to Berkeley was quite an adventure on public transportation. I rode AC#96 to Downtown Oakland. I boarded the wrong bus AC#72 and got off at San Pablo Avenue and Delaware. I walked a block south to Hearst Avenue, realizing I was nowhere close to my destination. I requested Lyft to take me to 1901 Hearst Avenue. The bus I was supposed to catch was AC#12 from Oakland to Berkeley. Dub uh...clueless. LOL The purpose of my visit to the North Berkeley Senior Center was for my friend's mother's 95th birthday party. Wow! I am impressed with this facility. The dining room for this party is very spacious and probably can hold over 250 people. Definitely it is nice venue to host a party for any occasion. There is a kitchen for food preparation. Entering this facility, one is greeted by the employees. As in the two senior centers I have been to, Alameda and Downtown Oakland, they have classes, activities, games, information on different types of services and assistance for people over 60 years of age. Being here reminds me to renew my membership with Mastick Senior Center in Alameda by June 30, 2026. I am definitely missing out on their lunches, donated breads and the reading room.

I came here as my zumba teacher was starting a class here and wanted me to join in. So I got here…read morein time to look for parking as their parking lot is small so you have to look for street parking. Then you need to pre-register for the class and after you have completed your paperwork they give you a card. The room where the class was held has a stage and plenty of room to dance. The facility is clean and people who work there are friendly. Just allow time for parking.

Cynthia was warm, dedicated and professional. She went above and beyond in caring for our loved one…read morein Hospice.

My uncle received beautiful care from Sophia. He felt calm and happy after the care, bathing and…read moreconversations they shared. I am grateful that he passed away knowing he received the care and respect he deserved.

We moved to St. Paul's Towers (SPT) in 2017. My husband was 86 and I was 75. We had a lovely large…read morehome in the Berkeley hills that we had lived in for 40 years. I had a lung condition that my Stanford doctors told me would probably give me only 3 more years of life. I was determined that on my death my husband would be surrounded by friends and not be stuck in isolation on his own. We looked at many places, but only seriously considered SPT, Piedmont Gardens, and the place under construction at the time, Belmont Gardens. We visited SPT and Piedmont Gardens and checked the other communities run by the same company that runs Belmont Gardens. The staff and residents of SPT looked happy and busy while the staff and residents at Piedmont Gardens looked unhappy and at loose ends. The residents at Piedmont Gardens also looked more disabled. There were far more walkers at Piedmont Gardens than there were at SPT. The food was much better at SPT than at Piedmont Gardens. On the other hand, Piedmont Gardens was far cheaper than SPT, and had a smaller buy-in fee. We knew no-one at SPT, but we did have a few friends who were living at Piedmont Gardens. The shops on Piedmont Avenue were just a block and a half away from Piedmont Gardens (but up-hill, so hard for me to get to). SPT was close enough to downtown Oakland for us to drive to, and was kitty-cornered from Lake Merritt with its beautiful gardens and Fairyland. We were very interested in Belmont Gardens because it had some association with UC Berkeley, so we would be sure to know other residents there. It looked like it was going to be a bit isolated, but they assured us that a Sprouts was being built next door (and it is there now) and that the neighborhood would grow quickly with Belmont Gardens there (It has!) They also said that the UC Berkeley shuttle would be available to take people to downtown Berkeley and to the campus, a big plus for us since we were on campus frequently. Belmont Gardens was MUCH cheaper than SPT, and even cheaper than Piedmont Gardens so that was a big plus. The big negative as far as our kids were concerned was that Belmont Gardens was not a CCRC (Continuous Care Residential Community). It had units for independent living and for assisted living, plus a memory unit, but no nursing care facility. It was inevitable that one of us would some time need nursing care which would mean a move to a nursing facility. The partner would then be required to take some transportation to the nursing facility to be with the other partner. If you were single, that was not so much a concern (although it is always disrupting to have to move from one place to another, even if you are a single). Then we learned that most of the units at Belmont Gardens were going to be assisted living, not independent living. That was the final straw for us. We were pretty active (and still are) and were worried that we would find few compatible colleagues at Belmont Gardens. So SPT came out ahead on most counts -- except cost. Since we would be using up much of the money we intended to leave for our children, we asked them for advice and gave them veto power. They said they'd be happier and more relieved of worry if we were to with a place that was a CCRC, so we ended up choosing St. Paul's Towers. We have been extraordinarily happy here. Primarily because both the staff and residents are wonderful. COVID has caused its problems, but the staff and management have kept us safer than most places. Prices here have gone up this year by 9.5%, but when we looked at other retirement communities in the area we find they've all gone up by about 9.5%. At first I thought it must be collusion, but it turns out that by California law they CANNOT go up by 10% or more, so in these inflationary times they have all chosen to go close to the max. Yes, we are currently a bit understaffed, but again, when we look at other Bay Area retirement communities, they all complain of the same problem. Since we have moved to SPT a new retirement community has been built in Walnut Creek and a dear friend of ours has decided to go there. It is cheaper than SPT and the apartments are more spacious. It also has a swimming pool which is a big factor with our friend who is a swimmer, but I worry that she will find the heat oppressive, find that it more difficult to walk from building to building for meals than it is to ride an elevator for meals and gatherings, and most of all, she will find it very isolating and difficult to get to her many concerts, and ballets in Berkeley. Finally, Carlos P. wrote a negative review of SPT on 6/29/2021 where he says he's been living at SPT for several years. We came to SPT in 2017 and are still here in 2023. There has been no Carlos as a resident in all those years. I wouldn't believe anything he says.

My parents were in independent living (IL) at St. Paul's Towers in Oakland between 2001 and 2015;…read morein 2014 my father died, and in 2016 my mother moved into assisted living (AL). She died at 101 in December 2025. Both parents had stays in skilled nursing (SN), which were horrible. If I had to grade St. Paul's Towers, I would give it a 'B' for IL, a 'C-' for AL, and an 'F' for SN. Almost all the positive online reviews of St. Paul's Towers are posted by people in IL, or even by people who haven't even lived there. But a few reviewers have noted that SPT has gone downhill, especially since it was taken over by Covia and Front Porch. SPT has drastically reduced resident amenities and care, including AL activities, and important positions go unfilled for months and years. The food also went from excellent to bad. This review is a very short version of my complete review, which you can find at www.sharonhudson.com/SPT. Worth reading. The staff that residents interact with every day are friendly, caring, and helpful, so the IL atmosphere is excellent. But bad management has been a serious problem. Residents' contracts give them almost no rights and place no limits on fee increases. When residents eventually need assistance, it is their children who end up "paying" for their contracts, by having to fight with management, train and supervise employees, etc. For 10 years, I spent 10-20 hours per week in AL visiting Mom. Quality of life in AL depends on competent management, which we experienced for only a few years. Nobody was in charge of apartment maintenance; it was up to me to report burnt-out light bulbs, etc. The CNAs were kind and caring, but they were essentially untrained and unsupervised, except by me and the senior CNAs, who "trained" the new ones, despite the language barriers. Almost none spoke idiomatic English, which is a huge problem and safety risk for people with dementia. Residents cannot "cooperate" with people they don't understand. However, in mid-2025 they hired a new AL director, so maybe things will improve. Trying to get staff to involve my mother in AL activities became a real hassle after COVID. People with dementia cannot "ask" for activities, and staff should encourage residents to engage in activities. Mom never got to even a few of the activities she might have enjoyed. It's just a lot easier to leave a resident sitting in their room. BTW, if a resident is unable to remember what they did recently, you will have no way of knowing how they are being treated. My mother had a large, sunny apartment, so we had the environment to do fun activities together. I also needed to have an office/computer there. But many of the units were too small for any of that, too small even for the resident to host family visits. There are no AL units large enough for a couple; it was devastating for my father to be separated from his wife of 70 years. Nobody has access to nature from their unit, except what they can manage on their balcony. There is a gorgeous garden on the second floor, but is mostly inaccessible to AL residents who cannot get there on their own. The nursing staff currently at SPT, whom residents interact with every day, are competent and caring, but the major medical interactions we had with SPT were terrible. Again, bad management and training. For example, in 2014, my father spent a few months in AL before dying. Several times he ended up in the Kaiser emergency room with serious infections, and once someone at Kaiser reported SPT to the county for elder abuse. In 2019, Mom broke her leg, and had to recuperate in SN on the 22nd floor of SPT. That was hell for both of us. I had to go to SPT most of every day just to get her off that floor. One day I found Mom crying, and when I asked what was wrong, she blurted out, "I just want to be treated like a human being!" I saw lots of call lights not being responded to, and distressed residents being ignored. When Mom was able to walk again, the medical director (unsuccessfully) tried to force her to move permanently to SN; instead she returned to her apartment, where she lived safely for another six years. During COVID, SPT was on lockdown for about three years--much longer than other places. Every time one of their 250-300 residents or staff tested positive, all the AL people had to stay alone in their apartments alone for two weeks. That too was unnecessary and abusive. You should find out how much legal power the facility medical director has over the residents' living situations, and what is their philosophy and history. A year before my mother died, $10,000-worth of jewelry was stolen from her apartment. Long story short: After the theft, which arose from bad management and low staffing, SPT never informed staff or other AL residents that a theft had occurred, which meant that others could not prevent another incident or even know if they had been victimized. And of course, they stonewalled any compensation.

they did a superb job of assessing our needs, having detailed conversations in advance, and then…read moreselecting a care giver, who was dedicated, patient and professional. it is refreshing to see this level of concern for the needs of the patient.

ComForCare Home Care has been a blessing for my husband , Santiago and I . They have excellent…read moreskills, Frankie and Michelle work with you 100%. We've been with them for over 4 years now and looking forward to stay with them in the future. Excellent care, professional and caring . Thank you so much , Montoya Family!

I had a wonderful birthing experience here and could not imagine going anywhere else. It was near…read moremy house at the time with less than a 10 minute drive. When we were discharged from the hospital, I remember one of the nurses like walking me all the way to the car making sure I was like buckled in and they warmly said goodbye to me. Before doing so on my earlier part after the birth, the nurses would check on me. I had unlimited supply of water and round the clock assistance whenever I needed it, and they worked with my birthing Doula quite well during the actual birth.

Unprofessional, unhelpful, and exploitative...possibly unlawful…read more - Declined to answer straight-forward questions about costs for services - Clearly did not read my emails where I provided their requested information about me and my insurance company - Ceased communication without notice after I requested to cancel my previously scheduled appointment...knowing that if I can't get through to anyone on the phone or online, I would incur a late cancellation fee - Charges outpatient services as if they were inpatient (I don't know how this is even legal)