I lived in Oakland for many years and am now in WC. I would recommend the O for your needs.

I actually despise most of Oakland as a city. It has fun pockets and interesting pockets but it’s dirty and blighted and unsafe yet almost as expensive as SF. However it’s closer to everything fun that a younger set is up to. Think if it as being in the Bay Area and it improves a lot. You may find your community in Oakland, or perhaps Emeryville or Berkeley or San Francisco. Oakland will give you good access to all of them.

When you’re ready to establish and tend a more permanent home, perhaps raise a family, WC is a better place to be. You’ll meet plenty of people THAT age / stage here in WC. Not so many 25ish singles, unless your only two interests are church and swimming.

WC is close enough to the inner Bay Area for me. I went for a sail off Sausalito just tonight. I can get to anything in the Bay Area that I want to. But I can also get out of it. The quiet and beauty of WC are what I want from life now.