...I guess that to someone like me, Alameda is close enough to Oakland and the rest of the Bay area that I would never describe it like that. I never worried too much up here in Sacramento, until I worked for a few years at the Bike co-op here, and got to meet the endless parade of people looking for saddles, seatposts, wheels, and beater bikes to replace what had recently been stolen from them. But it was never about Campy components, IIRC.

Kinda like a doctor who specializes in emergency medicine has a skewed view of what's statistically going on out in the world in terms of the overall rate of carnage, because he gets to see the worst of it.

My suggestion, and it is only that, is that you not ride something as a commuter that you lock up outside anywhere for much longer than 20-30 minutes (using the method you've described). That's why god has given us all those 80's hardtail mountain bikes that you can buy for a hunnert bucks and overhaul, install a rack, and fly under the radar so long as you don't make them look too shiny. Old 3 speeds are also good for this, but they are getting harder to find in that price range where you won't care as much if it gets liberated.