visiting Oakland

You should be able to find a good trail on this site:

http://www.ebparks.org/parks/redwood

I've hiked and rode mtn bikes in Tilden Park and I've parked in the parking lot up on Skyline and I've run and hiked the East and West Ridge Trails in the Joaquin Miller Park  This is a very popular spot to start your hike, and you'll see tons of people out walking their dogs.  Unfortunately, I dont live in the Easy Bay so I rarely make it over that way.  

Oakland is home for me. That institute isn't something I'd ever heard of but looking it up shows that it is way on the bay side of the city. It is a former industrial area that is full of artist live/work lofts. There's a shoreline path that runs near there that might suffice for a run if you don't have much time.

Getting to the parks in the hills would take at least 20 minutes from there. The ridge trails mentioned above are nice but are actually in Redwood park (as you can sort of see from the URL), which is across the street from Joaquin Miller Park. JMP has more shade. Redwood has better views and lots of big friendly off leash dogs.

If you have a sweet tooth stop by the cafe named Powderface in the Fruitvale BART village and get some made-to-order beignet. Looks like the Institute is only a few blocks away from there.