What's Berkeley Like These Days?

[Anonymous]

Just curious.

I grew up on Grizzly Peak in the 70s and 80s, but except for family visits haven't been back since I left for college in 1987.

Berkeley was still very much Radical Left back when I was younger, though I distincty remember watching that activist spirit actively decline throughout the 80s; my dad participated in any number of activist causes. In high school, my friends and I hung out on Telegraph on the weekends, Center & Shattuck or Provo Park after school during the week. I did my Christmas shopping at the stands on Telegraph Ave. Typical Berkeley parents were artsy (or tried to appear so), dressed in lots of black, with moms adding purple for color, practiced Zen. Almost everyone smoked weed at least a little, and often got it from their parents. Berkeley cops were rumored to smoke the weed they confiscated off of us. Restaurants were almost all independent - few to no chain joints and corporate "restaurant groups" like the ones that dominate the scene in/around DC. Berkeley High offered Swahili as a language elective.

Is Berkeley still like that at all? When I visit, I get the impression that much has changed. Neighborhoods we knew to avoid are now lined with BMWs and Outbacks. Ortman's is now a Starbucks (F U, Starbs!), McCullum's is gone. Blondie's is gone (Arinell's had better pizza anyway). I understand local businesses finally succeeded in driving out the Telegraph street vendors (and I sincerely hope their businesses suffered as a result). All those awesome old movie theaters downtown (the California, UA) with the velvet curtains and gold-leaf plaster have either closed or been chopped up into shadows of what they once were.

So what's left? What's new? How is Berkeley different from the Berzerkeley that shaped my youth?

[Anonymous]

Blame the housing policies. The environmentalists and hippies blocked all new housing development in the SF area. As a result, a growing population had nowhere to live, and housing prices skyrocketed (the ol' supply and demand at work). A 2-bedroom rambler in bad shape can go for $1mln nowadays.

It's gotten so bad that people are finally starting to leave. Due to high demand for moving trucks, it's now $2,000 to rent a UHaul to leave SF, and $200 to take one there: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/08/u-haul-prices-reflect-growing-push-to-leave-silicon-valley/

[Anonymous]

I live in SF and have only gone out to Berkeley a couple of times. There's Gap and Starbucks, but also a lot of independent stores or local (Bay Area) chains. There are a lot of homeless who are addicts but what really grossed me out were the trust fund kids panhandling on the sidewalk. I talked to three of them (not in a group) and they all told me some sob story about how their rich parents didn't understand them, life is not about money, and they wanted to make it on their own. When I pointed out "You're not making it on your own when you're asking others to give you money for nothing" two got angry at me and one admitted I was right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blame the housing policies. The environmentalists and hippies blocked all new housing development in the SF area. As a result, a growing population had nowhere to live, and housing prices skyrocketed (the ol' supply and demand at work). A 2-bedroom rambler in bad shape can go for $1mln nowadays.

It's gotten so bad that people are finally starting to leave. Due to high demand for moving trucks, it's now $2,000 to rent a UHaul to leave SF, and $200 to take one there: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/08/u-haul-prices-reflect-growing-push-to-leave-silicon-valley/

OP here. I'm not "blaming" anyone (except Starbucks in the case of Ortman's. DAMN YOU, STARBUCKS!). Change happens. I was just sitting at my desk on a slow day, feeling nostalgic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in SF and have only gone out to Berkeley a couple of times. There's Gap and Starbucks, but also a lot of independent stores or local (Bay Area) chains. There are a lot of homeless who are addicts but what really grossed me out were the trust fund kids panhandling on the sidewalk. I talked to three of them (not in a group) and they all told me some sob story about how their rich parents didn't understand them, life is not about money, and they wanted to make it on their own. When I pointed out "You're not making it on your own when you're asking others to give you money for nothing" two got angry at me and one admitted I was right.

We called these kids Trustafarians growing up.

[Anonymous]

Definitely not Radical Left anymore, although some of those folks are still around. There is a super odd (to me!) set of Berkeleyans who used to be Radical Left but have, in their old age, turned into NIMBYs.

Telegraph Avenue is more or less the same, though I think the homeless community has grown (as it has in Oakland too).

The residential neighborhoods have intensely gentrified. $2M houses are common, and you can pay $1M even over near San Pablo Park. There really aren't any neighborhoods left in Berkeley that I would put in the "know to avoid" bucket (and that's shifted just in the past ten years or so). West Berkeley has lost a lot of its industry (Pacific Steel Casting, one of the last big holdouts, shut down a few months ago) and now has a ton of condos. And also $1M houses. Bette's Diner is still there but now has an Apple Store and a Sur La Table as neighbors. Grizzly Peak and the hills in general are still much the same. BHS kids still go up to Grizzly Peak at night. No Swahili there anymore, but they do teach Mandarin.

The California is a Landmark theater now, which isn't a half bad outcome for a historic theater, given what's happened to some of them. They also own the Shattuck, which is all fancy and serves alcohol now.

The Cheese Board and Rasputin Music are still there. Peet's, too, but now it's a global conglomerate. All things change, for sure, but I think there's a decent mix of old and new (and chain and independent) in Berkeley these days. Oakland is struggling with that a bit more. Berkeley's biggest challenge is probably the incredibly high cost of housing--it's losing much of its income diversity. That's a chronic issue across the Bay Area, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not Radical Left anymore, although some of those folks are still around. There is a super odd (to me!) set of Berkeleyans who used to be Radical Left but have, in their old age, turned into NIMBYs.

Telegraph Avenue is more or less the same, though I think the homeless community has grown (as it has in Oakland too).

The residential neighborhoods have intensely gentrified. $2M houses are common, and you can pay $1M even over near San Pablo Park. There really aren't any neighborhoods left in Berkeley that I would put in the "know to avoid" bucket (and that's shifted just in the past ten years or so). West Berkeley has lost a lot of its industry (Pacific Steel Casting, one of the last big holdouts, shut down a few months ago) and now has a ton of condos. And also $1M houses. Bette's Diner is still there but now has an Apple Store and a Sur La Table as neighbors. Grizzly Peak and the hills in general are still much the same. BHS kids still go up to Grizzly Peak at night. No Swahili there anymore, but they do teach Mandarin.

The California is a Landmark theater now, which isn't a half bad outcome for a historic theater, given what's happened to some of them. They also own the Shattuck, which is all fancy and serves alcohol now.

The Cheese Board and Rasputin Music are still there. Peet's, too, but now it's a global conglomerate. All things change, for sure, but I think there's a decent mix of old and new (and chain and independent) in Berkeley these days. Oakland is struggling with that a bit more. Berkeley's biggest challenge is probably the incredibly high cost of housing--it's losing much of its income diversity. That's a chronic issue across the Bay Area, though.

+1 I live in the East Bay and this analysis is spot on. I'd say there are also a lot of "regular" families living in Berkeley if just for the schools alone. So probably more of a suburban feeling overall than you grew up with.

[Anonymous]

I went back recently and it seemed like there were way more homeless than I remembered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went back recently and it seemed like there were way more homeless than I remembered.

There are--it's a growing crisis across the Bay Area as a result of the rapidly growing cost of housing, sadly. People are becoming homeless faster than cities and the region can craft new policies and programs to meet the need.

[Anonymous]

Cal is still great! One of the best in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went back recently and it seemed like there were way more homeless than I remembered.

There are--it's a growing crisis across the Bay Area as a result of the rapidly growing cost of housing, sadly. People are becoming homeless faster than cities and the region can craft new policies and programs to meet the need.

OP here - is San Francisco still bussing its homeless to Berkeley? That was a huge issue when I was still there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in SF and have only gone out to Berkeley a couple of times. There's Gap and Starbucks, but also a lot of independent stores or local (Bay Area) chains. There are a lot of homeless who are addicts but what really grossed me out were the trust fund kids panhandling on the sidewalk. I talked to three of them (not in a group) and they all told me some sob story about how their rich parents didn't understand them, life is not about money, and they wanted to make it on their own. When I pointed out "You're not making it on your own when you're asking others to give you money for nothing" two got angry at me and one admitted I was right.

We called these kids Trustafarians growing up.

Yup. They hang out on Haight, too. Go back to Marin, srsly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blame the housing policies. The environmentalists and hippies blocked all new housing development in the SF area. As a result, a growing population had nowhere to live, and housing prices skyrocketed (the ol' supply and demand at work). A 2-bedroom rambler in bad shape can go for $1mln nowadays.

It's gotten so bad that people are finally starting to leave. Due to high demand for moving trucks, it's now $2,000 to rent a UHaul to leave SF, and $200 to take one there: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/08/u-haul-prices-reflect-growing-push-to-leave-silicon-valley/

Ain't no NIMBY like a SF Bay Area NIMBY. Not to go off on a tangent, but a great example: I used to work at SFGH (now "Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center"...another emblem of what the area has become), where the neighborhood association lobbied endlessly to prevent a Medivac helipad because they didn't want the noise (traumas and cardiac arrests, be damned!). Mind you, the surrounding neighborhood backs up to the busy 101 Freeway. Until UCSF's Benioff campus opened with a helipad, San Francisco was the only major US city without air medical access. (steps off soapbox)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blame the housing policies. The environmentalists and hippies blocked all new housing development in the SF area. As a result, a growing population had nowhere to live, and housing prices skyrocketed (the ol' supply and demand at work). A 2-bedroom rambler in bad shape can go for $1mln nowadays.

It's gotten so bad that people are finally starting to leave. Due to high demand for moving trucks, it's now $2,000 to rent a UHaul to leave SF, and $200 to take one there: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/08/u-haul-prices-reflect-growing-push-to-leave-silicon-valley/

Ain't no NIMBY like a SF Bay Area NIMBY. Not to go off on a tangent, but a great example: I used to work at SFGH (now "Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center"...another emblem of what the area has become), where the neighborhood association lobbied endlessly to prevent a Medivac helipad because they didn't want the noise (traumas and cardiac arrests, be damned!). Mind you, the surrounding neighborhood backs up to the busy 101 Freeway. Until UCSF's Benioff campus opened with a helipad, San Francisco was the only major US city without air medical access. (steps off soapbox)

S.F. is full of entitled liberals - both rich and poor!
THey deserve what they got!