The People of Berkeley (San Diego, San Francisco: real estate, unemployed, schools)

[TreeTomato]

I've heard time and again, that Berkeley has more "hippies" than the rest of the bay... but I was curious - are most of these individuals college students, or is there a healthy mix of employed and unemployed long-haired types, who are merely there because it's a nice place to be?

Does Berkeley tend to revolve around the college scene, or does it have a sprawling scene of its own, with people who simply enjoy living there?

[Oakland Uptown]

Originally Posted by TreeTomato

I've heard time and again, that Berkeley has more "hippies" than the rest of the bay... but I was curious - are most of these individuals college students, or is there a healthy mix of employed and unemployed long-haired types, who are merely there because it's a nice place to be?

Does Berkeley tend to revolve around the college scene, or does it have a sprawling scene of its own, with people who simply enjoy living there?

Berkeley got that reputation back in the 60s' you still have a lot of modern hippies, but it's not like what you think. There are different Berkeley's IMO, there's the Yuppie Berkeley, Ghetto Berkeley and Liberal Berkeley. The College "Scene" tends to blend in with the rest of the city, it's not like San Diego State or other party schools.

[mayorhaggar]

Honestly there aren't really many hippies in the Bay Area other than a few homeless people here and there, it's just too expensive to live here without a good job. The Bay Area is mainly yuppies and middle class immigrants now, especially San Francisco, but that is really generalizing.

[Curmudgeon]

There are no real people in Bezerkeley, just drones left over from hippie, drug-induced hallucinations!

[pagliacci]

The three hikers that were arrested because the crossed the border into Iran were from Berkeley. Idiots.

[mstnghu2]

I've actually found myself quite surprised at the people I've come across while visiting Berkeley. It has such a strong reputation for having open-minded liberal people...which most people tend to equate with warm and friendly. The first time I ever visited Berkeley with one of my best friends, we were both surprised at the hostile vibe that we both simultaneously picked up.
I don't know how else to explain it. I just didn't pick up a sense of friendliness and openness that I was expecting to find.
In subsequent times I've visited, I've felt the same way. It almost feels like some sort of dark cloud. A lot of the shop owners and people hanging around downtown just seem unhappy and cynical.
I'm sure not everybody there is like this, but this has been my perception each and every time I've gone to visit and friends that have been with me have also picked up on it.
Maybe a resident can chime in...

[Gentoo]

I am a native of Berkeley and visit frequently. The one thing I've learned over the years is that you either love it or hate it. While the city has changed over the past decade or so, one thing remains true, Berkeley is an extreme place. It's for those that are comfortable with the far left mentality and thinking (sometimes it's even too far left for this left leaning liberal). Berkeley also has some characteristics which, if you're not ready for will really irritate you. One of the most nagging is the almost complete lack of public restrooms. try to find a place in downtown Berkeley where you can do your business and it gets frustrating pretty quickly. I know this doen't sound like much but wait till you're in that situation.

Now I don't know about it being hostile. If you're looking for southern hospitality you're in the wrong place. Berkeley is very much like a mini Seattle; people will talk to you and be friendly but one has to make an effort as well. Also once they're done talking to you then it's time to move on. It's like "hi nice to meet you, ok have a good day bye!" I think cities that are densely populated just tend to be this way. Berkeley seems much bigger than it actually is because it's so congested.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

I've actually found myself quite surprised at the people I've come across while visiting Berkeley. It has such a strong reputation for having open-minded liberal people...which most people tend to equate with warm and friendly. The first time I ever visited Berkeley with one of my best friends, we were both surprised at the hostile vibe that we both simultaneously picked up.
I don't know how else to explain it. I just didn't pick up a sense of friendliness and openness that I was expecting to find.
In subsequent times I've visited, I've felt the same way. It almost feels like some sort of dark cloud. A lot of the shop owners and people hanging around downtown just seem unhappy and cynical.
I'm sure not everybody there is like this, but this has been my perception each and every time I've gone to visit and friends that have been with me have also picked up on it.
Maybe a resident can chime in...

I live in SF and not Berkeley but I've never gotten this feeling in Berkeley, it just feels like San Francisco with a slightly more suburban feel to me. Yeah ok it's not relaxed and hippy-dippy but it is a dense suburb in one of the largest urban areas in the US and despite that people are still polite and fairly friendly.

[bellalunatic]

After 7 years of living in Berkeley, I'm with Gentoo on this, you love it or hate it.
I loved it for real estate appreciation, lucky for us, but really any popular college town is a great investment generally, but my biggest problem with the more suburban than urban Berkeley, is that it is VERY hard to find people with self-effacing humor.
But I hate it for the Berkeley folks who have no sense of humor about Berkeley's culture of uber leftness...I am a very fairly left leaning liberal but seriously these folks go so far beyond they're practically on the right again.
Which is terribly unfortunate since the humor of it all would help the city admit to and deal with real problems facing the city instead of randomly opposing National Laws/wars and such....
It's as if the people (and no I don't mean the students, but the families & government folk that live in Berkeley) seem to always drag the liberal mantle around to the point of exhaustion.
If you can't laugh at yourself (like how out of hand some daily things are in Berkeley) then geez, what can you do?

[Pretzelogik]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

There are no real people in Bezerkeley, just drones left over from hippie, drug-induced hallucinations!

They don't call it the Peoples Republic of B for nothin