What is Berkeley like? (San Francisco, Oakland: crime, neighborhoods, movies)

[ben46]

Hi, I am considering moving to Berkeley soon. I have three children ages 16,12 and 9. What is it like living in Berkeley? Does it still have a large hippie population as it did in the 60s or has it changed. It is a good place for kids? Also, what type of people live there. I am looking for a very diverse area and wondering if it as diverse as I have heard. Do any people commute from Berkeley to the Financial District in San Francisco? Are there a lot of tech workers in this part of the bay area like there is in Atherton and Palo Alto?

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by ben46

Hi, I am considering moving to Berkeley soon. I have three children ages 16,12 and 9. What is it like living in Berkeley? Does it still have a large hippie population as it did in the 60s or has it changed. It is a good place for kids? Also, what type of people live there. I am looking for a very diverse area and wondering if it as diverse as I have heard. Do any people commute from Berkeley to the Financial District in San Francisco? Are there a lot of tech workers in this part of the bay area like there is in Atherton and Palo Alto?

It depends on what part of town your talking about. I am very familiar with North Berkeley/ Albany and think it is a great area for kids, but the city itself is very interesting because even though it's smaller per se than SF or Oakland, it still has big city issues like wretched traffic, homeless in downtown Berkeley, young delinquents now and then and crime in South Berkeley-As far as diversity the city is diverse I guess, but rather segregated. You dont see many hippies these days but particularly in the Berkeley Hills, there are thousands of professionals and what not. As far as techies, Im not sure, but there are a ton of engineers, scientists, academics, etc. as well as a ton of people who work in SF. There are 3 BART stations in Berkeley too.

Back to the kids, Id rather put kids in the Albany school district as it's an extremely highly regarded and high scoring district with heavy parental involvement. Albany High is awesome, much better than Berkeley High imo if the objective is for your kid to have a solid academic experience and as 'normal' a HS experience as possible. Berkeley High students protest, fight, loiter in downtown, and that's another huge minus for me--Berkeley High is in the heart of downtown, so there are a ton of stores, movies, etc to distract kids.

I personally prefer Berkeley to Palo Alto/ Atherton(great places obviously) by a long shot because it's a tad more urban/ dense, has BART, is a stone's throw from San Francisco and has incredible views, hills, weather, and a lovely bayfront location.

Oh, and I live in Piedmont but I work in Palo Alto(Venture Capital).

[TR95]

^^^All this, so true. We moved to Albany 8 months ago. We looked all over, Berkeley, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Walnut Creek, Oakland. We lucked out in my opinion. We really liked Berkeley HS, but Albany was really easy for our kids to assimilate to, having an incoming freshman. I think it would be much easier for your 16 yo than maybe Berkeley High since it is much larger. I think your younger ones would be fine since it is middle school. Easy to get to SF for work and other things. Would pick Albany over any place again, except maybe San Mateo if I ever had to work in Silicon Valley.

[Jean Genie]

Originally Posted by ben46

Hi, I am considering moving to Berkeley soon. I have three children ages 16,12 and 9. What is it like living in Berkeley? Does it still have a large hippie population as it did in the 60s or has it changed. It is a good place for kids? Also, what type of people live there. I am looking for a very diverse area and wondering if it as diverse as I have heard. Do any people commute from Berkeley to the Financial District in San Francisco? Are there a lot of tech workers in this part of the bay area like there is in Atherton and Palo Alto?

Downtown Berkley is very dirty and has lots of homeless. Downtown is filled with hipsters, not hippies. The outer region out of downtown is basically Oakland. Whites make up 60% percent of the population but downtown is very diverse. Yes, many people commute from Berkeley/Oakland to SF. Not very much tech workers in Berkley/Oakland but downtown has a high concentration of young people. I wouldn't recommend it for a family. I go there regularly, those are just my observations on the place.

[Ruth4Truth]

Berkeley does have a few aging hippies, as well as writers, artists, a Tibetan colony, and as previously stated, a lot of professionals in east Berkeley, i.e. the hills. The city gov't has been run by junior Marxists since the 80's or so, who are notorious for not supporting local business in terms of providing security, being unaware that it was business taxes that paid their salaries. Berkeley has beautiful neighborhoods, beautiful residential architecture in those neighborhoods, and still has a small town feel in much of the town. Downtown has degenerated a bit since I was a kid, but there are other commercial areas that are wonderful. Berkeley does favor locally-owned businesses, and has preserved the historical, old-fashioned small-town feel of some of the commercial streets. It's a great walking town. Good public transit, too.

It depends on what part of town you can afford to live in, OP. And I've read conflicting reports about Berkeley High on this board, but when I was growing up there, I only heard the negative side. Some people recommend you send your kids to private school for HS, others say that Berkeley High has a college prep track, like a school-within-a-school, that's pretty good.

Albany also has some of the scenic and walkable advantages of Berkeley (and borders Berkeley to the NW), and has good schools. It's also more affordable ("affordable" being HIGHLY relative in CA and especially the Bay Area).

Let us know what you decide, and where you end up settling.

[04kL4nD]

I vastly prefer Oakland to Berkeley, but there are nice parts like the hills, Solano Ave, and the Gourmet Ghetto. The thing with Berkeley is that it's basically students and old sell out hippies. It's not the most welcoming place if you aren't part of either group. If you're looking for hip, vibrant, and diverse without the SF price tag, Oakland is such a better choice imo.

[sacreole]

Berkeley is also a self-declared "Nuclear-Free Zone."

[butercup]

Highly recommend you join the Berkeley Parents Network if you're going to be anywhere in the East Bay - it's an amazing source of information and recommendations on anything and everything!

Berkeley Parents Network:

[victimofGM]

I wouldn't want to live in a city that wanted to evict a Marine recruiting station calling them unwelcome and unwanted intruders.

[TR95]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

I vastly prefer Oakland to Berkeley, but there are nice parts like the hills, Solano Ave, and the Gourmet Ghetto. The thing with Berkeley is that it's basically students and old sell out hippies. It's not the most welcoming place if you aren't part of either group. If you're looking for hip, vibrant, and diverse without the SF price tag, Oakland is such a better choice imo.

I wouldn't listen to any of this advice, OP. Unless, you don't care about your 16 year old. Oakland is great, especially if you are in your 20's, 30's or do not have kids or have raised your children through the Oakland schools. Unless, your 16 year old adapts easily or plays a sport at a competitive level, he or she will have a much harder time at Oakland Tech than either Berkeley or Albany high schools. Or unless, you send them to private schools - Head Royce, CPS, Bishop O'Dowd, St Mary's. HR and CPS are $35k and St Mary's O'Dowd are $17k. There are great parts of Oakland, don't get me wrong, we looked, but my opinion it is a big adjustment depending on where you are coming from. Maybe you are coming from NYC, DC, urban Chicago, then by all means go for Oakland.