Berkeley

Also, there is hardly any smoking except compared maybe to a true hippy enclave like up further north.

On the other hand if you're looking to hook up with other cute young things who would care less about your crappy job, berkeley is the place!

The UC theater is gone (woe!) but there're SO many others, and the Landmark ones tend to be pretty cool.

Shattuck has the movie theaters but otherwise can suck it, except for the nice indian eats.

Brewed Awakenings up north of campus is a great chill-out coffee joint with a pretty mellow vibe, and the other one on the same street has an intimate perfect for a date cafe vibe. The chinese resteraunt there is an overlooked family-run gem for good eats, especially their egg-based dishes tho I don't think they do the fried oyster omlettes.

A really nice electronics store for audiophiles some distance towards the freeway (on the main east-west drag, i forget the name) along with a a snazzy drive-in foster freeze type snack shack and oh! Hot Pot City with all you can eat/cook make yr. own stir-fry for roughly 10$.

Also lots of places make crepes. Yum crepes.

I don't remember much more at the moment except that the two Telegraph bookstores -- Cody's and the used one next to it -- pretty much rock. Also, don't buy liquor at the yuppie-mart, but the more generic place just a bit further north.

Also, the movie theatres sometimes don't have the films for "proles" and you need to go north through the underpass to see them in the adjoining town. Like "Centerstage" and "Dude, Where's My Car" didn't play in Berkeley at all.

fuck,

My favorite things in Berkeley (roughly in order): The Hearst Pool, etc. I guess I like the campus art museum and Moe's Books too.

Oh, hey, and is that public hot-tub thing a myth or not?

Also, er, The Gilman, I guess. For that sort of thing, y'know.

The Main Question: Do you have a car?

Also, if you can find a cheap arrangement, then you might even like the Haight in San Francsico more. There's much more going on in the City generally.

I ended up hating the whole Bay Area by the time I left last year (though I enjoy visiting again). There's just no edge and it gets pretty boring. and yes, there are absolutely no decent places to dance allowed in Berkeley except around stupid ass fucking drum circles and arrrrgggghhhhh. and everyone is smug and uptight, and nobody's getting any play, and people just stand around at concerts looking lame and, don't get me started about the behavior and even clothing associated with Silicon Valley ... OK, I can't talk about it anymore.

In my mid twenties I could only really deal with Oakland. I lived near Grand and Piedmont which is a terrific place, especially if you're within walking distance of Lake Merrit or the Grand Lake theater.

Actually I love Oakland, there is definitely a there there - Go Raiders!

Also, I have a shirt that reads: "Open Your Eyes and Recognize: Oakland 2000"

I co-DJed with a friend of mine at a bar in downtown Oakland on a Sunday evening a few months ago, while I was on my way down to my grandfather's funeral in L.A... and it's startling how much effort people there put into not publicly showing their enthusiasm over anything... my friend/DJ Jef was playing a lot of stuff the bar goers liked, but the groups would have to send out a dejected delegate out to ask not what he was playing but "confirmed that he was playing what he thought it was". "Oh yeah! I have that". That was my direct experience in Berkeley and San Francisco in the past as well.

Obviously there are exceptions, and if you already know good people in the Bay area, you're 90% better off then those who move to the Bay Area knowing nobody. I think San Francisco is the #1 town in the Least Friendly To Newcomers category.

Another word of warning for those tech-workers who are aspiring to move to the Bay Area to find a job... while there may be positions available in SF and the East Bay, most of them are in the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties...ie the Silicon Valley. If you want overpriced suburban malaise and long-ass commuting doldrums, this is as bad as it gets. Be very afraid.

Spencer, it sounds like you lived almost exactly where I did! Pretty nice about there, eh?

Yeah, supposedly there's this hot tub hidden somewhere on the north (?) side of Berkeley (like, the Grad Student sector, right?) that anyone can use anytime, if you can find it. I don't know though, come to think of it, that sounds pretty nasty. Who knows who's all been in there? Probably just a rumor anyway.

Moving from Oakland (but where?) to Berkeley is ill-advised under any circumstances...

RE: donut bitch & spencer, i don't know what to say about your experiences, but i got to disagree... could be your scene?

on second thought actually, don't answer that, that is pure theory and reads far less harmless than it really is.

db, if you DARE, send me a line next time you're coming to town and i'll forward you a calendar of things that are under the radar and (as i've been reading your internet postings for quite some time) i have a hunkering you may at the very least appreciate, and quite possibly enjoy. there is an enormous probability that the crowd will NOT suffer from the aforementioned performance paralysis affliction.

for example, the mono pause set (with alan bishop on vocals) at the sun city girls secret show last monday was a lot of fun. of course, it was really short but you know...

good night and to summarize my sentiment = stay in Oakland (where are you boxcubed?)

By the way, this only applies to SF and Berkeley. I found Oakland, Albany and many other Bay Area communities to be very vital.

Will do. Although the experiences I was relating were mainly outside concerts.

for example, the mono pause set (with alan bishop on vocals) at the sun city girls secret show last monday was a lot of fun. of course, it was really short but you know...

Mono Pause's show in Seattle earlier this year with Alvarius B and that Finnish retro-synth band who's name I forget was a can of frozen concentrated fun. Peter Conheim is one of the most talented people I know in the Bay Area, and I hope he can keep it going.

i live basically equidistant from grand lake theatre and piedmont ave. i don't have a car. basically what i think i was hoping for in a move to berkeley would be the opportunity to have alot of things to do, in walking distance (grand and piedmont are both kind of zzz) in the hours i have each night before its time to go to sleep and get ready for the next day of work. on weekends, i can reach anywhere in the bay, so that's not a prollem. i grew up living in san francisco, 5 blocks from amoeba on haight, and while i love that city, and thought it was the greatest place on earth (they tell you this all the time if you live there), i'm tired of it, and in no rush to go back. this is a move that i only want to last for a couple years, before i head east or out of the country (i was fixated on vancouver before finally getting confirmation from db that it is indeed perpetually rainy, which i can't deal with).

do you ever hang out at Kingman's Lucky Lounge? That is one of the best and most integrated bars I've ever been to in the country.

I would say move to Berkeley (Southside), but at least a mile from campus. Otherwise, it's hard to take a break from the student life.

tful282 w/ fred frith&mills college folx at ODC in the mission
tful282 w/ double u and california governor gray davis at gamh
the fucking champs/tful282/polvo (this was like 3-4 years ago?) at gamh

then there was a both show with three day stubble i missed cuz i was out of town... but my ex was there and ended up getting trashed and dancing on stage.

yeehaw.

best tful282 show = w/ the boredoms at the palace in 1995. the strangers tour... "more optigan!"

No, forgive me, I was thinking of Aron's.

Why he didn't do this is beyond me. I hope someone does.

Well, he opened the Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media, which did some of what you're talking about, but it failed as a business and closed quickly. Ken doesn't know how to make a business like that.

yes, that's what I was referring to (meaning, why he didn't do what he said he was going to do in the first place; the answer is clearly 'because he is a dumbass').

caught the aftermath of this; headed down here to catch a movie at 8pm last night and the entire outdoor mall was roped off and swarming with more police than I have ever seen anywhere. if I'd bothered to look at nextdoor (or, apparently, twitter, which I can't look at now since I deleted my account) before we left I wouldn't have bothered.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/one-person-stabbed-during-civil-unrest-at-bay-18333550.php

(article makes this sound less awful than what I heard from people who were there, which was that it was basically a riot involving up to 400 kids...people in the movie theater were evacuated when someone came in and said "there is a massive fight happening, everyone has to leave now"...and people were like "why are you sending us out into a fight?" though apparently this fight also spilled over into the theaters themselves)

there wasn't even any looting????

there was apparently a fair amount of small theft in bay street and then further theft after the principals moved over to target in emeryville, where apparently they were riding bikes all over the store. but it seemed more like...terrorizing people

a gun went off at bay street and then a girl got stabbed in the neck, haven't heard any update on her condition. Kamilah Priforce, quickly becoming one of my least favorite local politicians, is all over nextdoor talking about the pain these kids are in. I'm like, I saw these kids, they did not look like they were in pain. they were having fun.

7). Bay Street has been the target of looting, violence and massive brawls mostly by unaccompanied juveniles. Are there any programs, policies or technologies you would consider exploring to deter this behavior that ultimately hurts Emeryville and the resident amenity and retail tax revenue this shopping center generates for the city’s general fund?

As I have mentioned in the League of Women Voters candidate forum, they are kids, our babies, and often there is a racial component wherein a group of predominantly Black and Brown children are viewed and treated differently than a gaggle of White children.

However, they still pose an issue, and social disturbances should not be allowed to continue unabated.

I’ve discussed this issue with a current councilmember and they stressed that Emeryville residents would not be open to surveillance that infringes on their privacy rights. I see their point; however, there are things we can still do.

I strongly support additional security cameras subsidized by the city in places where there are crimes, violent and nonviolent, and that includes the kids at Bay Street mall.

I have scheduled a Safety-Action Community Forum at Bay Street mall for October 28th, 2022 wherein matters like these are discussed and I will introduce the idea of a reporting system wherein facial recognition is used to identify participants involved disturbing events at places like Bay Street, and if they happen to be minors, their schools are alerted to their behaviors almost instantly.

As it relates to privacy, as long as those being recorded have access to their data, we can create a system that is humane but precise in its responsiveness in addition to preventing other crimes like child sex trafficking.

I strongly support additional security cameras subsidized by the city in places where there are crimes, violent and nonviolent, and that includes our young people at Bay Street mall.

https://evilleeye.com/news-commentary/2022-emeryville-city-council-candidate-questionnaire-north-hollis-resident-kalimah-priforce/

So many red flags there..

definitely a bunch of child sex trafficking will be prevented ... I mean, isn't that why people go to Bay St ... to engage in child sex trafficking? It's not really about Ikea and the Apple Store and I forget what else is there ... also ugh at "our babies" ... it bothers me because it's this very binary way of responding/viewing behavior that is actually more complex & nuanced. They are not "babies" ... they have agency and are capable of doing fucked up shit.

those are a bunch of absurd solutions. the real solution is have the cops actually detain people when they break the law. one person witnessed a cop watch one teen beat another one senseless, he never intervened, never crossed the street, just stood there watching. no one was arrested after this fracas.

i mean is this a black politician actually saying he wants facial recognition with cameras? what the ever living fuck. that's preposterous. I do think cameras help (they put them in the park near where I live after several daytime shootings, one of which happened during a kids birthday party) and the violence dropped immensely; but there's no facial recognition involved, the police can just review the footage after an incident.

Um, just here to point out that teenagers certainly have agency, but that trauma has ways of showing itself in the strangest of ways— sometimes by engaging in disruptive, anti-social behavior that then traumatizes others.

Looks like People's Park days may be numbered... they're turning it into a Mad Max compound

UC Berkeley takes over People's Park with walls of shipping containers

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/uc-berkeley-takes-over-peoples-park-18589002.php

It's not an especially nice park, but the University has so many other properties nearby... not sure why they're so adamant about this parcel

they want to force more students to pay for expensive housing

I'm in full support of putting student housing on this, but there is a court injunction preventing it right now, so why they are bothering with this absurd farce at the moment is beyond me.

They should just tear down the eyesore Ken S built at 2501 Haste St and put the housing there

that thing looked better in the plans than it did in the execution

they should preserve that public bathroom, I imagine more drug transactions have occurred there than almost any place on earth

i will miss being able to park easily there, no one seems like to park next to PP but I've never had an issue.

I'm in full support of putting student housing on this, but there is a court injunction preventing it right now, so why they are bothering with this absurd farce at the moment is beyond me.

Like, I definitely spent a fair amount of time there when I ran away from home as a young’un, it has a lot of memories for me and I learned a lot there, but I realize that my reasons are mostly sentimental and a hatred for Cal

your memories are also outdated because it's just a place where people deal meth and fentanyl now (and where people die), and not somewhere travelers and kids who don't have anywhere to go hang out.

no shade at table but keeping California looking the same for sentimental reasons is at the root of a lot of problems

akm otm there. this park hasn't been that in a long time.

So the solution is to let a university build hideous housing on the site? Please.

yes. reducing homelessness will help reduce drug overdoses.

If you look at the images on google map, it's been a construction site for a long time... trees cut down, etc.

the university doesn't offer enough housing for students. housing in this town is nuts. the city has done some stuff to alleviate this: changing zoning laws to allow for multi-residence units in neighborhoods where people were adamantly opposed, etc, which is good. but it's still not enough. now, Cal could just drastically reduce their admissions and size, but they aren't going to. These students need somewhere to live. I would rather they not be forced into homelessness or into illegal living situations where they pack 10, 15 students into one bedrooms (which is something that was happening). There are also other plots of land where Cal should be developing student housing, I agree; but this is a good location, not too far from campus.

They cut all the trees down a few years ago and the place is not unlike that giant hole from Parks and Rec.

there will also be supportive housing for the homeless in this lot.

public activists can still go meet two blocks away at Willard Park, which is an actual public park and not a private lot already owned by the university

whatever, we pretty much don’t see eye to eye on anything else so i wouldn’t expect any different here.

Students should be homeless

Students can live in the shipping containers!

Students shouldn’t be homeless, but neither should people who use drugs. That should go without saying?

I remember the 'no blood for volleyball' protests in the 90's.. it does seem like the battle for People's Park was just a struggle for struggle's sake, about the way that Berkeley was inevitably changing

I think I saw the Beatnigs play on that stage once, but I don't have a lot of holy memories of the place

Students shouldn’t be homeless, but neither should people who use drugs. That should go without saying?

lukas, I assume that we have both been around the block several times. any project like this that includes promises (even contractual promises) of affordable housing or housing resources for the unhoused or whatever? there is often little follow-through, or the number of units is cut, or the rents go up within a year or a few years, or whatever. building more housing, even affordable housing, isn’t a panacea! and i simply do not believe Cal or the city has the interests of the unhoused and people who use drugs in mind.

I get it, these programs aren't perfect. For one there's no legal mechanism yet to guarantee that affordable housing stays affordable housing.

I do think building a LOT of housing *would* really help in a lot of ways. The Bay Area has been adding office space and jobs like crazy for two decades and housing hasn't nearly kept up. Guess what, homelessness went up in the same period.

This is what drives me nuts about the people who show up to fight new apartment buildings. Where were you when Google was adding enough office space for 10,000 new jobs?

Not speaking directly to Berkeley, but we can't ask for-profit developers to do the right thing.. they'll always do what's most profitable, which is fancy apartments with kitchen islands

We need publicly-funded housing developments, not 'private/public partnerships'. Essentially, we need housing projects, although they don't necessarily have to resemble the Stalinist apartment blocks of the Great Society. But this being the Bay Area, people will widely approve of truly affordable housing - just not next to them

There's a guy over to my left yelling "oil derricks are affordable" let's look into it.

although they don't necessarily have to resemble the Stalinist apartment blocks

The student housing units surrounding people's park did kind of feel like stalinist towers prior to their makeovers!

Just moved to southwest Berkeley after 2 years in oakland and a decade in SF. Does anybody have any inside info on whether the Missouri Lounge is gonna reopen or not? I can see that there's lots of construction going on in the old patio area but can't tell the timing or nature of it. I've found some interviews with the owner talking about remodeling but all of those are a couple years old at this point.

I haven't heard about reopening, I just assumed it was a long covid victim

Now that you live there, you have to call it 'The Misery'

It’s reopening, they are just taking their time because they own the building.

Welcome to the neighborhood fetch

The Misery is great on a weekday afternoon.

Thanks, akm! I'm digging the quiet mix of residential/commercial in my area and the low police presence compared to all of my previous neighborhoods in the bay area.

I had so many memorable nights at Misery Lounge …