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Why I think Berkeley is the best place to live in the Bay Area
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 21, 2015 | by Katie Dowd

Posted on 04/21/2015 4:55:12 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

I want to preface this by saying that Berkeley is not for everyone.

You have to have a high tolerance for eccentricities of all types. You have to love a little chaos. And you have to accept that things will always be a bit messy.

But, if you're the type of person who doesn't mind insanity, Berkeley is a wonderland.

Berkeley has a well-earned reputation for its over-the-top liberalism which can sometimes mask its finest quality: diversity. From its various neighborhoods to its endless ethnic cuisine, Berkeley is as interesting and weird as its inhabitants.

Dirty and scruffy on the outside but vibrant and fascinating within. If nothing else, Berkeley always challenges your beliefs. And what more could you ask of a great city?

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: berkeley; dirty; filthyhippies; moonbattery; ravingloons
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1 posted on 04/21/2015 4:55:12 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
And what more could you ask of a great city?

Repentance?

2 posted on 04/21/2015 4:58:12 PM PDT by ecomcon
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To: ecomcon

You have won this thread! Well said!


3 posted on 04/21/2015 4:58:58 PM PDT by MeganC (You can ignore reality, but reality won't ignore you.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

As a friend of mine who just moved out of there told me, it’s the only city whose government cares more about foreign policy than fixing the potholes in the streets.


4 posted on 04/21/2015 4:59:29 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Leaving the hobos and eccentrics aside, Berkeley isn’t a wonderful place to raise kids, as there are rather few kids. Not many neighborhood friends around.
And it has a powerful underclass element.
San Francisco, oddly enough, is better (though not great) in both respects.


5 posted on 04/21/2015 4:59:38 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
But, if you're the type of person who doesn't mind insanity, Berkeley is a wonderland.

I mind insanity quite a bit. It doesn't play nice with life. No thanks.

6 posted on 04/21/2015 5:00:33 PM PDT by grimalkin (We are a nation under God. If we ever forget this, we are a nation gone under. -Ronald Reagan)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

This babe would have loved the U.S.S.R.


7 posted on 04/21/2015 5:02:38 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I lived in Berzerkely ,briefly , in 1969 and it was truly nuts . Overt anti-American anti-Vietnam war rioters running rampant in the streets . Mostly all white kids . Burning , looting , and running in mobs . Overhead , helicopters dispatching tear gas , APC’s at intersections , Cal Ntl Guard soldiers bearing M-1 Garrands with bayonets fixed . Alameda County Sheriffs with night sticks rounding up the unwashed hairy miscreants and placing them in stadiums for days . Ronald Reagan was the Governor ordering all this response . He won . But the Leftists a-holes never gave up . The most committed of them stayed in school , got their degrees , got their doctorates , and are now the ‘professors’ teaching the youth of America from the same vile Leftist ideology that they used to take into the streets in 69’ . Berkeley has always been a breeding ground for these vermin ever since .


8 posted on 04/21/2015 5:03:00 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: Billthedrill

Back in the early Seventies, when the Berkeley politicos were having some sort of public celebration about their affiliation with Berkeley’s sister city, Havana, someone hired one of those message planes to fly overhead during the speeches that were being made. The messages said things like “fix the potholes,” “fix our streets,” and “pick up the garbage.”


9 posted on 04/21/2015 5:05:06 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: ecomcon

Indeed !


10 posted on 04/21/2015 5:07:20 PM PDT by snooter55 (People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The politics are kooky and many parts are dirty and a little dangerous, but there’s something ELSE, far more significant:

Berkeley-ites are RUDE. Rude as hell. To each other. Needlessly, and about super small stuff.

They have a Whole Foods type, non-chain store there called The Berkeley Bowl.

SUPER RUDE PEOPLE.

And on telegraph and around campus there are rude whackos who I think don’t go to Cal (that means UC Berkeley), and they’re grunged out, or goth, and their begging style is...

RUDE, yep.

Berkeley is chock-full of rude, angry people.


11 posted on 04/21/2015 5:10:03 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Robin of Berkeley has a slightly different take on the city:

http://www.robinofberkeley.com


12 posted on 04/21/2015 5:10:36 PM PDT by Carthego delenda est
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Berkeley is a damned good place to get your feet wet... in preparation for HELL....

all who are considering housing in HELL would be quite at home there..


13 posted on 04/21/2015 5:12:23 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Robin of Berkeley disagrees...

“I have a friend out here who totally gets it, what a crazy, deluded place is Berkeley. We have a saying that we use whenever describing the insanity around here. We say, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Berkeley.”

................

Yes, Berkeley is Berkeley. When the populace ignores and excuses the terrible things going on around here, my friend and I say, “It’s Berkeley.” When, for instance, a beloved member of the Berkeley Zen Center is murdered in cold blood, while residents turn a blind eye to the obscene crime rate around here, “it’s Berkeley.” (1)

.............................

As my friend and I often say when we behold daily the darkness of Berkeley, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Berkeley.” But we can’t forget it, none of us can; the future is in the hands of each and every one of us. Because it’s not just Berkeley or Oakland or San Francisco; the same darkness is eroding people of all ages all over the country. This is inevitably what happens when a people abandon God.

And we don’t want to one day be saying to each other, “Forget it, Jake. It’s the United States.”

http://www.robinofberkeley.com/


14 posted on 04/21/2015 5:15:17 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Carthego delenda est

Dang....beat me to it.

Shouldn’t have got up to let the dog in and get a drink


15 posted on 04/21/2015 5:16:11 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Billthedrill

Bill, you seem to have forgotten the liberal paradises in western WA. Port Townsend, near where we still live is far more concerned about world politics than their own local economy, or quality of life.


16 posted on 04/21/2015 5:16:13 PM PDT by Baynative (We are experiencing the type of government the founders warned us about.)
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To: gaijin
Berkeley is chock-full of rude, angry people.

Hell, if I wanted that I would just stay...............home!

17 posted on 04/21/2015 5:20:19 PM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Baynative

No one asks if the writer is related to Mo ?


18 posted on 04/21/2015 5:20:51 PM PDT by knarf
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Bezerkeley.


19 posted on 04/21/2015 5:22:02 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

When I lived out there and I had some out of town visitors, I would tell them if they want to see some really crazy people, I’d take them to Telegraph Ave. In Berserkly.


20 posted on 04/21/2015 5:24:16 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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