The Mysteries of Berkeley, Gourmet

Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Berkeley, Gourmet, Mar. 2002, 80-82.

I love Berkeley. I must confess, its self-righteous citizens can indeed drive one crazy. However, I have yet to find a more beautiful, vibrant, and individualist city in the US. In this essay, author Michael Chabon captures the spirit of Berkeley in four pages and highlights the stubborn mentality of this city which is either its greatest downfall, or its key to survival.

“This town drives me crazy,” Chabon writes, as he affectionately explores all the eccentricities which define life in Berkeley. The beautiful aspects of Berkeley are not lost on Chabon: the tree-lined streets, eucalyptus-covered hills, and the spontaneous parks and artsy nooks. Relevant to this class, Chabon hits upon the “attractive old industrial district steadfastly prevent[ing] new-economy businesses from taking over…leaving them empty cenotaphs to the vanished noble laborer of other days.” Yet Chabon recognizes the benefits of this perhaps stunted view of development, writing, “If there were a hundred good small cities in America fifty years ago - towns built to suit the people who settled them, according to their tastes, aspirations, and the sovereign peculiarities of landscape and weather - today there are no more than twenty-five… I believe that Berkeley will be the last town in America with the ingrained perversity to hold onto its idea of itself.”

What can we learn from Chabon? First, this essay captures a city we all know, and hopefully love in some way. Second, downtown Berkeley needs to display the things that make Berkeley so wonderful: More tree-lined streets, perhaps eucalyptus; more art venues; more technology centers which lead the nation; and more environmentally-friendly buildings serving as laboratories of experimentation. Berkeley is an enraptured place; downtown needs to express this. I actually just returned from a semester at Harvard, and I would never wish Berkeley to become Cambridge. In fact, I came back because I missed it here too much. However, I can envision a Berkeley-ized version of the Charles Hotel: Instead of day-lighting the creek, plant a tree-grove in the center of pedestrian walk-way. Make the Hotel an eco-friendly resort; and have it cater to scientists, academics, and political leaders who aspire to change. Keep Berkeley as Berkeley, but make it thrive.

Jayni Foley