Monday, February 11, 2008

Downtown Berkeley Neighborhood Description

The SF Chronicle, Bay Area Traveler, has an online article series on East Bay Neighborhoods. The article on “Downtown Berkeley” provides a timely outlook on what downtown Berkeley currently features. Downtown Berkeley is apparently, where “North Berkeley money, South Berkeley strugglers and Telegraph Avenue youth meet in a whirlpool of commerce, culture, and craziness.” Downtown Berkeley is then described with the following imagery: “empty storefronts and chain stores,” “several Tibetan, Indian and Southeast Asian shops and eateries,” “several buildings . . . of the 20th century,” and “former hotels from a time when only four or five stories were needed to scrape the sky.” The article then goes on to feature “Berkeley’s justifiably famous arts district” comprised of three theaters, a jazz school, Brazilian capoeira club, and plenty of movie theaters. Center Street is described as a “café society” where people congregate at the chic restaurants, chain food, and coffee outlets. The article ends with the note “If you can’t find something to watch, eat or buy in downtown Berkeley, cal the doctors because you don’t have a pulse.” Although the article is currently posted on www.sfgate.com, note that it was last updated in 2005.

John Fall. “East Bay Neighborhoods. Downtown Berkeley,” SF Chronicle Bay Area Traveler, (2005), available at http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/eastbay/neighborhoods/berkeley.shtml#info (last visited February 2008).

Jenny Cheung

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