Where to live in/around Berkeley? Forum

[matrim]

What is everyones thoughts on the town of Berkeley? What about Orinda? Berkeley Hills? Albany? N. Oakland? And Lafayette? Anyone have experience with any of these places in regards to cost, feel of the area, length of commute w/ traf etc to UC B, etc? Thanks.

[ManOfTheMinute]

What is everyones thoughts on the town of Berkeley? What about Orinda? Berkeley Hills? Albany? N. Oakland? And Lafayette? Anyone have experience with any of these places in regards to cost, feel of the area, length of commute w/ traf etc to UC B, etc? Thanks.

live in Berkeley... at least for the first year. Live on the south side, nearest the law school. there are a lot of apartments on the west/south side

[matrim]

What is everyones thoughts on the town of Berkeley? What about Orinda? Berkeley Hills? Albany? N. Oakland? And Lafayette? Anyone have experience with any of these places in regards to cost, feel of the area, length of commute w/ traf etc to UC B, etc? Thanks.

live in Berkeley... at least for the first year. Live on the south side, nearest the law school. there are a lot of apartments on the west/south side

Any reason in particular - just for convenience of being close? I heard south side has some crime issues (but maybe not nearest the law school). Thanks and Congrats on Stanford Btw.

[sunshinegirl]

I highly recommend that you live in Berkeley - all the other places that you mentioned are really far/inconvenient unless you have a car. If you don't mind biking to school, you may want to consider living in the Ashby (cheaper, but not as safe) or North Berkeley (safer, more expensive & more suburban) areas.

Southside does have some crime issues, but in the four years that I lived there, I never had a problem. There are rowdy students and homeless people around there though, so if you're not okay with that, I suggest you check out housing on Northside. Hope that helps and feel free to PM me if you want specifics about housing costs.

[jasonbound]

What is everyones thoughts on the town of Berkeley? What about Orinda? Berkeley Hills? Albany? N. Oakland? And Lafayette? Anyone have experience with any of these places in regards to cost, feel of the area, length of commute w/ traf etc to UC B, etc? Thanks.

I've lived in the area for almost my entire life and went to Berkeley for my undergrad. I think that you should find a place near campus. Albany is a nice little town and a number of bus lines go to campus. You can also go to the El Cerrito Plaza BART station and go to downtown Berkeley. From there, it'll take 15 min or so to walk up to campus. Orinda and Lafayette have BART stations, but it will be a 30+ min commute. You can find a place on Ashby and take the bus or bike to campus, but I would strongly recommend living near campus your first year and you can take time to explore other areas of the Bay and to see if the Rockridge area or Albany and El Cerrito would be a better fit for you.

[matrim]

Thanks for the advice! As far as checking out these areas - do you just suggest online sites like Craigs L. Or does UC B. have a housing office/site - ( I need to spend more time on the admitted site still)?

[matrim]

I highly recommend that you live in Berkeley - all the other places that you mentioned are really far/inconvenient unless you have a car. If you don't mind biking to school, you may want to consider living in the Ashby (cheaper, but not as safe) or North Berkeley (safer, more expensive & more suburban) areas.

Southside does have some crime issues, but in the four years that I lived there, I never had a problem. There are rowdy students and homeless people around there though, so if you're not okay with that, I suggest you check out housing on Northside. Hope that helps and feel free to PM me if you want specifics about housing costs.

When you say Northside - does that include Berk Hills? With a car, what would a commute to campus look like with normal traffic? Thanks.

[Person1111]

Went to UCB for undergrad and know a fair bit about the area. I do not recommend driving to campus regularly. My advice would be to find places off the 51 bus line (is it still called the 51?), which runs regularly and goes very close to Boalt. I'd focus on places in Southside and Elmwood, but if you end up in West Berkeley or Oakland it's not a disaster.

[matrim]

Went to UCB for undergrad and know a fair bit about the area. I do not recommend driving to campus regularly. My advice would be to find places off the 51 bus line (is it still called the 51?), which runs regularly and goes very close to Boalt. I'd focus on places in Southside and Elmwood, but if you end up in West Berkeley or Oakland it's not a disaster.

I am a non-trad student in that I am older w/ big family - so I am wanting/willing to commute a little ways to campus....any recommendations in that regards? Thanks

[WalkingPlato]

Thanks for starting this thread!

What about the Manville studio apartments the website mentions? Are those any good?

And when you say "some crime," what do you guys mean? Is it more like a shop being robbed every so often or more like you get knifed walking down the street?

[matrim]

Thanks for starting this thread!

What about the Manville studio apartments the website mentions? Are those any good?

And when you say "some crime," what do you guys mean? Is it more like a shop being robbed every so often or more like you get knifed walking down the street?

By "the website" do you mean the admitted students site? Im glad you asked these questions!

[WalkingPlato]

Thanks for starting this thread!

What about the Manville studio apartments the website mentions? Are those any good?

And when you say "some crime," what do you guys mean? Is it more like a shop being robbed every so often or more like you get knifed walking down the street?

By "the website" do you mean the admitted students site? Im glad you asked these questions!

Yea, the admitted student site. But I think you can find it on the general site too. The price for the studio is about $1000 and everything is included except electricity, which shouldn't cost too much I think. So it's not too bad. The 2+ rooms apartments starting at $1100 or so aren't bad either since everything is included, even electricity. I wouldn't mind finding a roommate and splitting the bill, though I really would prefer living alone.

[tomwatts]

And when you say "some crime," what do you guys mean? Is it more like a shop being robbed every so often or more like you get knifed walking down the street?

More the former than the latter. I lived in Berkeley for 8 years (5 of those for undergrad) and lived on Telegraph for 5 of those years, and I rarely had any problems. The only crime problems I had involved my car, and those only when I parked on one or two particular streets (Haste right by Telegraph, within a couple of blocks of People's Park, is the worst), and even then it was only when I left the doors unlocked or openly left my backpack on the front seat.

Other than my car getting broken into a couple of times (again, in 8 years), I never had any other problems, and even my car problems were only when I parked on Haste, Dana, or Dwight right below Telegraph, and only when I did something stupid.

North Side is much more quiet and suburban, but it's a little bit of a hike (maybe 10-20 minutes, depending on where you are) from the law school. That side has the co-ops, but South Side above College has the frats. Neither are usually that bad unless you're living literally right next to them. Also, South Side past Dwight is pretty suburban, too; the streets are barriered off to through traffic, so you can walk freely but don't get a lot of cars driving through.

As far as commuting to campus, it kind of sucks. Traffic is bad in pretty much all directions pretty much all the time. Unless you can afford Piedmont or the Oakland HIlls, assume that your options are: public transit, awful traffic, or coming and going at completely non-peak hours (before 8 am, between 11 pm and 3 pm, or after 8 pm, more or less). I think the El Cerrito/Richmond direction is really the only exception, though it's possible that the Tunnel (east, Orinda/Lafayette/Moraga) isn't too bad if you hit it at the right times. Northbound on 80/580 from Berkeley is usually okay, but coming into Berkeley from that direction can be iffy at different parts of the day, though I usually found that it was worst in the evenings, not in the mornings when you'd be going to class.

If you'd really much rather not live in Berkeley and have kids, I'd recommend looking east first (Orinda, etc.).

Oh yeah, and parking in Berkeley is a disaster. You probably need a permit, and you probably can only get a permit if you live there. Any other kind of parking is either expensive or extremely hard to find (and lasts only 2 hours anyway).

[matrim]

Thanks tomwatts. That is REALLY helpful info to have as I start my search.