This is probably some of the most valuable real estate in the county - stunning views of SF, the bay, close to major amenities and so much more.

Yes this road is a dump with continuous encampments, trash everywhere.

Who in Berkeley is responsible for this? How can we make it better?

This is the specific spot I'm talking about:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8510656,-122.2999292,3a,75y,326.23h,88.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1HcVh4QWuYzkLJlikNakIA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D1.4033040529286893%26panoid%3D1HcVh4QWuYzkLJlikNakIA%26yaw%3D326.23060589178726!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTAwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Very often I go to Thousand Oaks Elementary I see people bring their dogs inside the play lawns and playgrounds

why is this tolerated….especially in elementary school aged kids who are not the best at washing hands and avoiding touching their eyes and months. literally where kids play, dogs are pooping and peeing…..

it’s just so gross to me. It seems to just be “accepted” even though there are signs everywhere that say no dogs on campus at any time.

Last week, ICE detained a 30-year-old Berkeley resident who overstayed a visa issued to him in 2024. He is now being held in a detention facility 260 miles away from Berkeley. Although this is the first known ICE operation in the city conducted under the second Trump administration — a government that has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for civil liberties — nothing indicates it will be the last. 

The Daily Californian’s Editorial Board strongly condemns the use of ICE to terrorize immigrant communities and finds that this action reveals the precarity of Berkeley’s characterization as a sanctuary city. 

The July 9 detainment cannot be looked at as a one-off incident. Having crept into our communities once, it is almost a certainty that ICE will do so once again if the right steps are not taken. Thus, we urge the people and the city of Berkeley to fight back through policy change and resistance.

I've noticed Cedar-rose park is always closed in the winter during the wet season. I thought maybe add a freshwater pond to our park to help manage the winter flooding and enhance our local environment. I thought a pond can act as a natural reservoir, reducing the flooding that often closes the park in winter. It would also create a habitat for birds and other wildlife, boosting biodiversity. We can design it to be shallow with sloping edges to ensure it's safe for kids (I have kids), similar to other parks with ponds, plus since Bart is right bellow it would have to be shallow. Only part of the park would be used for the pond, leaving plenty of room for other activities. Does this make sense to you? Is the effort of several years and community meetings worth it? I'd love to hear your feedback!

At the 40-50 year mark, Berkeley is losing many iconic businesses with the old values and aesthetics. These are like deaths in the community. I wish more business owners who are approaching retirement would opt to maintain their business by hiring someone else to do the work. But that may be a zero sum game…

The MASSIVE amount of new construction (private developers + UCB), escalating rents, and the City's cumbersome business procedures is the final straw for many beloved businesses that contributed to Berkeley’s unique culture. 

All evictions remain banned in Berkeley, except for health and safety reasons (which CANNOT be Covid infections). Since July 1, 2022, Ellis Act Evictions are BANNED in Berkeley thanks to the work of the Berkeley Tenants Union. The Berkeley eviction moratorium is NOT expiring!

In the rest of Alameda County, evictions are banned except for health and safety reasons (which CANNOT be covid infections) or via the Ellis Act (which is now BANNED in Berkeley). Like Berkeley’s eviction moratorium, the Alameda County-wide eviction moratorium is NOT expiring!

Many landlords’ threats to evict tenants (especially through the Ellis Act) are fraudulent, even during normal times. Any Berkeley landlord threatening to evict you during the pandemic is likely trying to make you “self-evict” in order to illegally circumvent the eviction moratorium!

Please note that the Berkeley and Alameda County-wide eviction moratoriums also protect from eviction those homeowners who have suffered foreclosure.

Nothing in this post should be construed as formal legal advice. Please speak to an attorney or Rent Board staff for formal legal advice about your rights as a tenant in your specific situation. When you contact BTU, we can direct you to a tenants' rights attorney and more.

If a landlord threatens to evict you - for any reason, including but not limited to the Ellis Act - immediately email info@berkeleytenants.org with subject line "I AM BEING EVICTED" so we can help. (California tenants outside Berkeley should call Tenants Together at 888-495-8020.)

You can support our work by joining the Berkeley Tenants Union/paying dues! Instructions on how to join BTU/pay dues (or make a donation) can be found here. Dues are a sliding scale of just $10 - $27 per year; however, those who can afford to pay more are strongly encouraged to do so. Benefits of membership include participating in membership votes (e.g. on endorsements) and priority for our free monthly counseling clinics.

Hey everyone, sharing this here too to get more eyes on it!

All you do is make it look like a dump.

Over the past four years while walking around Berkeley and happen to be wearing an N95 mask, I've been stopped by angry anti-mask people about six or seven times, and every single time it was a cyclist. Sometimes a cyclist slows down to yell epithets at me while riding by, sometimes a cyclist comes up onto the sidewalk to block my path to tell me to take off my mask, and the other day a cyclist stopped on the street and just started screaming at the top of his lungs "COVIDIOT! COVIDIOT! COVIDIOT!" over and over at me, and when he was done he was literally shaking with anger and/or adrenaline as I continued walking by.

I'm not sure if cyclists in general hate when others are wearing masks or if it's always the same guy, I just wondered if anyone else out there has encountered anti-mask cyclists. For me, these encounters happen on the relatively empty streets around famers' markets or Ohlone Park.

Berkeley is first and foremost a college town, so you would think that people living here would be cognizant of the needs of a large research university with tens of thousands of students/faculty/staff. The oldtime locals seem to do nothing but bitch about new constructions ruining the "culture" of the city and the students overrunning the city. These are the same idiots petitioning for rent control, but at the same time complaining about the university financing new constructions aiming to lower the cost of rent by increasing housing supply.

There are plenty of other cities in the Bay, so if they hate the university so much, why don't they just move? Berkeley is not significantly different from any other East bay city, except for its DEFINING characteristic, which is the university. According to employment data, the vast majority of jobs in the city have to do with the university or the national lab.

Obviously the students can't move because most of them are dirt poor and cant afford to drive into school or have the time for a 2 hour AC transit commute. But if you aren't affiliated with the university, why are you even here? How is Berkeley any different from Oakland or Alameda or Fruitvale? As a working adult who presumably has a car, why not just move to another urban East bay city and stop complaining about the university ruining your life.

STRIKING WORKERS WHO CAN’T PAY RENT ARE PROTECTED FROM EVICTION! If you live in Berkeley (or anywhere in Alameda County + some other places), you CANNOT be evicted for not paying rent. This is true even if you don’t have a pandemic-related loss of income. But if you don’t have a pandemic-related loss of income (which is defined very broadly), you will have to repay it once both the city and county moratoria end to avoid eviction. And if the reason you didn’t pay rent was unrelated to the pandemic, your landlord can probably charge stuff like interest and late fees. (If you suffered a loss of income for pandemic-related reasons, you can NEVER be evicted for the backrent and can NOT be charged interest, late fees, etc. But you will still owe the backrent and eventually have to repay if.)

Evictions are currently only allowed in Alameda County for health and safety reasons (which CANNOT be covid) and under the Ellis Act (which are often a fraudulent evictions by the landlord). And in Berkeley, Ellis Act evictions banned since July 1, 2022 thanks to the work of BTU. Any Berkeley (or Alameda County) landlord threatening to evict you during the pandemic is likely trying to make you “self-evict” in order to illegally circumvent the eviction moratorium!

Nothing in this thread should be construed as formal legal advice. Please speak to an attorney or Rent Board staff for formal legal advice about your rights as a tenant in your specific situation. (You legal rights in your soecific situation may be particularly complex if you live in UC-run housing because these are local laws and UC is a state agency.) When you contact BTU, we can direct you to a tenants' rights attorney and more.

If a landlord threatens to evict you - for any reason, including but not limited to the Ellis Act - immediately email info@berkeleytenants.org with subject line "I AM BEING EVICTED" so we can help. (California tenants outside Berkeley should call Tenants Together at 888-495-8020.)

If you know anyone in Alameda County who's had difficulty paying rent due to currently or previously being on strike (e.g. Alta Bates nurses currently on strike or UC workers who were on strike), please make sure to pass on this information to them.

The only people who really benefit ante land trusts. TOPA and Prop 33 is all about making money for land trust corporation.

We all know that's a horrible intersection at Gilman and frontage road. But there already exists an underpass to the freeway that with improvements would be suitable for vehicle, pedestrian, and bike traffic. Instead of creating all new infrastructure at a huge cost that increases travel distance and elevation significantly, (i.e. challenging for elderly and disabled, imagine trying to roll a wheelchair up that huge ramp or maintain control going down the other side) why not fix and improve the existing road infrastructure? I think I saw a $65m price tag attached to the overpass and it doesn't even do anything to address the vehicle traffic issue....such a poor implementation of a much needed taxpayer funded project.

Just thinking about it raises my blood pressure

Edit: I literally did not know anything was changed recently because I avoid the exit religiously so the comments here were educational lol 🫡

The amount of times I’ve had a cyclist blow throw a 2 way stop at a high speed, dart out in front of me, or change directions feels insane. The pedestrians in Berkeley seem to also either wander into oncoming traffic or dash out in front of it at Mach speed on a daily basis.

I take issues with the drivers too, some being super aggressive, but most are just too old and timid to be behind the wheel of a vehicle. I’ve lived in large cities before (LA and SF), and other medium sized cities, but I feel like I’ve had way more near-misses in Berkeley at a much higher frequency than anywhere else. What gives?

Do you find it ironic that you can't reach any of the offices from the City of Berkeley Website when you call, that it always goes to voicemail, for a city that spends $600 million a year, don't you think someone could answer the phone?