South Berkeley

South Berkeley is one of the more affordable neighborhoods in the city of Berkeley. A quick survey of the website, Padmapper, shows that rents tend to hover around $700/room for most locations and there are definitely deals to be had if you are willing to share a space with other students or to devote to time to apartment hunting.

Part of the reason for these more reasonable prices is that South Berkeley simply does not hold the attractions of other Berkeley neighborhoods. It is a flat neighborhood without the winding streets of the hillier eastern portions of Berkeley. It doesn’t have the plethora of diverse shops and restaurants that the neighborhoods surrounding campus have. And, South Berkeley doesn’t have that consistently quaint neighborhood feel of some of the quieter north Berkeley neighborhoods. South Berkeley has more of a slightly rundown, old look. The pre-World War II homes feel a bit less well kept here, and the boxy apartment buildings show signs of wear. The quality of homes and the general feel vary from street to street and block to block. On some streets the cars parked out front of many of the homes are older than most Berkeley freshman. The facades are poorly painted, and faded. Exposed windows are boarded up, and rubbage can be seen between homes. Other streets, house nice lower middle class homes, with green lawns and bushy hedges. It is very hit or miss in this way.

Many of the nicer, smaller homes in the neighborhood are squatter, bungalow type homes with long low lying roofs and thick columns at the end of short walkup steps—giving that strong feeling of shelter that is the characteristic of such architecture. When renovated with modern windows and nicely painted, such homes are quite appealing. When left with old faded glass and paint they can seem more than a bit dreary.

A further characteristic of the neighborhood is that many of the residential streets don’t go straight through, forcing traffic to turn after a few blocks. This may help to increase the residential feel here since most of the traffic is pushed to the borders, where the major thoroughfares are located. Transportation is great here as it is throughout most of Berkeley with the Ashby BART station located on the eastern border and bus lines being prominent on the edges of the neighborhood. Many students like the neighborhood because it is close enough to bike to campus (or even walk from the northeastern corner) but also is far enough away where you feel as if you have a life separate from school—a positive in a university where students feel completely immersed in their studies most of the time.

The northwest corner of the neighborhood surrounding San Pablo Park is great diverse area, close to the dive bars on San Pablo but having a fairly strong neighborhood feel to it. San Pablo Park itself, is a great place to take kids or find sports fun. Kids will love the renovated play area during the weekdays. On afternoons and especially on weekends pickup soccer and b-ball games are the central activities.

The northeast portion of the neighborhood has perhaps some of the highest concentration of charity and community organizations in all of the East Bay. Berkeley Primary Care is right on the on Dwight, while organizations such Copwatch, the Wellness Center, the Clear View Project and Berkeley Food and Housing reside in this area. It is also home to Berkeley’s Spiral Gardens, a community run plant nursery whose mission is to promote sustainable local growers, they offer classes and education on how to create organic home gardens—a real community treasure. There are a plethora of churches and temples in the area too, supporting Berkeley’s diverse religious community. Bethlehem Temple, Mount Zion Church of God, Revelation Baptist Church, Berkeley United Methodist Church, Thai Buddhist Temple, and Berkeley Higashi Hoganji are just some of the holy places that make their home in the northeastern section of South Berkeley.

The northeast corner is also perhaps one of the best places to live in terms of homes. Of the area’s streets this has the greatest consistency of well-kept homes on leafy streets. As a testament to the family nature of much of the neighborhood you will also find a number of private and public schools—including Malcolm X elementary-- and daycares in the neighborhood, giving parents various choices in terms of types of educations and childcare. The Berkeley South Library, much less busy than other branches, is also in this area.

The southeastern section of the neighborhood is characterized by European style roundabouts and a greater diversity of architecture, with a series of restored buildings and slightly larger homes, giving the neighborhood an unusual urban look and feel. It’s proximity to the Ashby BART makes it a favorite neighborhood for commuters.

The southwest corner of the neighborhood, perhaps has the greatest mix of residents and the largest population of retirees who know what Berkeley was like before the 60’s transformed it. It is not unusual to see vintage automobiles outside of nicely maintained 40’s bungalows. Streets are far more hit or miss in this section however.

Though South Berkeley is not generally known for its restaurants there are some exceptions to the Domino’s Pizzas that characterize the edges of the neighborhood like Flacos ( a Mexican place) on Adelaide. There are also some dive bars on San Pablo worth mentioning like the Missouri Lounge. Black Oak Books is also by San Pablo and the neighborhood boasts at least four martial arts studios. Overall, however, restaurants and entertainment is not really the main draw of this neighborhood. It is a residential neighborhood at heart, that likes to keep much of commercial action at its borders and that still prefers the corner market to the strip mall.

Finally, crime in the area is mostly of the burglary variety with automobile break-ins being the most common. The southern part of the neighborhood has suffered the worst in terms of violent crime, averaging about one murder per year every year for the last five and accounting for about a quarter of all Berkeley murders during the time period. Overall, however, this is a safe neighborhood so long as residents use common sense and avoid dangerous situations.