I've been to Berkeley. I live about 5-10 minutes away by car, but since I don't have a car more like 25-30 minutes by bus!
I usually visit once or twice a year to see friends after my annual road to Mendo. Seems to change every visit.
i lived there for about 2 years.. 9 years ago or so. and i seemed to have missed all the hippies there. all i knew where trustifarian college kids, homeless folks and rich hill people.
I slept a few nights in the park while passing through a few months ago, seem to still have a parking ticket from there. Hmmm, I never received any ticket notice though... Mama Mack, Stunt and all the kids.. I miss em. Was the pickup point of squeezing 12 kids and 4 canines down to Santa Cruz all into a VW bus, what a circus show.
IDK! I lived in the Fillmore part of San Francisco for a month and one day we had to go somewhere to pick up dope. I drove across a bridge on an 2-level expressway (the one that fell on all those ppl during an earthquake). Was that where we went? Anyhow, I remember then thinking who would build this kind of bridge in an earthquake zone? It was claustrophobic without falling down on us.
I grew up 15 mins away from Berkeley I would go all the time. It was pretty much my favorite place to go as a teen. Telegraph avenue is the spot. They have Aoemba and Rasputin Records which were awesome when cds were still popular, they had a couple musical instrument shops, they have vintage shirts and cool shirt stores, they had tons of smoke shops, they had some good spots to get food and the Jokemon (some bum who would tell hilarious dumb jokes for money)
I love Berkeley. I recently moved back to the Bay Area after a year of being gone. Me and my friend visit berkeley a lot, bart gets us there really quick. Lots of the time its to do nothing, just because we like it there. I always feel at home there, don't know why. We always ask around for weed and burn it in the PEOPLES PARK. To a lot of people it's weird that we burn there... but no one ever bothers us. One time me and a friend did E in Berekely. I played someone in basketball when I was peaking, and WON! Berekely is such a kind city... I either want to move to Berkeley or The Haight. Those 2 places have their own spot in my heart.
really? is that what the Haight is like? I dont get to go there often... really wish I did. I remember reading a news article about a new mayor that wanted to have a bill signed to prevent the building of any new Head Shop. I read that they are a dime a dozen there. And I love the counterculture,I love it I just can't get enough. I just honestly feel like I belong there, I feel like I need to be the one to step up and generate something good! Are there still apartments with cheap rent? Idk, I just think I could make myself at home really quick in either The Haight, or Berkeley
To save time read my thread entitled "Is anyone in SF as pissed about this as I am" and you'll get my full perspective. But the one thing that still strikes me is when I first moved out here right on the corner of Haight and Ahsbury was a giant GAP. The reason they keep the buildings in the Haight the way they do is because that is what the tourists want to see. Honestly other than the Red Vic Movie House and Magnolias ther really isn't much there for me anymore. To me the reason that Telegraph is better (Except the corprate shit up by the college) is that it didn't turn into the tourist trap mecca the Haight did. While the Haight had the Summer of Love over here had the Berkeley Riots. Peace and Love are romantic Riots aren't. Over here the vibe seems to be "Never forget and never let it happen again." Over there it seems to be "Never forget and buy a t-shirt before you leave." Maybe I'm just cynical. Here's a breakdown of how it seems to happen (and it didn't just happen in the Haight). It starts out with a shitty neighborhood with cheap rents (if you want to know an unromanticised version of what the haight was like at that time watch the bonus features on the movie Psych Out with Jack Nicholson). The artists, poets, and musicians flock there because of the cheap rents and start their own scene. Then one of said artists poets and musicians becomes 'Hip' then the ritch wannabe hipsters move in and shit howdy here comes the neighborhood. You know what those fuckers do to property values (Raise them through the roof). Then all of the artists, poets, and musicians that made the place hip are forced to move out and the shell is left. After the initial Hippies got pushed out of the Haight it died. Then the vultures came in and picked the corpse and now all that is left are the insects picking off what the vultures left. Peace Out, Rev J
Your exactly right though about the Haight, after the initial hippies moved up north, people started coming to the Haight not for the peace and love but for the drugs, and the neighborhood quickly became a dump. Lots of boarded up buildings, empty stores etc. I remember riding through the Haight as a kid when there was lots of boarded up shit. Its now a tourist trap, (but the Park is still cool) but I guess the one positive about it becoming a tourist trap is they took the time to re-paint and re do such a beautiful neighborhood. The victorians and architecture in the Haight I think are stunning.
That was what happened in New Orleans in the '70s with the Quarter, Treme and Fauberg Marigny. Can you believe I used to live in the French Quarter? It was run down and cheap.
When I was living in Miami I was talking to the old timers and they said up until the Early '90's South Beach was like that too. Honestly Shale I don't know how you do it. But that's just me. Peace Out, Rev J
Sadly, I've never been But as soon as I'm old enough to travel on my own, I'm off...watch for my in 2013!!!
