One of my first experiences in Berkekey almost 30 years ago was meeting a friend at Au Coquelet but parking next to that auto parts store/lot and walking through the strip-mall wasteland in University. My impression was “what a shit ‘college town.’”
Replies
it was a California GOP town until the early 70s - University was developed as a car centric freeway off-ramp - motels, Dairy Queen, IHOP, multiple tire stores, etc.
sep 1, 2025, 3:09 pm • 2 0 • view
And in the 80s places like Solano in Berkeley and Piedmont Ave in Oakland were time capsules from the 50s. Really the only “Berkeley” commercial area was Telegraph.
sep 1, 2025, 3:10 pm • 3 0 • view
One of the "fun" facts that I think has explanatory powers is that the mayors of Berkley for 45 years, from '71 to 2016, were all born within a year or two of 1938. A certain cohort grew accustomed to the idea that they had always been and would always be in charge. Separate to your point of course.
sep 1, 2025, 4:06 pm • 7 1 • view
This is awfully close to “that explains everything”
sep 1, 2025, 5:35 pm • 2 0 • view
The only thing it can't explain is itself. How was this faction able to elect what amounted to the exact same person, 12 times in a row?
sep 1, 2025, 6:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I promise you that Gus Newport and Tom Bates weren’t the same person.
sep 1, 2025, 7:38 pm • 2 0 • view
Bates was modestly pro-density but had a very weak majority that mostly only supported density in the downtown area, which is why the only real accomplishment from that era was the downtown area plan
sep 1, 2025, 7:44 pm • 2 0 • view
no wonder she's still so mad lol
sep 1, 2025, 7:51 pm • 1 0 • view
I default to blaming Prop. 13. (Locked-in Silent Gen homeowners dominate elections?)
sep 1, 2025, 6:55 pm • 0 0 • view
My favorite is that Berkeley went two-to-one for Hoover against Roosevelt.
sep 1, 2025, 4:37 pm • 2 0 • view
I mean, there was a socialist mayor in 1911-1913 and many prewar republicans were progressive do-gooders. There’s an argument to be made that even though the parties switched, there’s been far more continuity than disruption in a small, conservative, college town.
sep 1, 2025, 4:36 pm • 0 0 • view
True the parties meant different things in say 1924 than 1968…
sep 1, 2025, 7:39 pm • 0 0 • view
L. O. L. A few years later, the same friend invited me to a thing on Solano. I wondered why I could stand under the BART tracks but the nearest BART stations were a mile in either direction.
sep 1, 2025, 3:17 pm • 2 0 • view
I biked University at 7am a few Sundays ago to confirm time & distance from the Crescent to the Pier. Took me 17.5 mins to go the 2.9 miles on a beater bike with an AARP card in my wallet. 19 mins back. Uni is Berkeley’s road to and from the Bay. It’s safe multimodality would transform the city.
sep 1, 2025, 6:26 pm • 1 0 • view