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62-574: The Lorin District (also known as the Lorin Streetcar District ) is a neighborhood located in the southern part of Berkeley, California , bounded by Ashby Avenue to the north, Adeline Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the east, Sacramento Street to the west, and 62nd Street to the south. Today, the area is today mostly referred to as " South Berkeley ". The land was first populated by

124-509: A collaboration with the State of California that culminated in 1868 with the creation of the public University of California . As construction began on the new site, more residences were constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries grew around the wharf area called Ocean View . A horsecar ran from Temescal in Oakland to

186-672: A halt. Facing rising housing costs, residents voted to enact rent control and vacancy control in 1980. Though more far-reaching in their effect than those of some of the other jurisdictions in California that chose to use rent control where they could, these policies were limited by the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act , a statewide ban on rent control that came into effect in 1995 and limited rent control to multi-family units that were built (or technically buildings that were issued their original certificate of occupation) before

248-526: A large Japanese immigrant population in the early 20th century, many such residents were forcibly removed to internment camps during WWII. After their displacement, many Black migrants from the American South settled in the district. In the 1930s, the Lorin District was redlined by the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, leading to decades of underdevelopment and government disinvestment. Lorin

310-694: A small, though busy, wharf by the bay. In 1866, Oakland's private College of California looked for a new site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the foot of the Contra Costa Range (later called the Berkeley Hills) on Strawberry Creek , at an elevation of about 500 feet (150 m) above the bay, commanding a view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate . According to

372-467: A statewide referendum that proposed moving the California state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 33,000 votes. The city had named streets around the proposed capitol grounds for California counties. They bear those names today, a legacy of the failed referendum. On March 4, 1909, following public referendums, the citizens of Berkeley were granted a new charter by the State of California, and

434-698: Is home to the oldest campus in the University of California , the University of California, Berkeley , and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , which is managed and operated by the university. It also has the Graduate Theological Union , one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States. The site of today's City of Berkeley

496-460: Is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley . It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills . The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321. Berkeley

558-476: Is now downtown Berkeley, bounded on the north by what is today the alignment of Addison Street, and on the south, by Dwight Way. Among these claimants was Francis K. Shattuck . Shattuck's portion lay west of what is now Shattuck Avenue. He built a house here at the site of what is today the Hotel Shattuck Plaza . The county road going to Oakland along his property was informally called "Shattuck's road", but

620-543: Is the mass transit hub of Berkeley, with several AC Transit and UC Berkeley bus lines converging on the city's busiest BART station, as well as the location of Berkeley's civic center , high school , and Berkeley City College . The area was formerly a settlement site of the Huichin/Chochen band of the Ohlone indigenous people. The site was probably associated with the proximity of Strawberry Creek which ran along what

682-432: Is the setting for a scene in former University of California student Frank Norris ' book The Octopus (1903). This Alameda County, California –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Berkeley, California Berkeley ( / ˈ b ɜːr k l i / BURK -lee ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County , California , United States. It

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744-568: Is today's Allston Way. During the days when the land was part of the vast Rancho San Antonio , a ford existed across Strawberry Creek beneath a clump of oak trees at approximately the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way. The road or trail which crossed here connected the ranch houses of two of the Peralta brothers, Domingo and Vicente. Following the Mexican–American War , four Americans laid claim to four equal strips of land in what

806-714: The Berkeley Oak Grove Protest began protesting construction of a new sports center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a lengthy court process. In 2007–2008, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a series of controversial motions by Berkeley's city council regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. ( See Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy .) During

868-654: The Centennial Record of the University of California , "In 1866, at Founders' Rock , a group of College of California men watched two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings , thought of the lines of the Anglo-Irish Anglican Bishop George Berkeley , 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and suggested that the town and college site be named for

930-590: The Elmwood area along College near Ashby, San Pablo Avenue , South Berkeley (formerly the Lorin District ) and Thousand Oaks along Solano Avenue . Starting in the 1970s it also had to compete with the emergence of major shopping centers and malls outside of Berkeley, especially El Cerrito Plaza , Hilltop Mall , and Emeryville . These resulted in the loss of several formerly prominent downtown businesses, including two large department stores; Hink's, whose building

992-642: The Library of Congress website. Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 . The town and other parts of the East Bay escaped serious damage, and thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay. Among them were most of San Francisco's painters and sculptors, who between 1907 and 1911 created one of the largest art colonies west of Chicago. Artist and critic Jennie V. Cannon described

1054-651: The Mexican War of Independence . However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty after the Mexican–American War , and especially, the Gold Rush , saw the Peraltas' lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to various American claimants ( See Kellersberger's Map ). Politically,

1116-631: The Ohlone Native Americans, who were displaced by Spanish settlers in the 1700s. It was unincorporated as the town or settlement of Lorin, and was a stop along the Berkeley Branch line of the Central Pacific (later, Southern Pacific ) — a train station was located at Adeline and Alcatraz. In 1892, the people of Lorin elected to be annexed to the City of Berkeley. While Lorin supported

1178-507: The Vietnam Day Committee . Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the mid-to-late 1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue —became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there

1240-453: The 1880s Berkeley had segregated housing and anti-Chinese laws. The area near the university became known for a time as East Berkeley. Due to the influence of the university, the modern age came quickly to Berkeley. Electric lights and the telephone were in use by 1888. Electric streetcars soon replaced the horsecar . A silent film of one of these early streetcars in Berkeley can be seen at

1302-584: The 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a commercial building, near the upper course of the creek. The first people of European descent (most of whom were of mixed race and born in America ) arrived with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. The De Anza Expedition led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the " Golden Gate )." Luis Peralta

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1364-939: The Police Department to avoid escalation of violence and to protect bystanders during protests. During a protest against bigotry and U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017, self-described anti-fascist protesters attacked Trump supporters in attendance. Police intervened, arresting 14 people. Sometimes called " antifa ", these ‘anti-fascist’ activists were clad in black shirts and other black attire, while some carried shields and others had masks or bandanas hiding their faces to help them evade capture after street fighting. . These protests spanned February to September 2017 (See more at 2017 Berkeley Protests ). In 2019, protesters took up residence in People's Park against tree-chopping and were arrested by police in riot gear. Many activists saw this as

1426-514: The Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth continued up to the Crash of 1929 . The Great Depression hit Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S., thanks in part to the university. In 1916, Berkeley implemented single-family zoning as an effort to keep minorities out of white neighborhoods. This has been described as the first implementation of single-family zoning in

1488-434: The U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism induced the university to demand a loyalty oath from its professors, many of whom refused to sign the oath on the principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee ( HUAC ) came to San Francisco to investigate the influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by protesters, including many from

1550-644: The U.S. was started by the Ecology Center in 1973. Styrofoam was banned in 1988. As the city leaned more and more Democratic, local politics became divided between "Progressives" and "Moderates". 1984 saw the Progressives take the majority for the first time. Nancy Skinner became the first UC Berkeley student elected to City Council. In 1986, in reaction to the 1984 election, a ballot measure switched Berkeley from at-large to district-based elections for city council. In 1983, Berkeley's Domestic Partner Task Force

1612-470: The United States By 2021, nearly half of Berkeley's residential neighborhoods were still exclusively zoned for single-family homes. On September 17, 1923, a major fire swept down the hills toward the university campus and the downtown section. Around 640 structures burned before a late-afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to put it out. The next big growth occurred with

1674-602: The University of California and a high-demand housing market, Berkeley was relatively unaffected by the Great Recession . State budget cuts caused the university to increase the number of out-of-state and international students, with international enrollment, mostly from Asia, rising from 2,785 in 2007 to 5,951 in 2016. Since then, more international restaurants have opened downtown and on Telegraph Avenue , including East Asian chains such as Ippudo and Daiso . A wave of downtown apartment construction began in 1998. In 2006,

1736-415: The advent of World War II , when large numbers of people moved to the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby Richmond . One who moved out, but played a big role in the outcome of the war, was U.C. professor and Berkeley resident J. Robert Oppenheimer . During the war, an Army base, Camp Ashby , was temporarily sited in Berkeley. The element berkelium

1798-581: The announced plan of the University to build a hotel, conference center, and museum along Center Street. In 2009 local petition gatherers gained enough signatures to obstruct implementation of the plan, angering many residents of Berkeley, including the coalition of the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance, Berkeley Food & Housing Project and TransForm. The opponents argue that the new development calls for buildings that are too tall and have housing that

1860-649: The area around the railroad depot. The railroad served both passengers and freight at Berkeley Station. A telegraph office and Wells Fargo office were situated across the street from the depot. The Key System opened up its electric train service to San Francisco from Downtown Berkeley in 1903. The Southern Pacific responded by electrifying and extending its lines in Berkeley in 1911 ( East Bay Electric Lines ) and moved its downtown freight operations just south of downtown to Ward Street and Shattuck. In 1941, however, SP ended its electric commuter train service. From then until April 1958, downtown Berkeley's commuter train service

1922-425: The area that became Berkeley was initially part of a vast Contra Costa County . On March 25, 1853, Alameda County was created from a division of Contra Costa County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara County . The area that became Berkeley was then the northern part of the "Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County. During this period, "Berkeley" was mostly a mix of open land, farms, and ranches, with

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1984-550: The area to the Oakland Pier and the transcontinental rail line in 1876, two years before the people living near the University of California and in Ocean View incorporated Berkeley. The end of the line at University Avenue was initially called the "Terminus" until the line was extended north, after which time it was called Berkeley Station . In the early years, downtown Berkeley was synonymous with "Berkeley Station", referring to

2046-626: The city near the university and downtown. Increasing enrollment also led the university to wanting to redevelop certain places of Berkeley, especially Southside, but more specifically People's Park. Preservationists passed the Neighborhood Protection Ordinance in 1973 by ballot measure and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance in 1974 by the City Council. Together, these ordinances brought most new construction to

2108-449: The dangers of alcohol. On April 1, 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the university campus, together with local farmers, were granted incorporation by the State of California as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of the town were the slate of Denis Kearney 's anti-Chinese Workingman's Party , who were particularly favored in the working-class area of the former Ocean View, now called West Berkeley. During

2170-490: The eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher." The philosopher's name is pronounced BARK-lee , but the city's name, to accommodate American English , is pronounced BERK-lee . The College of California's College Homestead Association planned to raise funds for the new campus by selling off adjacent parcels of land. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans fell far short of their desires, and they began

2232-468: The end of the Vietnam War in 1975. While the 1960s were the heyday of liberal activism in Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic cities in the United States. After the 1960s, Berkeley banned most new housing construction, in particular apartments. Increasing enrollment at the university led to replacement of older buildings by large apartment buildings, especially in older parts of

2294-549: The end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A spin-off, People's Park Annex , was established at the same time by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART") underground construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the city by BART and is now Ohlone Park . The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with

2356-741: The fall of 2010, the Berkeley Student Food Collective opened after many protests on the UC Berkeley campus due to the proposed opening of the fast food chain Panda Express . Students and community members worked together to open a collectively run grocery store right off of the UC Berkeley campus, where the community can buy local, seasonal, humane, and organic foods. The Berkeley Student Food Collective still operates at 2440 Bancroft Way. On September 18, 2012, Berkeley became what may be

2418-406: The first city in the U.S. to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals: September 23, which is known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day . On September 2, 2014, the city council approved a measure to provide free medical marijuana to low-income patients. The Measure D soda tax was approved by Berkeley voters on November 4, 2014, the first such tax in the United States. In the fall of 2011,

2480-636: The founding of the Berkeley Art Association and the rivalries of competing studios and art clubs. In 1904, the first hospitals in Berkeley were created: the Alta Bates Sanatorium (today Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) for women and children, founded by nurse Alta Bates on Walnut Street, and the Roosevelt Hospital (later Herrick Hospital ), founded by LeRoy Francis Herrick, on the corner of Dwight Way and Milvia Street. In 1908,

2542-519: The mainline of the transcontinental railroad into Oakland was re-routed, putting the right-of-way along the bay shore through Ocean View. There was a strong prohibition movement in Berkeley at this time. In 1876, the state enacted the "mile limit law", which forbade sale or public consumption of alcohol within one mile (1.6 km) of the new University of California. Then, in 1899, Berkeley residents voted to make their city an alcohol-free zone. Scientists, scholars and religious leaders spoke vehemently of

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2604-525: The nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement came to two Berkeley locations: on the campus of the University of California and as an encampment in Civic Center Park. During a Black Lives Matter protest on December 6, 2014, police use of tear gas and batons to clear protesters from Telegraph Avenue led to a riot and five consecutive days and nights of protests, marches, and freeway occupations in Berkeley and Oakland. Afterwards, changes were implemented by

2666-535: The parking situation, the city is planning to install a system of digital signs to direct drivers to available parking spaces downtown. [1] Today, Berkeley's downtown is highly eclectic, with numerous small businesses. Currently, the Berkeley City Council passed a new downtown area plan in an attempt to make the Downtown more sustainable and concentrate future development in the downtown area in conjunction with

2728-418: The pavement of Shattuck Avenue. Parking islands were created along the centerline of Shattuck overlapping the northbound tracks. In the early 1960s, a series of fountains were constructed which replaced some of these parking islands, extending from Center to Haste. The fountains quickly became the favorite targets of vandals who regularly put bubble bath in them. They were soon removed, just before Shattuck Avenue

2790-591: The planners of the College of California dubbed the street "Guyot" on their plat map. That name never caught on and the street name was upgraded to "Shattuck Avenue". In the 1890s, Strawberry Creek was culverted through the downtown section, the oak trees were removed, and Shattuck and University Avenues were improved. Nonetheless, the area developed slowly until about the time of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , after which it developed rapidly. The Central Pacific constructed its Berkeley Branch Railroad line connecting

2852-466: The principal commercial center of Berkeley since the railroad station was built. However, it has had to compete with the secondary commercial sections which emerged starting as early as the 19th century. Three of these in the past were West Berkeley (Ocean View), North Berkeley (Berryman's) and the Telegraph area immediately south of the University of California campus. Others which came a bit later were

2914-598: The ranch to each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies mostly in the portion that went to Peralta's son Domingo , with a little in the portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of the Domingo or Vicente ranches, but their names survive in Berkeley street names (Vicente, Domingo, and Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley remains based on the original Peralta land grant. The Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta California passed from Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after

2976-662: The rest of the nation, fueled by spillover from the San Francisco housing shortage and population growth. South and West Berkeley underwent gentrification , with some historically Black neighborhoods such as the Adeline Corridor seeing a 50% decline in Black / African American population from 1990 to 2010. In the 1990s, public television's Frontline documentary series featured race relations at Berkeley's only public high school, Berkeley High School . With an economy dominated by

3038-555: The state law came into effect in 1995. For cities such as Berkeley, where rent control was already in place, the law limited the use of rent control to units built before the local rent-control law was enacted, i.e. 1980. During the 1970s and 1980s, activists increased their power in local government. This era also saw major developments in Berkeley's environmental and food culture. Berkeley's last Republican mayor, Wallace J. S. Johnson , left office in 1971. Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971. The first curbside recycling program in

3100-473: The streets and projects to improve social service provision for this demographic, homelessness has continued to be a significant problem in Berkeley. A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s. The San Francisco Bay Area became a hotspot for hippie counterculture , and Berkeley became a haven for nonconformists and anarchists from all over the United States. Most public discourse around homelessness in Berkeley at this time

3162-610: The university campus along what is now Telegraph Avenue . The first post office opened in 1872. By the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad reached its terminus in Oakland. In 1876, a branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad , the Berkeley Branch Railroad , was laid from a junction with the mainline called Shellmound (now a part of Emeryville) into what is now downtown Berkeley . That same year,

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3224-458: The university preparing to develop the park. The city of Berkeley has historically been a central location for homeless communities in the Bay Area. Since the 1930s, the city of Berkeley has fostered a tradition of political activism. The city has been perceived as a hub for liberal thought and action and it has passed ordinances to oust homeless individuals from Berkeley on multiple occasions. Despite efforts to remove unhoused individuals from

3286-523: The university. Meanwhile, a number of U.C. students became active in the civil rights movement . Finally, in 1964, the university provoked a massive student protest by banning distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became the Free Speech Movement . As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the university, particularly that organized by

3348-580: Was among the soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain , he was granted a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the contra costa , "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion that now comprises the City of Berkeley. Luis Peralta named his holding " Rancho San Antonio ." The primary activity of the ranch was raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of

3410-416: Was centered around the idea of street-living as an expression of counterculture. Downtown Berkeley Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California , United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street. Downtown

3472-535: Was considerable overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called " People's Park ". The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of then-Governor Ronald Reagan . In

3534-620: Was converted to a movie theater and several smaller stores, and J. C. Penney . Contributing factors which continue to date are high commercial rents, a shortage of street parking and convenient garages, and higher consumer prices than those offered elsewhere. The latter has been a problem since the earliest days as there has always been a tendency to view the University population as a captive consumer base. The city has created an official arts district along Addison Street and passed laws restricting business hours in other neighborhoods in an attempt to increase night time activity downtown. To address

3596-400: Was established, which in 1984 made policy recommendation to the school board, which passed domestic partner legislation. The legislation became a model for similar measures nationwide. In 1995, California's Costa–Hawkins Act ended vacancy control, allowing rents to increase when a tenant moved out. Despite a slow down in 2005–2007, median home prices and rents remain dramatically higher than

3658-453: Was solely in the hands of the Key System. Buses replaced the trains from 1958 to the present. In 1973, BART opened its own Berkeley station at Center Street and Shattuck, once again providing electric train service to San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area. For several years after the Key System's F train stopped running on Shattuck, its tracks (originally, the old SP tracks) remained in

3720-468: Was synthesized utilizing the 60-inch (1.5 m) cyclotron at UC Berkeley, and named in 1949, in recognition of the university, thus placing the city's name in the list of elements. During the 1940s, many African Americans migrated to Berkeley. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported Berkeley's population as 11.7% black and 84.6% white. The postwar years brought moderate growth to the city, as events on

3782-713: Was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun Ohlone people when the first Europeans arrived. Evidence of their existence in the area include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns. wildflower seeds, grass seeds, and many different foods, including squirrel fat, and a shellmound , now mostly leveled and covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek . Human remains and skeletons from Native American burials have been unearthed in West Berkeley and on campus alongside Strawberry Creek . Other artifacts were discovered in

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3844-741: Was torn up for the BART subway construction. In early 2007 the Marine Recruiting Center for the northern Bay Area relocated from Alameda to downtown Berkeley in order to be closer to the University of California, Berkeley . This move was met with protests from Code Pink , prompted the city council to pass a 6-3 resolution calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders", and led to United States Senator Jim DeMint attempting to pass legislation that would strip Berkeley of its $ 2,392,000 in federal funding . Berkeley's downtown section has been

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