Berkeley, CA Backgrounder

Set between Pacific foothills and the San Francisco Bay, Berkeley is a vibrant and spirited city that has grown and evolved from its counterculture roots to become a hub of intellectual and cultural diversity, with a thriving arts scene and outsized culinary influence.

Across Berkeley's 18 square miles, visitors can hear a symphony, rock concert or jazz quartet, take in a Broadway-bound play or first-run film, wander through a redwood forest or a rose garden, shop for handmade jewelry or organic sportswear, play a round of golf or take a yoga class, listen to a poetry reading or dine where California cuisine began. And that’s just for starters.

Consummately Californian in setting but international in character, Berkeley is home to the University of California, Berkeley, which lends an energy and vibe to the entire city. With its wealth of cultural and social diversity, culinary and shopping opportunities and recreational pursuits, Berkeley has all the amenities of a modern city in the intimate setting of a college town.

The Setting

Berkeley is just a few nautical miles east of San Francisco. From the shore of the San Francisco Bay, through its Pacific flats, and steeply rising to a foothill range, Berkeley occupies a classic stretch of coastal California. Its twists and turns of terrain enabled Berkeley to develop a balanced integration of shops, parks, streets and greenbelts. Leafy avenues and craggy hillsides cradle a vibrant metropolitan city core.

The University of California campus (Cal) is a sylvan and stone showcase of architectural highlights and history. In many ways, the Cal campus has evolved into a verdant “central park” in the urban heart of Berkeley. The grand architectural legacy of Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck and John Galen Howard is evident in Berkeley's stately homes, public buildings and hotels.

A Brief History

Long before the San Francisco Bay Area was "discovered" by the Spanish in 1769, Berkeley’s lands were home to a Native American people known as the Huichin, part of the larger Ohlone nation. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought an unprecedented influx of people to the Bay Area, and by the mid-1850s a small community of settlers began to cluster near the shores of the Bay in an area of Berkeley known as Ocean View. The city was christened "Berkeley" in 1866 after Bishop George Berkeley, the English poet who penned "Westward the course of empire takes it way." The charter that established the University of California was set in 1868, and its first campus was Berkeley.

The development of downtown Berkeley began in 1876 when Francis Kittredge Shattuck, one of the founding landowners in Berkeley, persuaded Central Pacific Railroad to run a spur line through his property that served as the impetus for new commercial growth. Berkeley was incorporated in 1878 and began a population boomlet that saw its residential rolls rise from 2,000 people in 1880 to 13,000 at the turn of the century. But the true boom was to come, as population climbed to 50,000 by 1912 from improved transportation systems and an influx of 1906 earthquake-displaced San Franciscans.

Berkeley continued to grow and evolve throughout the 20th century. The 1960s marked a significant turning point in the city’s history, when U.C. Berkeley catapulted into the national consciousness as a lightning rod for the political awareness and activism of the day. The “Free Speech Movement” of 1964 and Summer of Love in 1967 left a legacy that is still very much a part of contemporary Berkeley.

Today Berkeley is a city of some 121,000 residents and hundreds of business entities. The contrasts of Berkeley’s spirit energize and inform the city’s identity, contributing to its civic vitality and cosmopolitan air. Berkeley is truly powered by its people.

Cultural Life

Berkeley offers a comprehensive array of year-round cultural attractions. As a thriving hub for the arts, Berkeley’s Downtown Arts District has led the way for the rest of downtown to flourish. Once filled with auto body shops, Addison Street now rolls as the engine of the Arts District, with award-winning live theatre, live music, and performing arts education. In 2016, Downtown Berkeley welcomed the new home of the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, which joined Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theater Company, California Jazz Conservatory, Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, and the UC Theatre in the Arts District as well as forming a bridge to the UC Berkeley campus.

Cal Performances, on the University of California campus, presents international touring artists in a stellar program of dance, theater, jazz, symphonic, folkloric and contemporary musical performances. Citywide, intimate nightclubs cater to jazz, blues, rock and folk fans, and the majestic open-air Greek Theatre welcomes top concert headliners.

Neighborhood Shops and Stores

Berkeley is a lively, “Buy Local” marketplace with an atmosphere wonderfully conducive to the art of retail. Here, shopping is always an engaging, open-air experience where window-shopping offers one of the best ways to explore the city’s fragrant and walkable neighborhoods.

Shopping in Berkeley is defined by districts of distinct mantra and mood. At the northern edge of the city lies Solano Avenue, a spacious boulevard-style district lined with family-friendly restaurants, boutiques and importers. The Gourmet Ghetto, along the northern reach of Shattuck Avenue, has a bounty of shops, artisans, sidewalk cafés and top restaurants, including its famous flagship and the cradle of California cuisine, Chez Panisse.

West Berkeley’s Fourth Street shopping district is the place for fashion, design, art, books, and gifts. Downtown Berkeley is a vibrant mix of shops, restaurants, pubs, and nightspots. Books, clothing outlets and interesting shops define downtown's bustling core.

Also in West Berkeley, the Gilman District is coming into its own as Berkeley’s craft beer and urban wine destination, with great restaurants and shopping to enrichen the experience.

Along Telegraph Avenue, visitors can get into the groove of “Flower Power” and experience shades of the '60s by buying a tie-dyed T-shirt or handmade earrings crafted by local street artisans. Hip clothing brands and one-off shops appeal to the squadrons of university students that teem along Telegraph.

The Elmwood District stretches along College Avenue to Berkeley’s southern edge. This sunny area is an old-time Berkeley neighborhood with hardware stores, delicatessens, boutiques, bookstores, restaurants and open-air cafés.

Berkeley’s “Counter” Culture

Berkeley is a culinary wonderland where the roots of local/sustainable/organic dining took hold in the 1970s at Chez Panisse, the creation of renowned chef Alice Waters. Today, “Alice’s restaurant” remains the jewel in Berkeley’s culinary crown, a wonderful choice both for fine dining downstairs and slightly more casual fare at its upstairs café. It shares its North Shattuck location with a variety of specialty shops, cafés and merchants offering fresh baked goods, cheeses, handmade chocolates and fine wines.

Extending in every direction from downtown, restaurants featuring the cuisines of Thailand, India, Mexico, Japan, China, Vietnam, Burma, the Mediterranean, Nepal and North Africa, and more bring tables of the world to Berkeley. The Berkeley Marina is the place for a picture window with a bay view; don't miss the opportunity to catch a sunset over San Francisco and the Golden Gate from the marina's festive restaurants.

Berkeley has a long and storied history of brewing, extending from its early Gold Rush days. The modern Bay Area craft-brewing renaissance began in Berkeley in the early 1980’s with the establishment of Triple Rock Brewery, one of America’s original brewpubs. Jupiter serves signature handcrafted beers and ales along with wood fired pizzas, sandwiches, salads and more. Gilman Brewing Company, Fieldwork Brewing, Takara Sake, The Rare Barrel and Trumer Pils all brew in Berkeley.

Ready to Play

Berkeley melds nature and city in a way that few other places can boast. While a case can be made that its pedestrian-friendly avenues elevate shopping to a form of outdoor recreation, Berkeley's regional parklands, more than 50 city parks, numerous public tennis courts, biking paths and public gardens serve as more traditional venues for enjoying the great outdoors.

Tilden Regional Park is Berkeley's top nature retreat. Tilden's Lake Anza is the place for summertime swimming and the park's tangle of cycling and hiking trails afford magnificent bay views as they slope through redwood, cypress and eucalyptus forests. An interpretive trail encircles hidden Jewel Lake, and the path to it continues through Tilden to adjacent Wildcat Canyon, a local favorite for hiking and mountain biking. The Tilden Park Golf Course, an 18-hole championship affair built in 1937, wends its way through the park's redwoods and pines, and features a multi-tier driving range.

Berkeley has three large public gardens. The U.C. Botanical Garden's specialized gardens and greenhouses include the Chinese Medicinal Herb Garden and Rainforest House. The Berkeley Rose Garden is a serene place with an ever-blooming collection of its thorny, fragrant namesake. It also offers four excellent public tennis courts with Golden Gate Bridge views that might prove too distracting to keep an eye on the ball. The Botanic Garden at Tilden Regional Park grows the largest collection of California native plants in the world, and is tucked neatly into the stately Berkeley Hills. Walking through it is akin to touring the entire state’s plant life.

Family Ties

Tilden Park is one of Berkeley's leading centers for family fun. Besides the Lake Anza swimming complex, there's a classic, antique merry-go-round, pony and miniature steam train rides, and a demonstration animal farm with animals to meet and greet. In Downtown Berkeley, Habitot Children's Museum creates a special place for children to experience hands-on discovery play and learning. The award-winning Lawrence Hall of Science is located just up the hill from U.C. Berkeley and is an interactive STEM playground for kids of all ages.

Looking west, the Marina Experience Program is a great way to explore and learn about the fragile bay ecosystem. The shoreline of the Berkeley Marina features a walking path and grassy areas that may offer some of the best kite-flying conditions on the planet.

Lodging

Berkeley's visitors have more accommodation options than ever before, from certified green hotels and charming boutiques to well-known national chains and San Francisco Bay-front convention hotels. Groups will discover a climate of thought leadership that fuels innovation, great ideas and productive meetings. Accommodations cater to all types of travelers, offering a competitive variety of categories and price options. All are located within easy driving distance of either Oakland or San Francisco international airports, with both airports offering single-ticket BART connections to Berkeley.

For More Information

Visit Berkeley’s website is the destination for official information; see http://www.visitberkeley.com. Travelers can also call toll-free, (800) 847-4823. Already here? Stop by the Visitor Information Center at 2030 Addison Street in Downtown Berkeley, right across the street from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in the Arts District.


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