How safe is Berkeley, California?

Cerebus wrote:

Berkeley is seriously not as bad as people are telling you, you'll be fine. The people on this thread are uptight white suburbanites.

Whatever you want to say, the crime in Berkeley is high and the streets are downright filthy. I am not a white suburbanite. I am a realist.

Look at the official stats. Scroll down to the crime section

I live in San Francisco, and go to Berkeley all the time. There are parts that are rough, but on the whole the place is not bad. Like I said, if you grew up in the suburbs and are freaked out by homeless people, drug addicts, etc. then you might be shocked by the place. It is nowhere near as dangerous as parts of SF, all of Oakland, or most major cities in the U.S. It's a freakin' college town.

jeezus christ people, are you serious? north berkeley, rockridge up by claremont and by clark kerr berkeley is one of the most beautiful places to live... fantastic weather, fantastic restaurants, good nature nearby

yes down by san pablo it can get sketchy in places... every city has it's bad parts (east palo alto anyone)... but beyond that... yes look out for those multimillion dollar home neighborhoods with all those coffee shops and restaurants... whoa scary stuff

have you people been on the east coast? drive through any city on the east coast and the decay easily is triple anything you will find in berkeley

Police are investigating another sexual battery near UC Berkeley in which a man accosted a woman from behind and tried to touch her after lifting her skirt, bringing to 11 the number of such incidents.

anon_for_reason wrote: every city has it's bad parts (east palo alto anyone)

which is why i called out east palo alto as the bad part of palo alto (maybe they are technically seperate cities but you get the idea)

Monty Fuller wrote:

anon_for_reason wrote: every city has it's bad parts (east palo alto anyone)

Where are the good parts of East Palo Alto? I think that the Four Seasons and Ikea petitioned to get their mailing address changed to Palo Alto.

that is the best you can come up with to demonstrate the awfulness of berkeley... it is a city of over 100,000 people... compare to other cities of similar size, i think you'll find it is not over run with crime

sf chronicle today wrote:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/20/BAHE161C19.DTL&hw=skirt&sn=002&sc=919

Police are investigating another sexual battery near UC Berkeley in which a man accosted a woman from behind and tried to touch her after lifting her skirt, bringing to 11 the number of such incidents.

that happened on Halloween and is being reported today? Why is that "news" - certainly it is not timely.

I coach a group of 20 or so male & female runners in the Berkeley area. You are welcome to catch a run with us. Other than the half-miler types, the men range mid-14 to 17:00 5K and women range from mid/high 17-20:00. Berkeley is grungy but it depends on where you go, the hills are gorgeous. Some of the runners are Cal students, some are grad students, a few alumni, we even have a professor coming out, as well as some Transports and Tamalpa club runners.

We mainly run in the Berkeley/Oakland hills or at the Cal track. I have a plantar injury and am taking time off, but we have organized runs out here pretty much daily. Shoot me an email if you're interested and I can link you with the other runners. A good number of them will be competing in the all-comers' meet at Cal tomorrow (Saturday) and a long run Sunday morning. Enjoy your stay in Berkeley. It's not that bad if you know where to go, and there are some great people out here.

anon_for_reason wrote:

that is the best you can come up with to demonstrate the awfulness of berkeley... it is a city of over 100,000 people... compare to other cities of similar size, i think you'll find it is not over run with crime

Okay, how about this if sexual assault isn't enough of a crime for you:

Stay on your toes in Berkeley. The problem with Berkeley is that it is sandwiched between Richmond and Oakland, two of the most dangerous cities in the United States.

Berkeley has some good restaurants, great weather, and scenic trails. But it also has a lot of crime.

You people are all posting crimes in south and west berkeley... where most people will go is north berkeley, campus and the hills which is undoubtedly one of the best towns there is... great trails, restaurants like you will find nowhere else outside of manhattan or san francisco and fantastic walkable neighborhoodsthat is like saying sf is awful because of hunters point, or manhattan is awful because of bronx/queens.

city dweller wrote:

anon_for_reason wrote:

that is the best you can come up with to demonstrate the awfulness of berkeley... it is a city of over 100,000 people... compare to other cities of similar size, i think you'll find it is not over run with crime

Okay, how about this if sexual assault isn't enough of a crime for you:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/21/BAKD15EE98.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

Stay on your toes in Berkeley. The problem with Berkeley is that it is sandwiched between Richmond and Oakland, two of the most dangerous cities in the United States.

You make a point, West Berkeley is a mile or two from campus, but I'd argue that the majority of Cal students live in South Berkeley (a crime-ridden area). Anyway, you're right, campus and North Berkeley are pretty safe, but don't get lulled into a false sense of security. You could just as easily get mugged in those locations.

There are very safe areas and some definitely unsafe areas.

Safe areas would be campus and almost all areas north, those are probably the most interesting areas to run anyway.

South and West have some nice neighborhoods but are generally shady. There are so many homeless and street people that it is very difficult to tell which are dangerous but it's best to be safe because there is a lot of crime in those areas. Look here for some info and pics of what south of campus is like

http://sites.google.com/site/safesouthside/

Anyway, if you're going to be in berkeley head north, maybe up to tilden park (bus 67 will get you there) and you will be very safe and find some great places.

drive up to tilden park and go running around there on some of the trails. it's really pretty and non over-populated and you're less likely to be interrupted by a vagrant.

my daughter's high school friend in LA was stabbed and murdered 2 springs ago by some low life that crashed their frat party. he was graduating in a couple of weeks as an honor student in chemical engineering and getting ready to get married and go to an Ivy League school for masters degree. what a waste. very sad. some low life guy going nowhere who lived in bad area off frat row.(the low life was white, not black btw).

this happened at UC Berkley, I forgot to note.

We have a reporter who doesn't know the legal definition of rape (insisting forced oral copulation is "just" sexual assault, contrary to 2012 DOJ definition), and a nice poster who has empathy with the culprit (who's likely a societal "victim" for all we know).

I do have empathy for the sexual assaulter. He is a victim of a society which increasingly views people like him not as a brother in our larger human family but as a pawn in our culture wars. I don’t know Mr Johnson or anything about him or his history as an individual. I can only comment on what I see as the social dimension of these sadly common stories. Rather than using the plights of both Mr Johnson and his victims as impetus to address the proximal causes effecting his personal development and antisocial values, he is either dismissed as a hopeless criminal deserving of complete removal from society, or provided excuses, encouraged to define his identity entirely along tribal lines, and utilized as a martyr in our growing war on human commonality.

Guns are banned so you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Especially running at night alone in secluded areas.