InBerkeley

Like Dave, I’m in Berkeley, too. But we live in opposite poles of the town. Dave is on the north side, perched above wonderful Solano Avenue. I’m on the south side, in the Elmwood, nestled between College Avenue and the Claremont. We’re both relatively recent arrivals in town — I arrived from London in 2005. So we approach this wonderful place with the best spirit of newbies, open to ideas, eager to learn about history and tradition, but not stuck in any identifiable groove.

InBerkeley.com is decidedly a work in progress. Dave has written extensively about the importance of bootstrapping, and this is certainly a bootstrap. We both have ideas about how the site might develop, and plenty of things we want to introduce. InBerkeley.com will only thrive, however, if we can build a community that wants to jump in and participate.

Dave kicked off by writing about some his likes and dislikes in Berkeley. I love the weather, the location – happily between the Bay and the East Bay hills – the intellectual and cultural vibrancy, the great, progressive political tradition of Berkeley, and the diversity of its people. There will be plenty of time to write about gripes, but Berkeley is fascinating and inspiring enough to provoke this site. Let’s see what we can discover about Berkeley.

General

Greetings!

This is my first post on http://inberkeley.com/ and I find that very exciting!

Berkeley is a great place, but it means different things to everyone who lives here. To some it’s a great university town. To others its a place to live, but they work somewhere else. To others it’s a cultural center. There’s a huge freeway that passes through town, and a train line that goes to Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, Canada, probably everywhere else in the country. We have poverty and wealth. A new shopping district and an old rundown one. Some of the best public transit in the world. We have artists, scientists, great thinkers, journalists, many of the smartest people on the planet are our neighbors. We voted for Obama but I saw some McCain signs on front lawns. We have strong opinions, but we also value tolerance.

For me, Berkeley is a refuge — it’s a place to live because you gotta live somewhere. I tried living on the road for a while, but I needed a permanent place to sleep, write, and a consistent set of friends to hang with day in and day out. I could have had that in a variety of different places but I chose Berkeley because it’s a gorgeous place, the politics are a good match (not in the cliche sense that rightwingers think) and the people who live here are intelligent, friendly, not pretentious and they don’t work too hard, as a rule, so they have time to play.

Tom Hunt, a longtime Berkeley resident said it really well. If you take out the university, Berkeley is a small place. The day he said it I ran into three people on the street who I knew. But over time I’ve given it thought and realize that it’s not a small place, but it feels approachable.

Now there are things not to like about Berkeley. And I suppose each of us has our own list. For me, it’s the black hole that downtown is. I don’t like going there. I don’t understand why a great like Berkeley doesn’t have a thriving bustling downtown. With the great public transit and the world-class university, located in the middle of one of the most dynamic metropolitan areas of the world, why isn’t the downtown a place more people want to come to, not just from within Berkeley but from all around the Bay Area, and the state, the country, the world?

To me, having lived here only three years, most of what I know about Berkeley is how much I don’t know about Berkeley. But having a blank page to fill in is one of my favorite things to do. With my good buddy Lance, and hopefully with a lot of help from friends in and around this great place, I hope InBerkeley.com will become a place to learn and share and grow a greater Berkeley.

And so concludes the first of many stories I hope to write here!

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General

Greater Greater Washington

H2OTown

The Island

West Seattle Blog

General

I just picked an acceptable theme, but it isn’t what we really want. I agree wholeheartedly with your principle of simplicity, but I think we want a design that has visual distinction and the uses tabs — so users can go straight to events, property, politics, podcasts, and so on.

What other elements should we include. I have noted down so far:

• calendar of events
• podcasts
• property (as a category)
• politics (as a category)
• feed of Berkeley news from elsewhere
• maps — in all sorts of ways

What about things to look at. Here’s a quick round-up from my scans:

• SFGate’s Alameda site
• A Better Oakland
• Our PDX (Portland)
• ChiTown Daily News
• Brownstoner

Other ideas?

General