Featured Apartment:
San Francisco- Berkeley - North Berkeley Spacious Studio Nr. Gourmet Ghetto (Berkeley north / hills)- A spacious studio at North Berkeley Flat, located on the upper floor of a semi-modern 8-unit building. Hardwood floor and large closets; one assigned storage room. Coin laundry. View More Listings -->
Berkeley Information
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern
California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of
Oakland, California and Emeryville, California. To the north is the city of
Albany and the unincorporated Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with
the county line (bordering on Contra Costa County) which generally follows the
ridgeline of the Berkeley Hills. Berkeley is located in Alameda County.
Berkeley is the site of the University of California, Berkeley, the flagship
campus of the University of California, and the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Lawrence Hall of Science, Space Sciences Laboratory, and
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, which are on the campus grounds.
Adjacent to the University campus is the Graduate Theological Union.
Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco Earthquake
of 1906. The town and other parts of the East Bay somehow managed to escape even
moderate damage from the massive temblor, and hundreds if not thousands of
refugees flowed across the Bay. In 1909, the citizens of Berkeley adopted a new
charter, and the Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth
continued right 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.
The next big growth occurred with the advent of World War II when large numbers
of people moved into the Bay Area to work in the many war industries. 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.
The postwar years saw moderate growth of the City, but events on 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 any such 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 inquisition was
met by protestors, including many from the University. Meanwhile, a number of
U.C. students became active in support of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally,
the University in 1964 provoked a massive student protest by banning the
distribution of political literature on campus. This protest became known as the
Free Speech Movement. As the Vietnam War rapidly escalated in the ensuing years,
so did student activism at the University.
Perhaps the crowning event of the Berkeley Sixties scene was the conflict over a
parcel of University property south of the contiguous campus site which came to
be called "People's Park".
People's Park with high-rise student housing in the backgroundThe 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 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 subway construction along Hearst
Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus. The land had also been intended for
development, but was peacefully turned over to the City and is now Ohlone Park.
The era of large public protest in Berkeley waned considerably with the end of
the Vietnam War in 1974. But activist politics continued. One person who rose in
prominence during the late sixties and into the seventies was Ron Dellums,
nephew of C.L. Dellums, an African American labor leader. He first served on the
Berkeley City Council, and later became a Congressman for the district which
includes Berkeley.
The seventies saw a decline in the population of Berkeley. People left for
various reasons, some moving to the suburbs, some because of the rising cost of
living throughout the Bay Area, and others because of the decline and
disappearance of many industries in West Berkeley.
The period from the 1980s right up to the present has been marked by a
continuation of rising costs, particularly with respect to housing, especially
since the mid-1990s. In 2005-2006, sales of homes appear to finally be slowing,
but the price of an average home is still among the highest in the nation.
Although many think of the 60s as the heyday of Liberalism in Berkeley, it
remains one of the most overwhelmingly progressive cities in the United States,
with its 2004 presidential vote going more than 90% for John Kerry (54,419
votes) to only 6.7% for George W. Bush (4,010 votes).
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.