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[OM] Re: (OT?) Back From Southwest Trip

Subject: [OM] Re: (OT?) Back From Southwest Trip
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 16:06:16 -0700
Jay Drew wrote:
> Winsor,
> I was joking about Berkeley.  I am sorry that you took it seriously,
> obviously it was a poor attempt at satire.
>   
One of the problems of a web list is that nuance is lost. It's 
impossible to see the tongue in the cheek, the sparkle in the eye - or 
the fire in the eye and the set jaw. Things that can be successfully 
said in person don't work online. I think AndrewF has a hard time 
deciding what proportion of the blame for the death of irony to place on 
the USA and what to blame the internet as a means of communication and 
conversation.
> Yes I know one of the list members lives there.  In one sense I was hoping
> for some witty response from him.
>   
He was busy having a sort of flashback experience - in Vallejo. There I 
was, sitting on my little corner of a mattress on the floor in a tiny 
studio apartment at a birthday party for a friend who is the same age as 
my older boy. 12 people sharing a space that's crowded feeling with 4, 
eating, drinking and talking with people mostly in their 20s and early 
30s. I could tell it wasn't the 60s all over again because the food was 
better and nobody was smoking dope. The wine was reminiscent of old 
times, though, pretty rough. And I make really great coleslaw now. :-)
> I live about an hour away from Berkeley myself and in my younger years spent
> many an enjoyable hour camped in the UC Theatre watching old flicks.
>
> If anyone else was offended I express my sincere apology.
>   
The tricky thing is, how does one read the sentence "But maybe it's in 
Berkeley thing, that's not part of California, or anywhere else."? In 
important ways, it's true, and a reason to celebrate living here, 
although the things I particularly enjoy are shared in many ways with 
many other cities in the area.

In its negative connotations, it was never true of all, or even most, of 
Berkeley, and is now almost wholly old news not true of the city any 
more. I speak with personal knowledge. My family moved back to Berkeley 
when I was 18 months old and with the exception of a few months when I 
was 6, I have lived here all my life. I went to UC, saw Mario Savio 
haranguing with bullhorn from atop the police car, marched in the 
people's park protest parade; very peaceful and rather fun on a lovely 
day, no matter what you may have heard.

The Berkeley many visitors see is very different from the parts in which 
many of us live. I live on a very quiet street in the hills in an area 
with many trees, birds, critters, etc, and where the houses range from 
one under construction, being wedged in some how in an odd corner, to 
90+ years old and from tiny cottages to large and fancy. I consider 
myself extremely lucky to have happened into buying here when I was 
young and being able to live in retirement in such an idyllic setting.

Is Berkeley different now that when I grew up? Sure, in many ways. The 
political climate is much more liberal in many ways. In others, it's 
like anywhere. The biggest issue up right now is the City trying to 
offload responsibility for creeks and culverts on private property. As 
the city was developed, the many creeks running down from hills to the 
Bay were often culverted, even under houses and many creeks were built 
next to creeks with inadequate long term erosion protection. Now all 
those aging structures are starting to fail and the potential costs have 
scared the city to death. so they are now pretending that it never made 
those promises back to over 100 years ago and has only been doing repair 
and maintenance out of the goodness of its heart all this time, but 
really, it's the property owners' responsibility. Sound like a great 
liberal issue, or just small town politics as usual? I grew up next to 
one of those creeks, and it was quite wonderful. Fortunately, mom's 
house, in which she has spent most of her life since 1935, was properly 
built on deep, reinforced concrete pilings down to bedrock.

The biggest changes I see over the last 60 years have little to do with 
politics. Then, Berkeley was as much a commuter town housing the 
families of people who worked in SF as a university town. Net commute 
was out in the morning and back in the evening. Now, it's strongly the 
reverse. There are many fewer people, because of smaller family sizes, 
and many more cars. There are fewer kids at least in part because of the 
run up in housing prices. I raised my kids on this street along with 
neighbors' kids, but now there are none I'm aware of for blocks. The 
little one bedroom house across the street that I bought for $26,400 in 
1969 is worth between $600,000 and $700,000 today.

Anyway, you may say what you like about Berkeley without offending me or 
making it any less a pleasant place for me to live. Too many people 
around here already anyway, tell your friends it sucks here. :-)

Moose, reporting no pedal pusher on guys here.

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