Downtown Berkeley, California
Encyclopedia
Downtown Berkeley is the central business district
of the city of Berkeley, California
, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street. Downtown is the mass transit hub of Berkeley, with several AC Transit
and UC Berkeley
bus lines converging on the city's busiest BART
station, as well as the location of Berkeley's civic center
, high school
, and Berkeley City College
.
The area was formerly a settlement site of the Huichin/Chochen band of the Ohlone
indigenous people. Artifacts were found in the 1950s during the digging of a basement on Kittredge Street. The site was probably associated with the proximity of Strawberry Creek
which ran along what is today's Allston Way. During the days when the land was part of the vast Rancho San Antonio, a ford existed across Strawberry Creek beneath a clump of oak trees at approximately the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way. The road or trail which crossed here connected the ranch houses of two of the Peralta brothers, Domingo and Vicente.
Following the Mexican-American War, four Americans laid claim to four equal strips of land in what is now downtown Berkeley, bounded on the north by what is today the alignment of Addison Street, and on the south, by Dwight Way. Among these claimants was Francis K. Shattuck
. Shattuck's portion lay west of what is now Shattuck Avenue. He built a house here at the site of what is today the Shattuck Hotel. The county road going to Oakland along his property was informally called "Shattuck's road", but the planners of the College of California
dubbed the street "Guyot" on their plat map. That name never caught on and the street name was upgraded to "Shattuck Avenue". In the 1890s, Strawberry Creek was culvert
ed through the downtown section, the oak trees were removed, and Shattuck and University Avenues were improved. Nonetheless, the area developed slowly until about the time of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
, after which it developed rapidly.
The Central Pacific
constructed its Berkeley Branch Railroad
line connecting the area to the Oakland Pier and the transcontinental rail line
in 1876, two years before the people living near the University of California
and in Ocean View incorporated Berkeley. The end of the line at University Avenue was initially called the "Terminus" until the line was extended north, after which time it was called Berkeley Station
. In the early years, downtown Berkeley was synonymous with "Berkeley Station", referring to the area around the railroad depot. The railroad served both passengers and freight at Berkeley Station. A telegraph office and Wells Fargo
office were situated across the street from the depot.
The Key System
opened up its electric train service to San Francisco from Downtown Berkeley in 1903. The Southern Pacific responded by electrifying and extending its lines in Berkeley in 1911 (East Bay Electric Lines
) and moved its downtown freight operations just south of downtown to Ward Street and Shattuck. In 1941, however, SP ended its electric commuter train service. From then until April 1958, downtown Berkeley's commuter train service was solely in the hands of the Key System. Buses replaced the trains from 1958 to the present. In 1973, BART opened its own Berkeley station at Center Street and Shattuck, once again providing electric train service to San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area.
For several years after the Key System's F train stopped running on Shattuck, its tracks (originally, the old SP tracks) remained in the pavement of Shattuck Avenue. Parking islands were created along the centerline of Shattuck overlapping the northbound tracks. In the early 1960s, a series of fountains were constructed which replaced some of these parking islands, extending from Center to Haste. The fountains quickly became the favorite targets of vandals who regularly put bubble bath in them. They were soon removed, just before Shattuck Avenue was torn up for the BART subway construction.
In early 2007 the Marine Recruiting Center for the northern Bay Area relocated from Alameda
to downtown Berkeley in order to be closer to the University of California, Berkeley
. This move was met with protests from Code Pink
, prompted the city council to pass a resolution calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders", and led to United States Senator Jim DeMint
attempting to pass legislation that would strip Berkeley of its $2,392,000 in federal funding.
Berkeley's downtown section has been the principal commercial center of Berkeley since the railroad station was built. However, it has had to compete with the secondary commercial sections which emerged starting as early as the 19th century. Three of these in the past were West Berkeley
(Ocean View), North Berkeley (Berryman's) and the Telegraph
area immediately south of the University of California campus. Others which came a bit later were the Elmwood
area along College near Ashby, San Pablo Avenue, South Berkeley
(formerly the Lorin District
) and Thousand Oaks
along Solano Avenue
.
Starting in the 1970s it also had to compete with the emergence of major shopping centers and malls outside of Berkeley, especially El Cerrito Plaza
, Hilltop Mall
, and Emeryville
. These resulted in the loss of several formerly prominent downtown businesses, including two large department stores; Hink's, whose building was converted to a movie theater and several smaller stores, and J. C. Penney
. Contributing factors which continue to date are high commercial rents, a shortage of street parking and convenient garages, and higher consumer prices than those offered elsewhere. The latter has been a problem since the earliest days as there has always been a tendency to view the University population as a captive consumer base. The city has created an official arts district
along Addison Street and passed laws restricting business hours in other neighborhoods in an attempt to increase night time activity downtown. To address the parking situation, the city is planning to install a system of digital signs to direct drivers to available parking spaces downtown.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20071018/ai_n21065758
Today, Berkeley's downtown is highly eclectic, with numerous small businesses. Currently, the Berkeley City Council passed a new downtown area plan in an attempt to make the Downtown more sustainable and concentrate future development in the downtown area in conjunction with the announced plan of the University to build a hotel, conference center, and museum along Center Street. In 2009 local petition gatherers gained enough signatures to obstruct implementation of the plan, angering many residents of Berkeley, including the coalition of the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance, Berkeley Food & Housing Project
and TransForm. The opponents argue that the new development calls for buildings that are too tall and have housing that is too expensive. Supporters of the downtown plan counter that the plan requires 20% affordable housing units and a denser downtown reduces carbon emissions.
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
of the city of Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street. Downtown is the mass transit hub of Berkeley, with several AC Transit
AC Transit
AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...
and UC Berkeley
Bear Transit
Bear Transit is the bus service operated by the Department of Parking and Transportation of the University of California, Berkeley. Its fleet includes a combination of shuttle vans and passenger buses , with all of its passenger buses formerly owned by AC Transit. In the early 2000s the passenger...
bus lines converging on the city's busiest BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
station, as well as the location of Berkeley's civic center
Civic center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building...
, high school
Berkeley High School (California)
Berkeley High School is the only public high school in Berkeley, California. It is located one long block west of Shattuck Avenue and three short blocks south of University Avenue in Downtown Berkeley, and is recognized as a Berkeley landmark...
, and Berkeley City College
Berkeley City College
Berkeley City College , formerly Vista Community College, one of the California Community Colleges, is part of the Peralta Community College District. It is centrally located in downtown Berkeley, two blocks west of the UC Berkeley campus...
.
History
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
indigenous people. Artifacts were found in the 1950s during the digging of a basement on Kittredge Street. The site was probably associated with the proximity of Strawberry Creek
Strawberry Creek
Strawberry Creek is the principal watercourse running through the city of Berkeley, California. Two forks rise in the Berkeley Hills of the California Coast Ranges, and form a confluence at the campus of the University of California, Berkeley...
which ran along what is today's Allston Way. During the days when the land was part of the vast Rancho San Antonio, a ford existed across Strawberry Creek beneath a clump of oak trees at approximately the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way. The road or trail which crossed here connected the ranch houses of two of the Peralta brothers, Domingo and Vicente.
Following the Mexican-American War, four Americans laid claim to four equal strips of land in what is now downtown Berkeley, bounded on the north by what is today the alignment of Addison Street, and on the south, by Dwight Way. Among these claimants was Francis K. Shattuck
Francis K. Shattuck
Francis Kittredge Shattuck was the most prominent civic leader in the early history of Berkeley, California, and played an important role in the creation and government of Alameda County as well. He also served as the fifth mayor of the city of Oakland in 1859, and represented the 4th District in...
. Shattuck's portion lay west of what is now Shattuck Avenue. He built a house here at the site of what is today the Shattuck Hotel. The county road going to Oakland along his property was informally called "Shattuck's road", but the planners of the College of California
College of California
The College of California was the predecessor of the University of California system of public universities. The private college was founded in 1855 by noted educator Dr. Samuel H. Willey...
dubbed the street "Guyot" on their plat map. That name never caught on and the street name was upgraded to "Shattuck Avenue". In the 1890s, Strawberry Creek was culvert
Culvert
A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...
ed through the downtown section, the oak trees were removed, and Shattuck and University Avenues were improved. Nonetheless, the area developed slowly until about the time of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, after which it developed rapidly.
The Central Pacific
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
constructed its Berkeley Branch Railroad
Berkeley Branch Railroad
The Berkeley Branch Railroad was a long branch line of the Central Pacific Railroad from a junction in what later became Emeryville called "Shellmound" to what soon became downtown Berkeley, adjacent to the new University of California campus. The line opened on August 16, 1876. The initial...
line connecting the area to the Oakland Pier and the transcontinental rail line
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
in 1876, two years before the people living near the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
and in Ocean View incorporated Berkeley. The end of the line at University Avenue was initially called the "Terminus" until the line was extended north, after which time it was called Berkeley Station
Berkeley Station
Berkeley Station was the name of the principal railroad station in Berkeley, California from 1878 to 1911. It was located in what is now downtown Berkeley, on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Center Street. The tract is today occupied by Shattuck Square and Berkeley Square...
. In the early years, downtown Berkeley was synonymous with "Berkeley Station", referring to the area around the railroad depot. The railroad served both passengers and freight at Berkeley Station. A telegraph office and Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
office were situated across the street from the depot.
The Key System
Key System
The Key System was a privately owned company which provided mass transit in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Richmond, Albany and El Cerrito in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area from 1903 until 1960, when the system was sold to a newly formed public...
opened up its electric train service to San Francisco from Downtown Berkeley in 1903. The Southern Pacific responded by electrifying and extending its lines in Berkeley in 1911 (East Bay Electric Lines
East Bay Electric Lines
The East Bay Electric Lines were a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad which operated a system of electric interurban-type trains in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
) and moved its downtown freight operations just south of downtown to Ward Street and Shattuck. In 1941, however, SP ended its electric commuter train service. From then until April 1958, downtown Berkeley's commuter train service was solely in the hands of the Key System. Buses replaced the trains from 1958 to the present. In 1973, BART opened its own Berkeley station at Center Street and Shattuck, once again providing electric train service to San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area.
For several years after the Key System's F train stopped running on Shattuck, its tracks (originally, the old SP tracks) remained in the pavement of Shattuck Avenue. Parking islands were created along the centerline of Shattuck overlapping the northbound tracks. In the early 1960s, a series of fountains were constructed which replaced some of these parking islands, extending from Center to Haste. The fountains quickly became the favorite targets of vandals who regularly put bubble bath in them. They were soon removed, just before Shattuck Avenue was torn up for the BART subway construction.
In early 2007 the Marine Recruiting Center for the northern Bay Area relocated from Alameda
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
to downtown Berkeley in order to be closer to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. This move was met with protests from Code Pink
Code Pink
Code Pink: Women for Peace is an anti-war group that is mainly composed of women. It has regional offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and many more chapters in the U.S. as well as several in other countries...
, prompted the city council to pass a resolution calling the Marines "uninvited and unwelcome intruders", and led to United States Senator Jim DeMint
Jim DeMint
James Warren "Jim" DeMint is the junior U.S. Senator from South Carolina, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party and a leader in the Tea Party movement. He previously served as the U.S. Representative for from 1999 to 2005.-Early life and education:DeMint was born in...
attempting to pass legislation that would strip Berkeley of its $2,392,000 in federal funding.
Commercial issues
West Berkeley, Berkeley, California
West Berkeley is generally the area of Berkeley, California which lies west of San Pablo Avenue, abutting San Francisco Bay. It includes the area which was once the unincorporated town of Ocean View, as well as the filled-in areas along the shoreline west of I-80 including, mainly, the Berkeley...
(Ocean View), North Berkeley (Berryman's) and the Telegraph
Telegraph Avenue
Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, USA, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California campus in Berkeley, California...
area immediately south of the University of California campus. Others which came a bit later were the Elmwood
Elmwood, Berkeley, California
The Elmwood District is a neighborhood of the City of Berkeley, California. It is primarily residential, with a small commercial area. The district does not have set lines of demarcation, but is focused around College and Ashby Avenues...
area along College near Ashby, San Pablo Avenue, South Berkeley
South Berkeley, Berkeley, California
South Berkeley is a neighborhood in the city of Berkeley, California. It extends roughly from Dwight Way to the city’s border with Oakland, between Telegraph Avenue in the east and either Sacramento Street or San Pablo Avenue in the west...
(formerly the Lorin District
Lorin District
The Lorin district is a neighborhood located in the southern part of Berkeley, California, bounded by Ashby Avenue, Adeline Street, Martin Luther King Jr...
) and Thousand Oaks
Thousand Oaks, Berkeley, California
Thousand Oaks is a neighborhood of Berkeley in Alameda County, California. Located at the base of the Berkeley Hills, it lies at an elevation of 239 feet .The principal shopping area is Solano Avenue, along the southern edge of the neighborhood...
along Solano Avenue
Solano Avenue
Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany, California is a two mile long east-west street. Solano Avenue is one of the larger shopping districts in the Berkeley area...
.
Starting in the 1970s it also had to compete with the emergence of major shopping centers and malls outside of Berkeley, especially El Cerrito Plaza
El Cerrito Plaza (Shopping Center)
El Cerrito Plaza is a shopping center in El Cerrito, California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area.-Location:El Cerrito Plaza is located on the southern border of El Cerrito between San Pablo Avenue and the BART rail tracks...
, Hilltop Mall
Hilltop Mall
Hilltop Mall is a mall in the Hilltop neighborhood of Richmond, California. Hilltop is managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group, and is anchored by longtime tenants JC Penney, Macy's, Sears, and lastly Wal-Mart, a 2007 addition. -History:...
, and Emeryville
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
. These resulted in the loss of several formerly prominent downtown businesses, including two large department stores; Hink's, whose building was converted to a movie theater and several smaller stores, and J. C. Penney
J. C. Penney
-External links:*...
. Contributing factors which continue to date are high commercial rents, a shortage of street parking and convenient garages, and higher consumer prices than those offered elsewhere. The latter has been a problem since the earliest days as there has always been a tendency to view the University population as a captive consumer base. The city has created an official arts district
Arts district
An arts district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, dance clubs, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and public squares for performances. Such an area is usually...
along Addison Street and passed laws restricting business hours in other neighborhoods in an attempt to increase night time activity downtown. To address the parking situation, the city is planning to install a system of digital signs to direct drivers to available parking spaces downtown.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20071018/ai_n21065758
Today, Berkeley's downtown is highly eclectic, with numerous small businesses. Currently, the Berkeley City Council passed a new downtown area plan in an attempt to make the Downtown more sustainable and concentrate future development in the downtown area in conjunction with the announced plan of the University to build a hotel, conference center, and museum along Center Street. In 2009 local petition gatherers gained enough signatures to obstruct implementation of the plan, angering many residents of Berkeley, including the coalition of the Sierra Club, the Greenbelt Alliance, Berkeley Food & Housing Project
Berkeley Food and Housing Project
Berkeley Food and Housing Project is a nonprofit organization serving homeless men, women, and children in Berkeley, California.The agency manages four sites: North County Women's Center, Men's Overnight Shelter, Russell Street Residence, and the Multi-Service Center...
and TransForm. The opponents argue that the new development calls for buildings that are too tall and have housing that is too expensive. Supporters of the downtown plan counter that the plan requires 20% affordable housing units and a denser downtown reduces carbon emissions.
External links
- Downtown Berkeley in 1888 Photo by Oscar V. LangeOscar V. LangeOscar Victor Lange was a leading photographer and occasional landscape painter in the San Francisco Bay Area of California during the late 19th century. His work is typically credited as "O.V. Lange"....
. - Designated Landmarks in Downtown Berkeley (Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association)
- Downtown Berkeley Association
- Downtown Area Plan