The neighborhood

The neighborhood I live in is quite nice. Berkeley in itself is a very low crime rate area (by US standards), but it does have a few rough spots. So far I've been recommended to not walk in certain areas, to not run on the trails around campus at night, to not get off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport, the subway) at certain stations, and to avoid Oakland entirely (Oakland is the city just south of Berkeley, and is told to have substantial drug problems). I'm not sure how reliable these rumors are, but so far I've not seen much reason to do any of these things anyway. The areas I most likely will move in, campus, downtown, and North Berkeley (where I now reside) are very nice though. The neighborhood is filled with all styles of one or two-story houses with lush green gardens and tree trunks hanging over the walkways. Here is the house I'm sharing and a neighboring house's walkway, which are representative for the area. With the bay fog hovering it's easy to forget, but Berkeley has a Mediterranean climate.