BERKELEY RENTALS OUT OF SIGHT … Recent studies show that Berkeley ranked among the most expensive college towns to live in due to the high rent prices. These numbers indicate how costly higher education can be, with three-bedroom living spaces going for an average of $6,9001

**Berkeley student ghetto in the 60’s .. i lived in the front hut and think Gary Snyder lived next door.**

“Rent for a two-bedroom apartment runs about $4,000 monthly “and that’s for one that isn’t even nice.” That about says it all. How are you going to attract the odd-ball, dirt-bag, seat-of-the-pants versifier, musician, malcontent, dreamer or protestor that Cal (Go Bears) so desperately needs.

Oyama-si

yikes! my rent for the studio up Panoramic Way, with the view from The City to Mt. Tam and beyond

was $105 per month….low enough to support my life style at the “other end of the social spectrum”

It was the best of times

it was the worst of times

But Camp 4 and trips deep into the Sierra kept me sane….sort of,

Edgar Boyles

“Seat-of-the-pants versifier.” Definitely not an economics major. Why, for example, doesn’t inflation just chug along at the same pace as the rise in the cost of living? Why is my comfy, garage-top, one-bedroom which ran me somewhere around $90/mo. now so far out of reach for a public university student?

Peter Shelton

Site of the Free Speech Movement Protests and Bloody Thursday

Berkeley activists holding a free speech sign at UC Berkeley — Img: Watcher of Weasels

Events in Berkeley during the 1960s set off what we now call the Free Speech Movement, but a 1969 clash between President Ronald Reagan and Berkeley activists is considered to be the pinnacle of the Vietnam War protest. Leading up to the clash, President Reagan had called Berkeley a breeding grounds for “sexual deviants, communist sympathizers, and protesters,” so he ordered California Highway Patrol and Berkeley Police officers to fence off People’s Park, an abandoned lot that anti-war protesters had turned into a volunteers grounds.

When those in Berkeley saw People’s Park blocked off, a riot broke out, with protesters chanting, “We want the park!” The riot turned violent when more than 800 police and National Guard officers began shooting tear gas canisters in the backs of protestors, beating people with nightsticks, and shooting (both pellets and bullets) into the crowd. All in all, 58 people were treated for injuries, 30 were hit by gunshots, and 12 were admitted to hospitals. The People’s Park Riots became known as Bloody Thursday.