Southside / South Campus
The neighborhoods of South Campus are very dense; there are lots of apartment buildings and multi-unit residential units here. The centerpiece of the neighborhood is clearly Telegraph Avenue, a legendary Berkeley Avenue. If you ask anyone about Berkeley, chances are they know something about Telegraph Avenue. These neighborhoods cater to student housing, and probably have the majority of apartment and multi-unit buildings, as well as some very large rooming houses.
There are also some of the prettiest vintage duplexes and triplexes in this neighborhood. (For a list of historic landmarks in the City of Berkeley, please go to www.berkeleyheritage.com or try the City of Berkeley website.
Southside has its share of cheap eats, great coffee shops, and the iconic organic grocery market. Whole Foods. At the intersection of Oregon and Shattuck Avenue, don’t miss the Berkeley Bowl. If you like to cook, and need special ingredients, this is the place. The Berkeley Bowl prides itself on offering the freshest fruits, vegetables, fish and meat. It’s fun to try a new breed of apple, grape or squash. Southside also has a fabulous bakery, Crixa. The ginger cakes as well as the coconut cakes from Crixa are really something special.
This neighborhood is not far from the Berkeley BART station. Here is an interesting bit of trivia about BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit): why did it take so many years to complete BART in the Berkeley area? Well, besides the problems of imminent domain, the City of Berkeley absolutely demanded that all BART tracks be undergrounded. In spite of protests from other cities around this issue, the City of Berkeley was successful in this demand. You don’t see many above ground BART tracks in Berkeley, but you do see BART tracks in Oakland, San Francisco, El Cerrito and Albany.
