Southside, Berkeley, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Telegraph Avenue during a street fair.
Telegraph Avenue during a street fair.

Southside, also known by the older names South of Campus or South Campus, is a neighborhood in Berkeley, California. Southside is located directly south of and adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley campus. Because of the large student presence in the neighborhood, proximity to Sproul Plaza, and history of the area, Southside is the neighborhood most closely associated with the university.

Contents

[edit] History

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Southside began in the 1860s as real estate development by the private College of California, the predecessor to the university. The trustees of the college hoped to raise money for their new campus by selling plots of land adjacent to the campus. The trustees initially hired Frederick Law Olmsted to plan the new town, but eventually decided to go for a more traditional grid layout. Except for a small area around Piedmont Avenue designed by Olmsted, the streets were laid out in a 1/8 by 1/8 mile grid, and named alphabetically for prominent academics.[1]

The neighborhood didn't begin to grow until after 1873, when the university moved to Berkeley from Downtown Oakland. The neighborhood was connected to Oakland by a horsecar (then streetcar) line along present-day Telegraph Avenue. It grew steadily over the next few decades, with a business district along the streetcar line, and farmhouses and mansions, then rooming-houses, apartments, hotels, churches, and new streets filling the large blocks. [2]

This 1978 view over the neighborhood shows Sproul Plaza and the Unit 3 dormitory complex.
This 1978 view over the neighborhood shows Sproul Plaza and the Unit 3 dormitory complex.

By the 1920s the area was a dense urban neighborhood extending as far north as Strawberry Creek. In the 1930s the university campus began expanding southward into the neighborhood, beginning with Edwards Stadium and Harmon Gym. In the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, the entire area north of Bancroft Way was acquired by the university and demolished for new campus buildings and Sproul Plaza. During this time the university also greatly expanded its student housing, taking several city blocks within Southside by eminent domain to construct high-rise dormitory "units". One of the blocks acquired and demolished during this wave of expansion became the centerpiece of a conflict with people who wanted it to become a neighborhood park. The protests and riots over People's Park became one of the symbolic events of the 1960s, and the park remains a source of controversy and conflict today.

[edit] Today

The Unit 2 dormitory complex. The building on the left was part of the original construction, the one on the right is a new addition.
The Unit 2 dormitory complex. The building on the left was part of the original construction, the one on the right is a new addition.

The boundaries of Southside extend roughly from Bancroft Way to the north to Dwight Way to the south, east of Fulton Street and west of Panoramic Hill. In the 2000 US Census, the neighborhood had a population density of approximately 30,000 people per square mile, making it the most densely populated neighborhood in Berkeley. The neighborhood had a median age of 21 years, lower than every other neighborhood in the area, reflecting the dominant student population. The intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue serves as the primary gateway to UC Berkeley, and Telegraph is a major pedestrian thoroughfare as well as a shopping area, with sidewalk vendors and stores catering mainly to students and out-of-town visitors. Durant Avenue east of Telegraph has many cheap restaurants, many of them Asian, earning it the nickname "the Asian Ghetto" among Berkeley students. Fraternities and sororities are clustered in the eastern end of the neighborhood around Piedmont Avenue, which has become known as "Frat row".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wollenberg, Charles. "Berkeley, A City in History"
  2. ^ Wollenberg, Charles. "Berkeley, A City in History"

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Berkeley, California
Neighborhoods
Education
Trunk roads and Highways
Public Transportation
People
 This Alameda County, California-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.