Central Berkeley

"I live almost on the corner of Bancroft and Roosevelt, and have lived in central Berkeley for two straight decades now. It's a great neighborhood - I see there's supposed to be a bit higher crime not far from here, but in all these years I've seen only one crime - a mugging wherein a Berkeley high graduate about 19 years old, tried to steal an earbud for a cell phone from a high school girl. He didn't get the earbud and the police caught him and a couple others with the minimum of fuss. That's it, although I've heard of a couple other small crimes more toward university. To live here is to feel very safe, and really be in walking distance to UC, and all kinds of shops, restaurants and so on. The little tot parks are real nice, especially the one on Roosevelt, and walking is very enjoyable due to all the lovely landscaping done in this area around private homes. Neighbors are great. I love living here except for having to get a parking permit - which is cheap and easy to do really."