A college town that was filled with ordinary college commotion is largely silent day and night. The streets of Berkeley, California near campus are empty for more than a year now. University Avenue, a major road leading to campus is quiet day and night, it used to be filled with cars, music and daily activity. Half of restaurants and most retail have closed in the last two years; parties are hidden due to covid-19. What has replaced it in the downtown and flatlands are super-scary predatory criminal loners, hard core drug-addicted mentally ill and some of the most expensive housing in the United States. Landlords feasted on the rental income derived from "market forces" of thousands of 20-somethings working for FAANG and bio-tech. The homes in the hills are overflowing with paper income, and the covid-19 rates are among the lowest in the western US due to a combination of factors.
It is a stunning turn of events, worthy of Heinlein. The behemoth schools that are UC Berkeley continues to bring in nine-figure money with off-shore students paying high tuition, looking for their chance to strike it rich in the high tech scene, while those of ordinary means are economically crushed.
It is a stunning turn of events, worthy of Heinlein. The behemoth schools that are UC Berkeley continues to bring in nine-figure money with off-shore students paying high tuition, looking for their chance to strike it rich in the high tech scene, while those of ordinary means are economically crushed.