Where's your Buzzerkeley?

January 28, 2015 11:42 AM

Is there a Berkeley Ca near you?

Listening to Car Talk last weekend a caller described her city (Madison, Wisconsin) as the "Berkeley" (California) of her state. To me, that implies a young, cosmopolitan, counter culture friendly town. That got me thinking. I like Berkeley. I'd like to visit your "Berkeley". Is there a "Berkeley" near you? Where is your "Berkeley"?

posted by Mr.Me to Society & Culture (40 answers total)

In most states I would think this is going to be a college town. That's true for Madison. In North Carolina, Chapel Hill would work, and in Missouri it would be Columbia. Both of those are home to huge universities.
posted by something something at 11:47 AM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

In the DC area, it would have to be Takoma Park, MD, a nuclear-free zone.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:48 AM on January 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

Virginia's might be Williamsburg, Charlottesville, or parts of Richmond. New York has Ithaca. Michigan has Ann Arbor. Like something something said, pick the state's most prestigious college town and you can't go far off.
posted by fifthrider at 11:50 AM on January 28, 2015

Missoula, MT is often called the Berkeley of Montana. That's where I went to college.
posted by Crystalinne at 11:50 AM on January 28, 2015

Have you visited Boulder, Colorado?
posted by janey47 at 11:51 AM on January 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh yeah, and don't forget Austin, Texas.
posted by fifthrider at 11:52 AM on January 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Decatur, GA. I lived in Albany (adjacent to Berkeley) and I get that vibe from Decatur.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:53 AM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Both Cambridge and Somerville, MA. But not Boston proper.
posted by kinetic at 11:53 AM on January 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

The "college town" definitely applies in Indiana, where the nearest thing would be Bloomington, home of Indiana University. (But not West Lafayette, despite it being home to the other large state university.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:53 AM on January 28, 2015

something something: "In North Carolina, Chapel Hill would work"

I'd say Carrboro is a bit more counter-culture than Chapel Hill, but yeah that area in general.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:55 AM on January 28, 2015

I always heard it as Berserk-ly, as in the People's Republic of Berserk-ly.

Boulder, CO definitely is while nearby Fort Collins, CO is not. Tough to pinpoint exactly the definition but a college town with many old hippies/counterculture would be a start.
posted by z11s at 12:16 PM on January 28, 2015

It's usually whatever town people jokingly call "the people's republic of [town name]". A few I can think of:

Austin, TX
Ann Arbor, MI
Madison, WI
Urbana, IL
Boulder, CO
posted by MsMolly at 12:17 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

something something: "In North Carolina, Chapel Hill would work"

I'd say Carrboro is a bit more counter-culture than Chapel Hill, but yeah that area in general.

I would suggest Asheville, NC.
posted by Falwless at 12:20 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I live in Seattle. Our Berkeley is Portland.
posted by Tevin at 12:23 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Inner Portland, OR
Salt Spring Island, B.C.
posted by nanook at 12:26 PM on January 28, 2015

Ashland, OR
posted by nanook at 12:27 PM on January 28, 2015

fayetteville, arkansas follows the college town thing - as does denton, texas.
posted by nadawi at 12:32 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ithaca, NY
Northampton, MA
posted by Betelgeuse at 12:41 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Iowa City, IA
posted by scalespace at 12:44 PM on January 28, 2015

You may also be interested in this previous question about the Somervilles of North America.
posted by acridrabbit at 12:45 PM on January 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Not just any college town. College Station, TX and Lubbock, TX are definitely college towns, but no one would call any place but Austin "the Berkeley of Texas." You want college towns where large universities with liberal outlooks dominate. The classics (as mentioned above) are Ann Arbor, Madison, Boulder, Austin, Urbana, Bloomington and Chapel Hill.
posted by ubiquity at 12:47 PM on January 28, 2015 [6 favorites]

denton, texas has the reputation of little austin, which is a similar thing.
posted by nadawi at 12:51 PM on January 28, 2015

Lawrence, KS.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 1:02 PM on January 28, 2015

Lawrence, Kansas is the town that the rest of Kansas likes to blame for its ills. It's the closest thing we have to a Berkeley/Austin vibe.
posted by Flexagon at 1:03 PM on January 28, 2015

Arcata, CA
posted by porn in the woods at 1:22 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Santa Monica is (or was, back in the days of Rent Control) also known as a Peoples Republic.

Back in the day, Greenwich Village was definitely the Berkeley of Manhattan.

Virginia's might be Williamsburg, Charlottesville, or parts of Richmond.

C-Ville the only real match in the Old Dominion, I think. Seconding Asheville for NC.

And in Denmark, Christiania.
posted by Rash at 1:24 PM on January 28, 2015

Amherst, MA.
posted by oceano at 1:30 PM on January 28, 2015

Yellow Springs, OH.
posted by ChuraChura at 1:36 PM on January 28, 2015

I am from Berkeley, so let's ruin through this:

Takoma Park: Can't be Berkeley because it doesn't have a university as its major employer. It does have a college, but it's Seventh Day Adventist.

Christiana: Is a neighborhood. At best, it's a hippy Tenderloin.

Ashland, Or.: Went to college there. Way too small to ever be confused for a real college town. Way too into provincial matters to ever be more than a place for muddling leaders to try out their ideas then leave.

Portland being Seattle's Berkeley: Have you been to Bellingham?

Austin, Tx: A republican town with absentee landlords, the opposite of Berkeley, actually.
posted by parmanparman at 1:44 PM on January 28, 2015

Tucson is Arizona's Berkeley and Bisbee is our teeny-tiny San Francisco.*

*Not really, just a joke because Bisbee is really hilly. And full of weirdos.
posted by Squeak Attack at 1:59 PM on January 28, 2015

The city of Philadelphia as a whole is not Berkeley-like, but the stretch of West Philadelphia bounded roughly by 40th street, Market Street, 52nd street, and the Media-Elwyn regional rail tracks is.

(Note: some people will try to tell you that "West Philly" as a whole had the Berkeley vibe. Not true. West Philly is a big geographic area, and the smallish gentrified patch outlined above isn't necessarily representative.)
posted by ActionPopulated at 2:33 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Arcata, CA

No question, Arcata is definitely the Berkeley of California.
posted by foodgeek at 2:43 PM on January 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

Santa Monica is (or was, back in the days of Rent Control) also known as a Peoples Republic.

Santa Monica is in no way its former self. We lived there for four years, and it comes off as a rich, spotlessly clean city north of the 10, serviced by a motley, disheveled borough of poors south of the 10. Never the twain shall meet. For what it's worth, though, Pico is probably the Berkeley of Santa Monica.

fayetteville, arkansas follows the college town thing

Fayetteville may be a college town--and one in a massively growing region of the state--but it's pretty damned conservative relative to other spots. My bet's on the very tiny, very eccentric Eureka Springs. When I was growing up in the 90s and 90s, Eureka Springs had rainbow flags and openly gay businesses/business owners, not to mention a lot of weed and artists and moonshine stills and naked hippes playing flute and dancing on the bluffs. Its history as a gambling playground for bootleggers and mobsters during prohibition has left it with huge, creepy, 'haunted' grand hotels you can stay in for a steal, all nestled in a steep Ozark canyon. My partner and I went back for a visit last summer and it was so much ridiculous fun for such a tiny place... I was happy to see my memories of it held up.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:10 PM on January 28, 2015

I'd say a combination of Fayetteville and Eureka Springs for Arkansas. I don't know if late afternoon dreaming hotel has been to Fayetteville in the last few years, but it's changed a lot. Of course it's conservative compared to Berkeley, but not compared to the surrounding areas.
posted by wintersweet at 8:38 PM on January 28, 2015

eureka springs is great, but yeah, fayetteville has changed a lot since the 90s.
posted by nadawi at 8:56 PM on January 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Brighton (but not Hove, actually).
posted by Jabberwocky at 11:30 PM on January 28, 2015

Bloomington, Indiana.
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 1:36 AM on January 29, 2015

Pretty much all of British Columbia is the Berkeley of Canada, but especially East Vancouver, all of the Gulf Islands but especially Saltspring and Hornby islands, and Nelson in the Interior.
posted by kaspen at 11:30 AM on January 29, 2015

I'd definitely say Carrboro or Asheville for North Carolina

Charlottesville VA ,or the surrounding Albemarle County since VA's counties are unincorporated and there are some proper hippies outside the city itself.

Somerville, MA for the Boston metro area

And for Alabama, Southside in Birmingham.
posted by cmchap at 12:29 PM on January 29, 2015

Santa Monica is in no way its former self. We lived there for four years, and it comes off as a rich, spotlessly clean city north of the 10, serviced by a motley, disheveled borough of poors south of the 10. Never the twain shall meet. For what it's worth, though, Pico is probably the Berkeley of Santa Monica.

Yeah, "spotlessly clean" makes me think you really lived in Brentwood or the Palisades. Humans shitting on the sidewalk is something I seen more than once in SM (north of the 10, even).
posted by sideshow at 1:27 PM on February 6, 2015