CITY OF BERKELEY by Amazon Stones

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering Contra Costa County), which generally follows the ridge line of the Berkeley Hills. Berkeley is located in northern Alameda County.

Berkeley is the site of the University of California, Berkeley, the oldest of the University of California system, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is also home to the Graduate Theological Union. The city is noted as one of the most politically liberal in the nation, with one study placing it as the third most liberal city in the United States.

Points of interest

• The Campanile (Sather Tower) in the University of California, Berkeley campus.
• Telegraph Avenue and People's Park, both known as centers of the counterculture of the 1960s.
• Chez Panisse - founded in 1971 and the birthplace of California cuisine.
• Cody's Books - founded in 1956 and closed in 2008, Cody's was "a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from teargas for student activists during the Free Speech Movement and throughout the 1960s and 70s."
• The Freight and Salvage - founded in 1968, this is a nonprofit musical performance venue that primarily hosts folk music and world music acts
• The Cheese Board - founded in 1967/71, this business comprises two collectively owned and operated businesses.
  
• Whole Earth Access - founded in 1969 and closed in 1998, this was initially established as a countercultural retail store inspired by Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog.
• The Claremont Resort - founded in 1906, this historic site was originally the Claremont Hotel. (The Claremont claims a Berkeley mailing address even though the property is located almost entirely with the Oakland city limits.)
• 924 Gilman - founded in 1986,this is an all-ages, non-profit, collectively organized music club where Berkeley natives Operation Ivy, Pansy Division, Green Day, Rancid, Tiger Army and AFI started out.
• Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center - founded in 1973 in response to "the San Francisco Bay Area's strong interest in international folk dance." It is also a city-designated historical landmark.
• Moe's Books - Founded in 1959 by Moe Moskowitz, one of the first second-hand bookstores to assign real value to paperback books. Moe died in 1997 and remains a Berkeley icon.
• The Other Change of Hobbit - A Science Fiction and Fantasy bookstore first opened in 1977.
• Caffe Mediterraneum - Birthplace of the caffe latte in 1959 - invented by owner Lino Meiorin. Allen Ginsberg wrote part of Howl at "Caffe Med".

Annual events

• Jewish Music Festival website – March
• Cal Day University of California, Berkeley Open House website – April
• Berkeley Arts Festival website – April and May
• Himalayan Fair website – May
• Berkeley Kite Festival website – late July weekend
• How Berkeley Can You Be!? Parade and Festival website – September
• Solano Stroll – September