I completely liked bumping into this story - I can't wait for your next blog post!

You're making great progress with the sales pitch, David! SL is sounding bettah and bettah!

Yeah, comparatively speaking though I-580 is a breeze. Which is another reason I don't live, nor want to live without easy access to 580. 880 is consistently bad too, but not as bad as 80. 80 is bad even on weekends. If I feel like driving to Berkeley, I always just take 580 to MLK, then surface streets.

Plus SL is also convenient to the Peninsula and South Bay (it's still rough, but of course nothing like trying to get there from Berkeley).

Ok, SL sales pitch off:)...Nice houses available in the 400's :)...

Oh, of course, as soon as I posted the above I found an article. It's from 2006, a bit old, but reports on a study by the Texas Transportation Institute in which Oakland and San Francisco tie for the position of Number Two worst traffic in the U.S.

So, maybe it's a national phenomenon, eh? I hadn't even thought of that, David!

Yeah, that I-80 is a mess for sure. I just poked around on Google because I remember hearing that the maze where traffic from Richmond and Berkeley goes west to the Oakland-Bay Bridge is one of the worst traffic nightmares in the country. Can't seem to find anything, but I'll keep looking.

buses are getting crowded too, like bart. but it's a nice break from the screeching tunnels.

the lesson from living in Chicago is that the highest priced residences are SFRs with easy transit access. Don't see why it'd be different here. That's why people need to explore San Leandro--the bart time to downtown is the same as downtown Berkeley (but you have parking at bart here!) and there's a transbay bus too that doesn't suffer through the I-80 mess.

Nice to see from you, Ira! I used to live near Solano and San Pablo in Albany, and had the bestest commute ... rolled outta bed and walked two blocks to the Albany movie theater, the one with the giant stylized artichoke heart in the tile outside it? and waited for the G bus. All hail AC Transit!

(P.S. and there's an electric car dealership in Berkeley, Green Motors, when the day comes to buy your electric car. Good on you for the solar panels!)

Hi Janis!

Timely article!

At our initial buyer meeting, we probe a bit further.. and ask "do you need to be near BART, or do you need access to San Francisco?"

There are only 3 BART stations in Berkeley... but several different AC Transit Bus lines which go to BART... or directly into San Francisco!

We put the AC Transit Bus map on the conference room's flat screen monitor.. and that opens up lots more neighborhoods for consideration.

One of our clients who wanted to be near BART was delighted to learn she could buy a home in our North Berkeley Thousand Oaks neighborhood and be only a block from the bus which takes her directly to SF... about two blocks from her job.... it's faster, easier, and sunnier than BART.

Ira Serkes

PS
Two years ago we installed a PhotoVoltaic System and now generate most of the electricity we use at home. The next step on reducing gas usage ... to get an electric car one day!