"Berkeley appears more pleasant than Oakland, though further away." In the grand scheme of things, it's not that much farther. We're talking 2-3 short BART sto

"Berkeley appears more pleasant than Oakland, though further away." In the grand scheme of things, it's not that much farther. We're talking 2-3 short BART stops. The bigger issue with Berkeley is real estate. Oakland was zoned industrially, it's got a lot of cheap space, and it can bear the load of big company HQs and apt/condo conversions. I'm not sure Berkeley can absorb scale as easily, at least as it's currently laid out.