Fountain Walk, Live Oak

The Circle is one of the coolest spots in Berkeley. It is a European style traffic circle right at the spot where all the streets in this northern part of town take a 45 degree turn to the Northwest. The major artery that marks this geographical shift, Marin avenue comes right down out of the Berkeley hills in a southwesterly direction right into the Circle and then turns just past the Circle in a westerly direction. A handful of other streets feed off of this knot in the Berkeley map and head out from it like the spokes of a wheel.

Just to complicate matters even further, the Circle is on an elevated mound. Below it, heading in a northerly direction is another major Berkeley artery, Solano avenue. It passes in a tunnel beneath the Circle and then turns and heads in a north westerly direction towards Albany.

At the center of the Circle is a trickling fountain and donut of green grass both of which are very tempting in the summer though I’ve only seen someone succumb to it once in years of passing it.