North of Gilman, Berkeley

North of Gilman is the industrial area that stretches out to the North Berkeley shoreline just to the north of the Marina and to the south of University Village. On its western end by the Shoreline Freeway, North of Gilman is much as it has been for over a century, filled with worn down warehouses, public storage and recycling centers. On its northern end, the graffiti strewn buildings of local companies like the Minuteman Press give way to fenced soccer fields and volleyball courts that form a border to nicely cared for University Village to the north. The narrow streets inland to San Pablo are packed with squat industrial offices of such Berkeley companies as Translink Corporation (famous for it Fast Pass, as commuters know).

Some businesses take advantage of the relatively low rents of the area to create spaces like Studio Grow, an area devoted to giving toddlers a creative, fun, learning area in the tradition of Habitot in downtown. Berkeley Krav Maga, a martial arts studio, is here as well.

This area is also famous for 924 Gilman, the famous Punk hangout where Green Day got its start back in the day. The area still stand and still has its anti-establishment feel, even though alcohol and drugs are forbidden. It is still run by local punks and you will still find a varied group of local postmodern punk bands frequenting it, along with more body piercing than your average tattoo parlor will do in a year.

San Pablo Blvd. at this stretch is a tree-lined street with auto-repair shops, a Church’s Chicken, and a MacDonald’s. Overall, not the most inviting of areas, but a fish market does bring some people from the greater area in as does Kiwi Pediatrics and Sabuy Sabuy II, a family friendly Thai food place with pleasant decor and solid entrees.

The area is relatively safe, despite its run down look, mostly because people mostly do their business here and move on. There is not a lot of vagrants here, nor too many restaurants or other attractions to give opportunities for property crime. There have been three murders in the past five years for this zip code but they have been located south of Gilman.

Overall this is not a high traffic neighborhood and it is zoned as an industrial/commercial area so there are no homes here.