berkeleyside.org

Berkeleyside is a local news source for Berkeley, California, covering breaking news, public safety, politics, food, real estate and development, education, and events. If you are looking for Berkeley-specific reporting — from City Council elections to restaurant closures to crime and court outcomes — this is the type of coverage the site publishes. It is not a national or general-interest news outlet; its focus is the city of Berkeley and nearby Alameda County topics.

Core coverage areas

Based on the site's own description and its homepage, Berkeleyside's reporting falls into these categories:

• Breaking news and public safety — crime, courts, and emergency incidents. Homepage examples include the sentencing of a Berkeley animal shelter arsonist and a West Berkeley hit-and-run that injured two pedestrians.
• Politics and elections — candidate profiles, ballot measures, and voting guides. The site ran a 2026 election guide for Berkeley and Alameda County, a list of who's running for City Council and school board, and coverage of seven November ballot measures.
• Food and restaurants — openings, closures, and the economics of dining. Examples include Seniore's Pizza shutting its Berkeley branch, Eli's Mile High Club starting a closure countdown, and a story on rising restaurant prices told through a signature dish.
• Real estate and development — land use and major projects. Coverage includes a land trust eyeing a private ranch next to Tilden park and early planning for a waterfront park at Golden Gate Fields.
• Education — Berkeley school board races and school-related issues appear within election and local coverage.
• Events and community — roundups such as Indigenous Peoples Day PowWow, pumpkin patches, haunted hikes, and local history talks.

How the coverage is organized

The homepage mixes hard news with features and recurring items:

What this means for you

• If you live in or follow Berkeley, Berkeleyside is structured to be a single source for city-level news across crime, politics, food, housing, and events.
• If you need national or international news, this is not the right source — its scope is local.
• If you are researching a specific Berkeley topic, the election section and the "latest news" feed are the most direct entry points, since stories are dated and bylined.

One practical note: some homepage items are marked "Sponsored," so check the label if you want original reporting rather than advertiser content.

Yes. Berkeleyside publishes election and voting information for Berkeley and Alameda County, including a voter guide, candidate profiles, and coverage of local ballot measures. The homepage evidence shows an "Election 2026" section with a guide for voters in Berkeley and Alameda County, plus articles on who is running for Berkeley City Council and school board, the seven ballot measures Berkeley voters will decide on in November, and the six candidates vying for five seats on Berkeley's rent board.

What election coverage is available

Based on the homepage, Berkeleyside's election content falls into a few recurring categories:

• Voter guides — a guide for voters in Berkeley and Alameda County, described as covering "how to vote," candidate positions on the issues, and in-depth coverage of ballot measures.
• Candidate profiles — coverage of who is running for Berkeley City Council, school board, and other offices, plus a separate piece on the six candidates competing for five seats on Berkeley's rent board.
• Ballot measures — an article explaining the seven ballot measures Berkeley voters will decide on in November.
• Election news — ongoing reporting tied to the 2026 election cycle.

How to use it

If you want to know how to vote, who is on your ballot, or what a specific measure would do, start with the Election 2026 voter guide, then use the candidate and ballot-measure articles for detail on individual races. The rent board and City Council candidate pieces are useful if you want to compare people running for the same body.

What to keep in mind

The evidence here is the homepage as captured, so it reflects the 2026 election cycle and the specific races and measures listed at that time. Coverage of candidates, measures, and guides will change as elections approach and pass. For the most current information, check the site's election section directly rather than relying on this snapshot.

Berkeleyside is a local news site covering Berkeley, California, from breaking news and public safety to politics, food, real estate, development, and education. It is useful if you want Berkeley-specific reporting rather than regional or national coverage — for example, following a City Council race, a restaurant closure, or a hit-and-run investigation in your neighborhood.

What it covers

The homepage organizes coverage into a few recurring areas:

• Breaking news and public safety — for example, a sentencing in the Berkeley animal shelter arson case, or a West Berkeley hit-and-run that injured two pedestrians.
• Politics and elections — candidate guides for City Council, school board, and the rent board, plus coverage of local ballot measures.
• Food and business — restaurant openings and closings, such as Seniore's Pizza shuttering its Berkeley branch.
• Real estate and development — land-use stories like a private ranch near Tilden Park eyed for purchase by a land trust.
• Community and culture — street style features, event roundups, and local history.

How it is structured

Berkeleyside mixes original reporting with clearly labeled sponsored content. On the homepage, items such as a StopWaste piece on "best by" and "sell by" date labels carry a "Sponsored" tag, while staff-reported stories list a byline and timestamp. Election coverage is grouped into a dedicated guide section.

The site also runs recurring formats worth knowing about:

When it is the right source

Use Berkeleyside when your question is specifically about Berkeley — city government, local schools, neighborhood development, or the restaurant scene. For broader Bay Area or California coverage, you would typically pair it with regional outlets; Berkeleyside's value is depth on one city rather than breadth.

If you are new to Berkeley, moving there, or trying to follow a local issue, its election guides and topic feeds are the most direct starting points.

Berkeleyside is a Berkeley, California local news site whose homepage works as a single stream of reporting rather than a set of separate channels. If you want to know what the site covers and how to find it, the homepage itself is the map: it mixes breaking news, politics, food and business, real estate and development, education, public safety, and community events, with bylines and dates attached to every item. The sections below describe what you'll actually see and how to read it.

What the homepage puts in front of you

The page leads with a small number of prominent stories, then flows into a running list. In the evidence captured, the top items were:

• A public safety story: "Berkeley animal shelter arsonist sentenced to 16 months in prison," with a note that the Berkeley Animal Care Services facility has resumed most normal services.
• A regional legal story: "Federal judge rejects the Oakland Diocese's bankruptcy plan," tied to more than 300 sexual abuse claims.

Below that, a latest NEWS block carries the bulk of the day's reporting. Items there included restaurant and nightlife closures (Seniore's Pizza's Berkeley branch, Eli's Mile High Club), a rent board candidate guide, a street style feature, a staff obituary item on Bill Harris, a food-tracking personal piece set in Oakland Chinatown, a West Berkeley hit-and-run, and a KQED-contributed story on Golden Gate Fields becoming a waterfront park.

Two structural details are worth noticing:

• Sponsored content sits inside the same stream. A StopWaste-sponsored piece on "best by" and "sell by" dates appears alongside staff reporting, labeled as sponsored. Read the label before treating an item as newsroom reporting.
• Every item carries a byline and a date, often with a separate update timestamp. That's how you tell a fresh story from a revised one.

Election coverage is grouped, not scattered

Election material gets its own labeled block rather than being left to the news stream. The homepage showed a 2026 Election section with a voter guide for Berkeley and Alameda County, a candidate roundup for City Council and school board, and a piece on the seven ballot measures Berkeley voters will decide in November. If you're looking for who's running or what's on the ballot, start there rather than scrolling the news list.

Editors' picks and recurring features

A separate Editors' picks area highlights longer or more distinctive work — in the captured page, a piece on Berkeley's $3 billion AI mining company, a land trust eyeing a private ranch next to Tilden Park, a restaurant-price story built around Cafe Colucci's signature platter, and a list of famous Berkeley people.

There's also an events column, "Around Berkeley," which bundles things like an Indigenous Peoples Day PowWow, a pumpkin patch, haunted hikes, a talk on West Berkeley from 1900 to 1950, a class on building Berkeley paths, and a craft faire.

How to navigate it in practice

1. Start at the homepage for the day's mix; the lead stories tell you what the newsroom considers most important right now.
2. Scan the latest NEWS list for topic coverage — food, public safety, housing, education, and local politics all appear there.
3. Jump to the Election block during campaign season for guides and candidate information.
4. Check the sponsored label on any item before citing or sharing it as reporting.
5. Use the byline and date to judge freshness, especially on developing stories like the animal shelter case.

What this means for you

If you want breaking Berkeley news and public safety, the top of the homepage and the news list are where to look. If you want to vote informed, the election section is the shortcut. If you want feature writing and local culture, editors' picks and the events column serve that. The site doesn't separate these into distinct verticals on the homepage — it presents them as one continuous local report, so the labels (latest NEWS, Election, Editors' picks, Sponsored) are your main navigation cues.