<p>I don’t know if my two cents really matter since the topic seems to have been (somewhat) resolved, but here is an interesting link regarding the “cleaning up” of Berkeley:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/14/BAGI5QEUDL1.DTL&feed=rss.news[/url]”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/14/BAGI5QEUDL1.DTL&feed=rss.news</a></p>
<p>Frankly, I have never had trouble with safety. The diverse community actually helped me learn to understand and deal with a lot of situations I was sheltered from in an affluent, white, suburban community. Your son is probably very smart if he got into Cal, and common sense will guide him away from troublesome situations. Plus, my friends and I have developed the amazing “20 minute rule” that stems from this quite strange town. Every 20 minutes that you are outside in Berkeley, you are bound to experience or see something that you have never encountered before. Pretty entertaining. </p>
<p>I was in the CKC myself, and it is definitely the dorm situation to envy if you have no problem dragging yourself out of bed to walk the 20 minutes to class. </p>
<p>Don’t worry, your son will be ok and most likely he’s going to flourish from the situation.</p>