The 1914 Sather Tower, known as the Campanile, has views of the campus and the bay. The open-air Hearst Greek Theatre stages major concerts. Clustered on and near Telegraph Avenue, south of the university, are cafes, shops and music stores. With a population of 121,643 people and 35 constituent neighborhoods, Berkeley is the 52nd largest community in California. Much of the housing stock in Berkeley was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

People in Berkeley primarily live in small (one, two or no bedroom) single-family detached homes. Berkeley has a mixture of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing, although it is predominantly rentals because of the large university population. The housing in Berkeley was primarily built before 1939 ( 49.25%), making the housing stock in Berkeley some of the oldest overall in America, although there is a range of ages of homes in Berkeley. The next most important housing age is between 1940-1969 ( 27.56%), followed by between 1970-1999 ( 17.11%). There's also some housing in Berkeley built between 2000 and later ( 6.08%).