A picture speaks a thousand words, as the old saying goes. This is a picture of the slow decline under leftist rule, where lawlessness abounds, government spending with false promises soars, and lies about help and comfort for the needy prevail over common sense.
I just dropped my son off at @UCBerkeley housing and as we were approaching we saw this behind his apartments. Shame on @CityofBerkeley @CityofAlbanyCA @UCBerkeleyNews pic.twitter.com/sxyhkez5l4
— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) August 19, 2026
Adena Ishii is the mayor of Berkeley, and her bio on the city website says that “she values ensuring that every voice is heard, questioning the status quo, and advocating for justice and equity.” This Democrat “lives in beautiful South Berkeley, with her family and three dogs,” and we can all bet that her home isn’t anywhere near the squalor captured the X post.
As for California as a whole, despite the illusion (courtesy of Hollywood), it has one of the highest poverty rates in America. Expect nothing to improve under Democrat Gavin Newsom and although the “California exodus” has become a common reference, leftists just keep getting voted in.
Namer says
That picture looks like large parts of DC while Biden was president.
Taffy says
Don’t parents these days go to the college with their kids BEFORE applying?
The video of the homeless encampments in Berkeley show that the Democratic community needs to work a little harder to get to the point where they equal the slums of West Point in Monrovia, Liberia. Wait until cholera and other diseases become a problem and spread to the student body of Berkeley. The homeless population already has a major problem with leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted by the urine of rats living among them. It has already sickened many and has killed at least one. Dogs are particularly susceptible, and infection usually results in death from acute kidney failure.
Please note that Mayor Ishii is not entirely to blame for this problem. When Berkeley officials tried to remove homeless encampments, lawyers representing the homeless sued The City of Berkeley in federal court and obtained an injunction in April 2026 against displacing the homeless. Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee and Berkeley graduate himself, reasoned that removing the homeless violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mayor Ishii is now being criticized for appealing Chen’s injunction.
https://wraphome.org/2026/04/06/for-immediate-release-federal-judge-issues-major-order-against-city-berkeley-to-stop-practices-that-endanger-unhoused-residents/
U. Cal. at Berkley is a radical liberal university that deserves such surroundings. The slums of the physical surroundings match perfectly with the academic indoctrination slums within the University itself. Let’s go Democrats!!!
John Pepple says
Thanks for the info.
Jon Sobieski says
Sounds like Berkely got exactly what it voted for.
David Rasch says
If the california comrade political leaders’ goal is to destroy American society in preparation for the advent for a workers’ paradise like China or Cuba or north korea, then they are on track. CYNICISM.
Westman says
California has been loved to death, overpopulated by fortune and beauty seekers who miss or missed its golden era, its “gold” now banked in tax havens by the tech and retail consolidators, its population diluted with illegal migrants, its manufacturing sent overseas, its government a retirement community, its school system a dysfunctional indoctrination factory where university students are entering years-deficit in reading, math, and science.
Agriculture is a main industry of California. How many of those Berkeley graduates will the farmers want?
Some parts are incredibly beautiful but only afforded as a visitor or squatting in a tent. Just average in the very early 1960s, Santa Cruz is now the most expensive city in the United States. Imagine yourself in an A-frame in the forest around Tahoe. Nice fantasy. Like, totally radical…
Being already heavily socialist and failing, can CA government actually fix this or is it just a cycle like those of the Gold Rush?
Kelly says
Agriculture stopped being the main industry in CA by the late 1990s. Most of the dairy and chicken industry went to neighboring states due to excessive regulations. Tourism, tech industry and government via federal contracts are the three largest industries in CA.
Dave says
Well, that’s socialist/communist Berkley for you.
Notice where it says the Mayor lives. This is how it is under socialism/communism. The rulers live very nicely, in luxury and the common person lives in a far, far less desirable location.
David Rasch says
AGREE! There ain’t a poor socialist-democrat running for office. They remind me of that paragon of truth joey obiden…..
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I am hoping that Steve Hilton prevails this November. Actually, I was hoping that both Hilton and Chad Bianco had won, so that Leftists in California would finally realize how bad the idea of open primaries are, but unfortunately, Beccera squeaked in. Also, I hope that if Hilton wins, that there is enough of a GOP wave to give him working legislative majorities
Berkeley has always been a dump. Too bad that the University that gave use Berkeley Unix also gave us the weed smoking generations of the 60s and beyond
Mark G says
As a BSD user myself it’s interesting to see the complete philosophical change in California. Going from the best idea winning to group bullying to anyone who doesn’t agree is pretty sad. You can’t even question leftist ideas in California without being ostracized.
Ralph says
I left a good job in Washington, DC to move to Los Angeles in 1971. I worked hard, lived cheap and invested any spare money in California real estate, retiring in 1984 at age 47. I took a low-level health services job from 1986 to 2015 and retired again at age 78. I had truly loved California for its beauty and climate but by 2018 I became so disgusted with the rampant spread of rampant socialism in government that I fled to Texas and never looked back.
Well, I do look back, sometimes, with sadness and bitterness for what socialism has done to that once exciting and lovely state. California reliably has been reported to pay 32% of all US entitlements in a state that has 12% of the USA population. Governed by the likes of Newsom and Bass, California is done for.
tgusa says
Democrats have expanded their love of abortion in to all aspects of modern society. Anything and everything that functions well in modern society, abort it. That is their plan and they are sticking to it.
gravenimage says
Woman dropping son off to at UC-Berkeley shocked by squalor, posts embarrassing video
……………………………………………………….
This is my alma mater. When I was a student there–in the late 1970s and early 1980s–“People’s Park” was pretty scungy, but most of the rest of the city and especialy the campus was just lovely. Thing have greatly deteriorated since then…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
You’re talking about the Reagan years, when that state used to be a safe Republican state. Ever since Bill Clinton flipped it, it has been a disaster
A few more like California and Colorado and we’d lose this country. Hopefully, more TDS affected people leave this country for wherever
gravenimage says
When I was first at Berkeley it was the end of the Carter years, Infidel.
Mad Mac says
Frequent application of a propane torch weed burner
would go a long way toward eliminating these eye sores.