Stories About Berkeley

I've been lucky to grow up in a special place. When I tell people from other parts of the country that my friends are mostly the same friends I had in high school, I think they get the impression that we're rubes. The thing about Berkeley is that it is a small town, but it's not the kind people never leave. It's the kind people come back to. Almost everyone I grew up with left at some point and almost all of them came back. Berkeley isn't perfect. We have crime and class wars, it's also one of the few university towns where the townies have as many PhDs as the faculty. Below are posts that are particularly connected to my home town.

Your Dad is a Gosh Darn Hero: There was a fire in our yard and my kids got to see me as a man of action.

Mixed Gender Sleepovers: Cause for Scandal or Celebration of Diversity: Written for City Dads Group, my kid was the only boy at a co-ed sleepover and it was a low key scandal.

Home Sweet Home Field: My love for the worst stadium in pro sports. OK, technically this is about Oakland, but the A's belong to the East Bay, so I'm counting it.

It's OK to Love a Sports Writer: My love letter to Susan Slusser of the Chronicle and the time I was the face of A's Access.

Parenting Transgender Child More than ‘Just a Phase’: Written for City Dads Group, I'm from Berkeley. Having a kid come out as transgender shouldn't have been so hard for me.

Get Involved: Toddler Story Time at Children's Fairyland: OK, another one that is technically about Oakland, but Fairyland is for all of us.

Furqan’s First Flat Top Picture Book Is Inspiring, Bilingual And Father-Approved: Written for Latino Dad, my interview with Bay Area artist and writer Robert Liu Trujillo.

The Stories We Tell about Ourselves: The school chose our family's story for a mural project about how we came to live in Berkeley. The thing is, everyone who knows the story died and I'm not totally sure my version is accurate.

Hardcore Parkour!: We took a beginners parkour class at UCB. It was awesome.

BLM Needs to be More than a Slogan: I cringe a little at this one because I don't know if it strikes a tone that comes across the way I mean it. But it's true. Too many of our neighbors believe in BLM as an idea rather than as a call to action.

Being a Good Landlord Almost Bankrupted Me: Knowing the Berkeley rental market was tough for families, I spent eight years charging below market rent. My reward was losing almost my entire life savings when I decided to move home.

Little Boys and Nail Polish: Why I'm Moving Back to Berkeley: For little boys who like nail polish, there's no place like home.

Your Mom is So Berkeley: In 2010 I made a joke to a co-worker and in the blink of an eye, I was on Berkeleyside and then the NYT.

1568 Part 1  - Part 2 - Part 3: I don't write a lot of fiction, but I did write this about the house I grew up in when I was very young.