Our city is #1 best place to live in USA

Evening twilight over Berkeley, California (Alfred Georg Sonsalla/Getty Images)

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Beloved city has neighborhoods and Cal (UC)

What is the healthiest city in the U.S. to live in? Niche.com did its annual analysis, and a California destination came out on top.

Berkeley, California, was named the healthiest city in the USA by niche.com. The Northern California Alameda County city (just across the bay from overpriced San Francisco) enjoys an average of 256 sunny days each year and a mild Mediterranean climate, allowing residents to spend ample time outdoors.

• The strangest thing about attending UC Berkeley is that no one here calls it "Berkeley." Everyone refers to it as "Cal" (or Cal Berkeley) because "Berkeley" (so often misspelled as Berkley) refers to the city, which is also sometimes called the "Republic of Berserkley" and F everywhere else because this is the best place to go to college, the greatest public university in the world since Nalanda and Timbuktu closed, rivaling the great private universities of the nation. (Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal likely exists because Berkeley exists and, strange and counterintuitive as it may seem to outsiders, half-baked L.A. is more spiritual than Berkeley or S.F. probably because it needs to be, with so many people desperately searching for meaning in the throat chakra of the planet (thanks in large part to Hollywood film, music, radio, and TV industries). That surprised us, thinking we were going to the Shangri-La of the state where everyone would be spiritual, where the Sixties would still be alive, where San Francisco was just a BART ride away to visit Golden Gate Park and join a love in, be in, or free concert, slipping over to Haight Ashbury, but it's always so cold, and Berkeley mostly empties out for the summer when the tourists come and classes are not in session. There is KPFA.org (the founding Pacifica station even older than KPFK.org in LA, where Alan Watts got his start and where he lives on, respectively). There are so many protests on campus and in Berkeley that there is a nationwide media blackout about it. One rarely hears about all that is going on there, and every week something IS going on there. It's a nearly daily occurrence the mainstream media keeps quiet, ignores, and suppresses so that the radicalism doesn't spread as quickly to other campuses across the nation. It is the most progressive of the big schools.
• Vintage 1980’s Berkeley “Berzerkley” SF artist artwork - Etsy
• College Confidential Forums - Admissions Discussions

• In this famous scene (and song) Ben, "The Graduate" (played by a young Dustin Hoffman), is driving his red convertible to Berkeley, which is funny because he's headed the wrong direction, but that never stopped Hollywood (who needed to show him with the top down, which wouldn't look as good on the lower level that runs toward Berkeley. He's from Los Angeles and going to UC Berkeley in Berkeley to see about a girl, Elaine, which is odd because she's the daughter of Mrs. Robinson, the older married woman he's been having an affair with all summer. Had it not been for a roommate at Cal, I would never have known to see such an important film all about the wonders of legendary California.

Each year, Niche.com reveals the healthiest places in the nation, based on "a comprehensive assessment of the general health levels among residents in an area." The company considers key indicators of personal health, including smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, rates of obesity, and people's access and proximity to health care facilities, including gyms, doctors, and mental health practitioners.

And this year, Niche.com named Berkeley, California, the healthiest city in the U.S. The Alameda County city is less than half an hour from San Francisco [depending on traffic on the Bay Bridge, it would only take 15 minutes to go between the two] and boasts 256 sunny days per year [but is nearly always cooler than one would think, just like San Francisco is chilly and foggy] and a mild Mediterranean climate.

Residents don't have to travel far to enjoy time in nature and stay active. Why? — Berkeley has over 50 parks with sports facilities, trails, and playgrounds. [There's a secret swimming lake behind the campus, up the mountain on Grizzly Trail.] Additionally, places like Muir Woods National Monument, Yosemite National Park, and Pinnacles National Park offer even more options for outdoor recreation.

In fact, the city was named the No. 1 Healthiest Place to Live in America and the No. 1 Healthiest City, really driving home the point that this is indeed a healthy place.

Berkeley also snagged an A+ rating for its schools, A+ for nightlife, and an A+ for outdoor activities, which surely helps to keep its population in tip-top shape.

The only categories it falls short in are housing, where it scored a C-, crime and safety, which also nabbed it a C-, and the cost of living, where it scored a low D+. And these grades are well reflected in the local reviews. More

• MSN.com, June 7, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly