ondich@stolaf.UUCP (06/22/83)
I will be starting grad school at UC Berkeley this fall. I am currently hunting for housing for the first semester. The problem is that I live in Minnesota, and the Berkeley Housing Office will help only if I show up in person. I know no one in the Bay area who could house-hunt for me, I can't afford to make a trip out before August, and the math department is not willing, or not in a position to help. Thus, my request: Do any of you in Berkeley know of a friendly, boarder-seeking landlord, a few people who will be short of a roommate come August, or any other clues that might lead me to a place to live? I am particularly interested in names, addresses, and phone-numbers--anything that would help me to find housing without travelling to Berkeley in July. I am not panicking yet, but I think that the time for that is approaching quickly. Please mail any help to me as soon as possible. Thanks, Jeff Ondich ihnp4!stolaf!ondich
rh@mit-eddi.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (06/24/83)
There was a notice looking for housing on net.singles also. I was wondering if maybe a net.nhousing (new housing) would be in order for people who are relocating. The only problem I could forsee is that it may not be read by a very large number of people. Well, what do we think? --Randy rh@mit-eddie
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (06/25/83)
If you ever log in at Berkeley and read msgs, you'll find that nearly half the messages are of the form "I need a place to live". Every once in a while you see "house to sublet for summer costing $1000/month". I don't know if these people get any replies, but I know people with apartments to rent don't have any trouble finding tenents. The vacancy rate in Berkeley is always under 1%. If you are looking for housing for next fall at UCB, I urge you to go out there NOW and find some. September will be too late, and you'll wind up scrambling with large numbers of other people. The housing office keeps listings, but you have to show up in person and present proof you're a student or will be to look at them. The listings from any given morning are often all gone by noon. If you happen to be married, apply in April for married student housing. It's a good deal (or was before they started raising the rents to subsidize the new single student dorms) but has a long waiting list. If you apply now I don't know if you'll get to the front of the list by fall. As to a newsgroup, there is already a ucb.housing, but this doesn't help new people trying to get out there. I doubt the rest of the net would be as interested, since other campuses aren't nearly as hard to find housing. Of course, if I'm wrong and there is interest, great. I wonder if some impoverished student at Berkeley wants to make a few bucks and do some local legwork for people who can't go out there? Mark Horton
hal@cornell.UUCP (06/25/83)
Why on earth should we create a new newsgroup every time somebody writes
a message on a new topic? If it turns out that there are a lot of housing
wanted messages and they persist for a long time, then by all means, let's
create a new newsgroup. But the attitude that we need a new newsgroup
before we can discuss a new topic is counterproductive. I think it is
one of the reasons that there are so many low-traffic newsgroups. Somebody
says we need a "net.rec.clams" newsgroup to discuss sea shells or beaches,
there's three dozen messages in net.news or wherever debating whether this
is a good idea, the group is finally created and a few messages appear.
And then it just dies away.
I think a much better way to proceed would be to direct messages on a
new topic to the most appropriate group (perhaps net.misc). If the traffic
on a new topic continues at a significent level for a reasonable amount of
time, then consider shuffling it off into a new newsgroup. But let's stop
this nonsense of proposing a new newsgroup every time somebody thinks of a
new topic.
Hal Perkins uucp: {decvax|vax135|...}!cornell!hal
Cornell Computer Science arpa: hal@cornell
bitnet: hal@crnlcsrlh@mit-eddi.UUCP (Roger L. Hale) (06/27/83)
Altogether too many people had to read the first message. Any local subnets that care can set up <local>.[whatever].
govern@houxf.UUCP (06/28/83)
When I went to Berkeley, I went out in August to find a place. The basic impression I got was that the quality/price of housing available doesn't change much from June - August, but you have to look farther away as time slips. I ended up paying $25 to Homefinders (cost depends on your price range), and getting a decent apartment that was only advertised through them. At least in Berkeley, they seem to provide good service; here in NJ they're mostly a ripoff. If you're interested in sharing a room, there is some sort of roommate-finding service around; I've forgotten its name.