This past weekend, we returned from a five day four night stay in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the first time we had been back since we moved from Sunnyvale to Scottsdale fifteen years ago. Some things were very different, but much was the same.
We lived in Sunnyvale near Mountain View, two cities I like very much. Castro Street in Mountain View has a lot of different businesses than it had when we left, but the atmosphere is still one of the artsy and trendy life. Parking, however, has become an order of magnitude worse. Sunnyvale was radically different. The mall that was walking distance from our home was gone, and in its place were large buildings housing major tech companies. Silicon Valley. Also, Onizuka Air Force Base, where I once worked flying satellites for the Air Force was gone, along with most of the parabolic antennae that once lined the street. An entire tech company business park stands in its place, though Lockheed still does have a presence. I don’t recall seeing the skunk works, though I wasn’t really looking for it. We did wander into a restricted area but I just told the guard I needed to turn around.
One South Bay problem seems to have been solved. When we left, red light running was a serious problem. I didn’t see anyone running red lights, possibly due to the signs posted at every intersection warning of a fine of nearly $600. I imagine when those went up, a serious enforcement effort went along with them, because the population seems to have been retrained.
The road rage problems aren’t, though. We witnessed a bit of that near the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco seems much the same, though the bridge tolls have gone up a lot, and the traffic is far worse than when we left. Having driven in both LA and San Francisco in the past year, I have to say San Francisco is far more perilous. So much for reputation, LA.
Candlestick Park is partly razed. A lot of memories in that place, but times change and it seems they are building condos or the like at Candlestick Point.
It was a good trip, albeit a little busy with a lot of driving. Some things I missed, like the proximity of our old residence to the Sunnyvale library, the tech nexus that is Silicon Valley, Mountain View’s Castro Street, and the racial diversity that is situation normal all the time. Other things I did not miss, like expensive gasoline and heavy traffic all the time.
