Nice one! Definitely resonated, and not just for the post-college on the peninsula flashbacks (btw: you didn’t relate your sojourn in the closet at the CS house!). One thing I can remember along the same theme is that Palo Alto underwent a regrettable transformation analogous to the tech-and-greed-induced downfall of SF; just one boom earlier. PA visibly earned its moniker “Shallo Alto” right around the end of the first boom and bust in the late 90s/early aughts. It’s not like PA wasn’t already full of wealthy techs and their VC backers for years, but somehow they weren’t as in-your-face before the dotcom era. Right before the Web2.0 years (when I moved back east), I recall University Ave became degraded in the same way you recount in your novel—independent businesses that had lined the avenue and its side street for decades were priced out—Chimaera Books, Liddicoat’s food hall, even Jing Jing, which sadly called it quits this year—all the places that I felt embodied PA’s mid-century charm and distinct personality. Now it’s populated like any other thoroughfare with outlets that cater almost entirely to a well-off customer base. In other words, gold-plated but sterile AF; and if the town vibe can still be characterized as a ‘personality’, then it’s not a person I’d want to share a beer and chat with. If I were a starving student on the Farm (does that breed even exist any more?), I would not feel welcome there today, perhaps mostly because I couldn’t afford to do anything interesting other than nurse an overpriced cup of joe, but also because its establishments hold about the same amount of human interest as any shopping mall. Sic transit …
Amen to all. And yeah, too many losses of institutions down that way to catch. (The Oasis and the Peninsula Creamery being top of list for me.) Also sorry to have ditched plans for a paragraph on the "Closet vs Shed" debate -- fiercely waged, never resolved -- over the (de)merits of the two cheapest rooms in the "Big Happy Home" of (mostly) CS characters in Menlo Park, which no doubt became yet another zillion-dollar tear-down. I'm trying desperately to restrain myself and control my logorrhea in this column: no small task when nostalgia and wistfulness converge.
Peninsula Creamery was still open last time I checked. 😋
BEST news I've heard this week -- thrilled to have been wrong!
Nice one! Definitely resonated, and not just for the post-college on the peninsula flashbacks (btw: you didn’t relate your sojourn in the closet at the CS house!). One thing I can remember along the same theme is that Palo Alto underwent a regrettable transformation analogous to the tech-and-greed-induced downfall of SF; just one boom earlier. PA visibly earned its moniker “Shallo Alto” right around the end of the first boom and bust in the late 90s/early aughts. It’s not like PA wasn’t already full of wealthy techs and their VC backers for years, but somehow they weren’t as in-your-face before the dotcom era. Right before the Web2.0 years (when I moved back east), I recall University Ave became degraded in the same way you recount in your novel—independent businesses that had lined the avenue and its side street for decades were priced out—Chimaera Books, Liddicoat’s food hall, even Jing Jing, which sadly called it quits this year—all the places that I felt embodied PA’s mid-century charm and distinct personality. Now it’s populated like any other thoroughfare with outlets that cater almost entirely to a well-off customer base. In other words, gold-plated but sterile AF; and if the town vibe can still be characterized as a ‘personality’, then it’s not a person I’d want to share a beer and chat with. If I were a starving student on the Farm (does that breed even exist any more?), I would not feel welcome there today, perhaps mostly because I couldn’t afford to do anything interesting other than nurse an overpriced cup of joe, but also because its establishments hold about the same amount of human interest as any shopping mall. Sic transit …
Amen to all. And yeah, too many losses of institutions down that way to catch. (The Oasis and the Peninsula Creamery being top of list for me.) Also sorry to have ditched plans for a paragraph on the "Closet vs Shed" debate -- fiercely waged, never resolved -- over the (de)merits of the two cheapest rooms in the "Big Happy Home" of (mostly) CS characters in Menlo Park, which no doubt became yet another zillion-dollar tear-down. I'm trying desperately to restrain myself and control my logorrhea in this column: no small task when nostalgia and wistfulness converge.