Archive for the ‘San Bruno’ Category

Patch a Match, Natch

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Patch.com Screen Grab with Missions
I first heard of Patch.com from Ryan Sebastian of Treatbot. A few months back we were chatting at a South FIRST Fridays event and he told me Treatbot had been interviewed by Adelaide Chen of Milpitas Patch, and that Mayra Flores de Marcotte was preparing to launch a new Campbell Patch. I knew Mayra’s handmade Kerfufle jewelry and her husband Josh’s Lost San Jose photography from exhibits at The Usuals. Treatbot…South FIRST Fridays…The Usuals…these are all luminous bodies in the AllCamino firmament, so let’s say Patch.com came to me well-recommended by these indirect El Camino connections.

I immediately checked it out and learned Patch.com is a slick, coordinated, AOL-owned network of hyperlocal news sites about communities across the country. Several are in California so I subscribed to all the Bay Area Patches for cities that lie on El Camino Real or have mission connections. I figured this would be an excellent way to catch news stories about the road. My current, growing list of Patches to follow is:

Back in November, as I was embarking on the the Shellmound Peace Walk through Milpitas, I contacted Adelaide in the spirit of networking and to my surprise got signed on as a freelance contributor. Since then she has given me the opportunity to write three articles for Patch—my first experience in journalism. It was a blast writing with a professional voice and (full disclosure) it was quite cool to be paid for those pieces.

Recently, however, she let me know that all Patches are adding a new feature: blogs. They are offering space for bloggers to write in their own voices about local topics they are passionate about. Patch bloggers don’t get paid, but they gain expanded exposure to a wider audience while retaining independence and ownership over the content. I knew right away this was a natural fit for me. Freedom!

I contacted the various Patch editors and so far the response has been quite positive. This is new for everyone so I’m still figuring out how it will work, but here’s the vision. AllCamino.com will continue to exist independently exactly as it does today; I’ll still do what I do. But if I write a post that might interest a particular Patch’s readers, I may cross-post to that Patch’s blog. Or I might write a standalone piece at Patch and just link to it here.

I’m taking baby steps now. I  just published my first Patch blog at Los Altos Patch. The editor there, L.A. Chung, was the first to activate my Patch blog and she’s been very supportive and helpful so to her go the spoils. Click the link to read it:

An El Camino Real Journey

By Bill Moore | May 10, 2011
El Camino Real is an important part of California history and Bay Area life. AllCamino.com is a blog that celebrates the past, present and future of The Royal Road.

It’s a fairly generic piece. My intention is to use it as an introduction on every Patch. See, I can do that. Freedom!

bell_scuDo you like my profile photo there? It took me many takes and half an hour to get it right. It’s a trick-shot self-portrait and all I had as a guide was the little mirror on the back of my cameraphone. It was a lot harder than I expected and I got some funny looks from drivers whizzing by on El Camino. Can you locate that bell?

I think this Patch relationship will be a lot of fun. The symbolism is irresistable. AllCamino is the virtual link among the various Patches, just as El Camino Real is the concrete link that joins the real cities. These Patches are stitched together by a common thread that together make up the fabric of Northern California. Um, too much? Sorry about that.

I love the breathless tone of press releases—they’re invariably so thrilled!—and I always wanted to write one, so here we go:

Today AllCamino.com is thrilled to announce a new partnership with Patch.com. Blogger Bill Moore says, “This is the dawn of a new era of Bay Area hyperlocal storytelling. AllCamino and Patch create unique synergy and an enhanced value proposition for our combined readership along the El Camino Real information superhighway.” Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and recent addition to the AOL family, remarks, “We are thrilled to roll out one of the most exciting offshoots of our turbo-charged web presence. This week we launch a great new chapter for Patch.com.”

That’s a real quote from Arianna, by the way, just not about me specifically. A real journalist wouldn’t take a quote out of context like that, but hey I’m a blogger. Freedom!

The City with Heart

Monday, February 14th, 2011

When you start a blog about a street, you end up spending a lot of quality time in Google Maps. I have literally covered every mile of El Camino Real with my mouse, paging up and down the state. It’s a form of virtual tourism, a poor man’s hot air balloon ride giving me a bird’s eye view of my favorite road, one I can’t easily get any other way. I was doing just that a while back, mousing up the Peninsula towards San Francisco, when I spotted something that gave me pause: a heart-shaped neighborhood in San Bruno. It’s no accident. The cross street piercing the top like an arrow is called Cupid Row.


View Larger Map

The neighboorhood is subtly laid out with a pleasing graphical design. The heart itself is made of two streets, Carlton Ave and Terrace Ave, joined in a perfectly symmetrical valentine, dimpled at the top and pointy at the bottom. Cupid Row intersects it through its axis, continued by Texas Pl on the other side. It’s encased in the larger loop  of Florida Ave and Georgia Ave, and the whole thing is cleverly mirrored  by Taylor and Chapman avenues. The heart itself is not duplicated though. Kensington Ave and Garden Ave approximate it but lack the dimple. They form more of a shield shape with Mastick Ave, which opens up many possibilities for poetic interpretation. All this is just a block off El Camino Real opposite the termination of Crystal Springs Rd.

San Bruno is proud of  its romantic little secret. I found this article from circa Valentine’s Day, 2004 giving its history.

[SF Gate]

As it turns out the neighborhood was laid out on land formerly occupied by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the longtime El Camino landmark rest stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach route. It’s not clear to me if the streets were created 100 years ago, or post World War II. The latter makes more sense. Perhaps the “Heart Area” was designed to attract newlywed returning G.I.s.

According to the article the Cupid Row tract inspired a motto for the city, “The City with Heart,” which implies a little dig at their Industrial neighbor to the north. El Camino has much to offer loving couples celebrating Valentine’s Day today—fine dining, flowers, candy, gifts, even secluded getaways. But San Bruno has really taken the holiday to heart, as they’ve taken it to the streets.

This post is dedicated to my own  true love. Happy Valentine’s Day, Paulette!

Sweet Memories

Monday, January 24th, 2011

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You should probably know something about me: I have a big sweet tooth. I love sugary treats like candy, ice cream, cookies, and cakes. It stands to reason then that I love sweet shops, especially the old-fashioned kind with displays of hand-dipped chocolates, bins of bulk gummies, shelves of packaged novelties, and a freezer full of rich flavored ice creams. Whenever I pass a place like this my sugar sense starts tingling. That’s exactly what happened when I first saw Sweet Memories Confectionery in Millbrae out the bus window on my transit trip down El Camino Real last year. I saw that big pink-and-white sign, my heart skipped a beat, and I knew I was going to be back.

It took a few months but I finally got my chance. On Saturday, December 11, 2010 Sweet Memories  celebrated their first anniversary. It was not a hard sell to convince my family to make the trip up to check it out. I had them at “ice cream.” As it so happened that was the same day of the Wreaths Across America ceremony at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, not at all far from Millbrae. We had two excellent reasons to head deep into San Mateo County, so off we went.

Sweet Confections put a flyer and coupon up on their Facebook page which I printed out. We drove up and easily found the spot at 1395 El Camino Real. I’m still learning the ropes of this blogging gig and one thing I always have trouble with is interviewing people at the places I visit. How do I introduce myself? What probing and insightful questions can I ask? How do I get these folks to take time from their busy day to answer my questions, especially the ones that fall short of being probing and insightful? All these anxieties were gripping my mind as I approached the woman behind the counter at Sweet Memories, but happily I needn’t have worried because the woman was Elsie.

CIMG0773Elsie is a delightful lady with a warm smile and chatty disposition. I think I got as far as saying, “hello,” then off she went, giving me a rundown on the anniversary celebration, the variety of treats available, and the history of the business. I told you it was their first anniversary, but as Elsie explained to me, that’s not the whole story. The sweet shop has been at that location for 78 years and is a Millbrae institution. It began as Shaw’s, then changed names to Sweet Charlotte, then Charlotte Confections, then West Coast Confections. In 2009 it changed owners and changed its name again to Sweet Memories, hence the one-year anniversary. This also explains the big “Shaws Plaza” sign out front, an immutable reference to the original business. Elsie herself has been there for fourteen years. As generous as she was with her information, bless her heart she was too shy to let me take her picture. The best visual I can offer you is this one. You get the idea. Pun fully intended, she’s a real sweetheart.

The earlier incarnations of the business used to make candy on premises but currently they do not, instead retailing premium treats from vendors local and away. Examples include Jelly Bellies from Fairfield, fudge from Z. Cioccolato in San Francisco, and gorgeous jewel-toned ribbon candy from Hammond’s in Denver.

CIMG0770The big draw of the anniversary celebration was $2 single-scoop sundaes. We each had one. Elsie served me mine with peppermint stick ice cream covered with hot fudge. And whipped cream. And a cherry. Heaven. Afterwards we lingered, tasting various fudges and picking out some holiday gifts for friends and family and (forgive us) a little something for ourselves.

Sweet Memories is a happy place, bright and shiny with tables laid out in front of big floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s a perfect spot for kids from Capuchino High School around the corner to congregate, or for generations of Millbraeners to bring their kids just like their parents brought them, or for anybody to just sit and destress and watch El Camino roll by. Sweet Memories offers free wi-fi too so it’s even great for bloggers. Especially bloggers with a sweet tooth.

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Wreaths Across America

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

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Remember. Honor. Teach. That is the mission of the annual Wreaths Across America event which just occurred on December 11, 2010. On that day over 100,000 fresh holiday wreaths were laid on the graves of American veterans from all branches of service at over 150 National and State cemeteries around the U.S. and overseas. A ceremony was held here in the Bay Area at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, between El Camino Real and I-280.

This event started in 1992. Morrill Worcester, a holiday wreathmaker in Maine, had a surplus so he brought 5,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and laid them on graves. The striking image captured national attention so the effort continued every year and grew. In 2009 the Wreaths Across America non-profit foundation was formed and now covers every military cemetery.

We weren’t able to attend the early morning ceremony but my family had occasion to be up that way later that afternoon so we stopped by the cemetery to view the wreaths. I’ve driven by it many times on I-280 and have always been humbled by the sight of the orderly rows of white tombstones as far as the eye can see. This was my first time inside.

We weren’t sure where to go so we drove around, taking it all in. At first we only saw a few wreaths scattered among graves. My guess is they were placed there deliberately by family members of the deceased. Finally we found the chapel. In the burial section adjacent every grave had a wreath. I expect that was the focal point of the ceremony. I parked and took several photos and reflected on the service and sacrifice of the men and women honored there. The festive scent of the freshly cut balsam wreaths added warmth to the stark white marble tombstones and the cold ground.

Ironically the wreaths covered up most of the info on the the tombstones. I could read names, but not service information or birth or death dates. That made it impossible to determine the context of the section. Were these all soldiers, or eligible family members? Were they killed in action, or did they die after completing their service? In the end I think it didn’t matter. Every person buried there was a distinct individual with his or her own unique existence, but the act of laying the holiday wreaths temporarily erased their differences, highlighting the sacrifices they all made which now unite them. The community came together to lay each wreath indiscriminately.  Children are often involved, providing a teaching opportunity. It was a day of grace on which we, the people, could remember and honor them, our armed forces. Mission accomplished.

El Camino Calendar

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

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A bit of the traditional and a bit of the unexpected this weekend. Don’t forget to check out the El Camino Calendars page for a list of venues all up and down El Camino Real which always have a variety of activities going on.


Santa-Go-Round

Sunday December 12th
CONTESTS! CRAWLS AND CRAZINESS!

Have fun and support a great cause. Santa-Go-Round is part toy drive, part costume contest, part pub crawl and all fun. Come to the Circle of Palms and bring a new, unwrapped toy to be donated to InnVision and participate in what is going to be one of the most talked about events in downtown San Jose since Zombie-O-Rama.

Come dressed as Santa and get discounts on Ice Skating and drink or dinner specials at one of 19 participating businesses.
Downtown San Jose
http://www.santagoround.com/


2nd Annual San Jose Short Film Festival

Opening Night Premiere and Screenings Coming December 2010

Buy tickets online at Camera 3 Cinemas or visit the Camera 3 Cinema Box Office.:

Thursday December 9th Opening Night:
$10 (tickets are limited: includes premiere screening, meet the movie makers forum after screening, pre-show mixer. 6:30pm mixer, 7:30pm screening

Saturday December 11th:
$8 tickets 1pm and 4pm screening times

Sunday December 12th:
$8 tickets 1pm and 4pm screening times

Camera 3 Downtown
288 S. Second Street | San Jose, CA 95113
http://www.sjshortfest.com/
http://www.cameracinemas.com/shortfilmfest.shtml


Deadstök X

Friday, December 10 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

The Usuals
1020 The Alameda
San Jose, CA

We are bringing-back all Deadstök designs made in 2010!

Expect to see new version t-shirt designs by dNA, Everyday Debauchery, Lost San Jose, Kori Thompson, Lacey Bryant, Michael Foley, Anabella Pinon, Force 129, Wadl, Jane Doe, and more!

Say good-bye to STREETBOT! Say HELLO to the WOW Silog Truck! YUMmmm…

Squareweezy and Cutso from The Bangerz will provide beats in the backroom where we’ll have more to nibble and sip.

Join us for our end of the year EXTRAVAGANZA!

Facebook event
http://www.shoptheusuals.com/


The Nutcracker

Santa Clara Ballet Company
37th Annual, Full-length, Traditional Version

Saturday, December 11, 2010—2:00pm & 7:00pm
Sunday, December 12, 2010—1:00pm & 5:00pm

The Santa Clara Convention Center Theatre
5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara
http://www.santaclaraballet.com/


Sweet Memories

Sweet Memories Confectionery
Is Celebrating Its First Anniversary and You’re Invited!

That’s right, we’ve been open a year now and want to celebrate this milestone with YOU.

When: Saturday, December 11, 2010 10am – 10pm
Where: Sweet Memories Confectionery
1395 El Camino Real, Millbrae
What: Anniversary Celebration!

  • Happy Hour All Day (single scoop sundae for just $2!)
  • Free Popcorn
  • Free Hot Tea & Spiced Cider
  • Great Holiday Gifts and Decor!

We hope to see you there!

http://www.sweetmemoriesconfectionery.com/
Facebook flyer


Wreaths across America

Golden Gate National Cemetery
1300 Sneath Lane
San Bruno, CA 94066

The ceremony for the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno is on December 11th. The ceremony begins at 8:45am. Plan to be there a bit earlier to find the exact location. As you enter the main entrance go to the left to find other vehicles near the ceremony area.
http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/Locations/California/30-Golden-Gate-National-Cemetery-San-Bruno/View-details.html


Wine & Dine

Vedas Indian Restaurant
Invites You to a Special Evening
Fri., Dec. 10
6:30-9:30pm

A Fabulous Night of the Finest Wines Paired with Exceptional Indian Cuisine
Live Music, Featured California Wineries, Select Indian Dishes

Make your reservations TODAY!!!

560 N Abel Street, Milpitas, CA – 95035
http://www.vedasrestaurant.com/Events.php


One (Shopping) Day at a Time

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Friday 

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend always fills me with some anxiety and dread. It’s not Thanksgiving that bothers me; I love Thanksgiving Day and the time spent with family and turkey and friends and pie and strangers and stuffing. It’s the incessant pressure to shop ’til I drop immediately after that stresses me out. I don’t begrudge our intrepid retailers the opportunity to sell me a good or service. I only resent the insistence that it happen right now.

A lot of it is my own inferiority complex. I’m a chronic procrastinator. (I intended to write this post last week.) I have been known to gleefully and frantically do the bulk of my holiday gift shopping  on Christmas Eve. So when I start seeing the ominous Black Friday notices in early November, it makes me feel bad that Halloween came and went and I didn’t even start making my lists and benchmarking pre-discount prices. Black Friday to me is all about preparation, and the day after Thanksgiving I am never prepared.

If Black Friday shopping is your thing, get out there and get your grind on. The universe of shops on El Camino Real is waiting for you. My father-in-law Harold often visits us from New Jersey for Thanksgiving and for many years he and my wife Paulette had a Black Friday tradition of heading out to Learning Express on El Camino in Sunnyvale to take care of the high-priority kids’ gifts. Sadly that store has closed and those same kids now have grown more interested in Game Stop and American Eagle.

Retail on El Camino is anchored by its regional malls. Great Mall in Milpitas opened at midnight Friday morning, luring shoppers with discounts up to 60% and a scratch-and-win gift card lottery. Stanford Shopping Center opened at 8:00AM and gave goodie bags of holiday loot to the first 250 shoppers to join their email list. The Shops at Tanforan in San Bruno opened at 6:00AM. They also have goodie bags—one lucky one of which is worth $500—and you’ll get a $15 gift card if you spend $150. Oddly Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo shows remarkable restraint. They don’t tweet, they don’t Facebook, and there’s precious little mention of Black Friday at all on their website. That’s just their style I guess.

There’s a whole lot of shopping to be done in the spaces between the malls. Every national chain store on El Camino, big box and otherwise, is vying for your business. There are too many to name. My email inbox is bursting with offers. Just swing a dead cat and you’ll save some money. Dead cats are 50% off at Necro-pet-a-porium today only, by the way, if you mention this ad.

Black Friday belongs to those who make the most noise and Cyber Monday is a clever recent nod to online shopping, but this year there’s a new named day on the fiscal calendar: Small Business Saturday. Pithy it ain’t, but its aims are noble: to call your attention to your local small businesses which depend on your patronage even more than the national chains. It’s a two-way benefit because small businesses are very efficient at re-investing money directly back into your local economy. They are a critical part of our economic recovery. November 27, 2010 is the first Small Business Saturday. It’s sponsored by American Express and if you register your Amex card at http://smallbusinesssaturday.com/Enroll, they’ll rebate you the first $25 you spend at eligible small businesses on Saturday. I don’t have a comprehensive list of participating shops on El Camino but two I know about for sure are:

Enjoy your shopping season, and may your discounts be deep. Just save some good merchandise for me. I’ll be out looking for it on my own Red Friday…December 24, 2010.

El Camino Calendar

Friday, November 19th, 2010

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A little something for everyone this weekend. Don’t forget to check out the El Camino Calendars page for a list of venues which always have a variety of activities going on.


REBEKAH CHILDREN’S SERVICES Festival of Trees-Christmas Carnival

When: November 19, 2010
Where: Morgan Hill Community & Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road, Morgan Hill CA 95037
Time: 6:00pm to Midnight
Cost: (RSVP) $85 per person
Event Hotline: (408) 846-2470
For more information or reservations visit us online at: www.rcskids.org

Rebekah Children’s Services 8th Annual Festival of Trees Christmas Carnival is the perfect start to your holiday season. The night will feature a Champagne reception, fabulous dinner, live and silent auctions, and wonderful holiday cheer!
Rebekah Children’s Services has served children throughout Santa Clara County for over 100 years. We are known as a caring and nurturing safe-haven for high-risk children as they attempt to overcome difficulties in their lives.
http://www.rcskids.org/
Google calendar event


Homegrown

Friday, November 19 · 6:00pm – 9:00pm
The Usuals
1020 The Alameda
San Jose, CA

Local artist, dNA, presents recent works in the Front Room. We are also featuring his most recent volume of Illuskrate: twenty-six pages of Ira & Drac and selected journal comics.

Join us in the Back Room for more art, food, music, and an awesome, hidden SJ-made trunk show!
http://shoptheusuals.com/?p=261
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=111303338937090


Tree Decorating Holiday Event

Join us as we kick off the holiday season!
Friday, Nov 19 @ 7PM

The Center has been selected to join the 2010 San Jose Christmas in the Park Community Tree Decorating Program! In preparation for the above, we will be hosting a free holiday event on November 19th at 7pm. In addition to making tree decorations, we will have freshly baked cookies on hand for those who enjoy decorating (as well as eating) Thanksgiving and/or Christmas cookies. To top off the evening, David Harvey will be playing the piano to get us all in the holiday spirit. LGBT families are especially encouraged to join us in what promises to be a very festive occasion.
Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center
938 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126


Welcome Santa Claus

Saturday, November 20 · 12:00pm – 1:30pm
The Shops at Tanforan – Upper level by JCPenney

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane…to The Shops at Tanforan!

Join the Radio Disney Road Crew, as they help us welcome Santa from the North Pole. Also, you won’t want to miss checking out Santa in his Workshop where you can get your picture taken with him!

The Shops at Tanforan | 1150 El Camino Real | San Bruno, California 94066
http://www.theshopsattanforan.com/


Holiday Boutique

November 20th and 21st 10:00-4:00
Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose Annual Holiday Boutique and Drawing.
43326 Mission Blvd., Fremont.

Featuring the Dominican Sisters’ Famous Fruitcakes, baked goods, Mission and assorted flavored olive oils, handmade gifts, and raffle prizes.
http://www.msjdominicans.org/home.aspx


Good Food, Good Causes

Monday, November 8th, 2010

This week you have two opportunities to help your neighbors in need while enjoying a delicious meal at a number of terrific Bay Area restaurants.

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Tuesday, November 9, 2010 dozens of restaurants are participating in the first annual Bay Area Dine Out. This benefits Meals on Wheels which serves meals to over 8,500 seniors throughout the entire region. Simply dine out at any of the restaurants and let them know you’re there for Dine Out, and they’ll donate part of the proceeds from your meal to this worthy cause.

The full list of restaurants grouped by county is on their website: http://dineoutnow.org/. Of course I know you are primarily interested in restaurants on El Camino Real, so I’ve taken the liberty of extracting the establishments that meet your discerning criteria.

  • Lizarran Tapas Restaurant | 7400 Monterey Street | Gilroy
  • Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria | 225 W. Santa Clara Street | San Jose
  • China Stix Restaurant | 2110 El Camino Real | Santa Clara
  • Country Inn Cafe | 2008 El Camino Real | Santa Clara
  • La Paloma Restaurant | 2280 El Camino Real | Santa Clara
  • Pizz’a Chicago Santa Clara | 1576 Halford Avenue | Santa Clara
  • Celia’s Mexican Restaurant | 3740 El Camino Real | Palo Alto
  • Hobee’s California Restaurants | 4224 El Camino Real | Palo Alto
  • Hobee’s California Restaurants | 67 Town & Country Village | Palo Alto
  • British Bankers Club | 1090 El Camino Real | Menlo Park
  • Cedro Ristorante Italiano | 1010 El Camino Real #140 | Menlo Park
  • Celia’s Mexican Restaurant | 1850 El Camino Real | Menlo Park
  • Oak City Bar and Grill | 1029 El Camino Real | Menlo Park
  • Round Table Pizza | 1225 El Camino Real | Menlo Park
  • Chantilly Restaurant | 3001 El Camino Real | Redwood City
  • John Bentley’s Restaurant | 2915 El Camino Real | Redwood City
  • Max’s of Redwood City | 1001 El Camino Real | Redwood City
  • Mountain Mike’s Pizza | 390 El Camino Real | Belmont
  • The American Bull Bar & Grill | 1819 El Camino Real | Burlingame
  • Celia’s Mexican Restaurant | 201 El Camino Real | San Bruno

If these don’t suit you, do peruse the full list for someplace that does. You can be excused this one time for patronizing eateries not on El Camino. It might be wise to call ahead for reservations.

bannerIf you’re in San Francisco, don’t eat too much on Tuesday because on Wednesday, November 10 you have the opportunity to do it again. An organization called Mission Graduates is putting on an event called Food for Thought at various restaurants in the Mission District. Proceeds from your meal will benefit the Mission Graduates program which works with kids from the Mission and prepares them for college. Demographically these kids are disadvantaged so this program provides crucial help for them to reach their goals through higher education. Thanks to the good folks at Stark Insider for alerting me to this event.

Find participating restaurants on Mission Graduates’ web site: http://www.missiongraduates.org/foodforthought/. Again let them know you’re there for Food for Thought.  The restaurants are not all on Mission Street or Dolores or other streets that qualify as El Camino in San Francisco, but they’re close enough that again, I’ll grant you a free pass. Thinking about all these great restaurants has put me in a charitable mood.

Bay Area Dine Out

benefiting Meals on Wheels
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
http://dineoutnow.org/

Food for Thought

benefiting Mission Graduates
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
http://www.missiongraduates.org/foodforthought/

Around the Bay in a Day

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

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Last November I took a bus ride up El Camino Real from San Jose to San Francisco and blogged my impressions and observations. To avoid giving myself whiplash, that day I only looked out the right side of the bus at the eastern side of the street and doggedly ignored the left side so the job was only half done. Last Friday, September 3, 2010, I completed the task, taking the reverse bus trip from San Francisco down to San Jose, observing the west side. Back in November I scribbled all my notes on the bus by hand in a notebook and ended up taking four months to type them all up. It’s not that I’m a slow typist, it’s just that the scope of the project was much larger than I anticipated. For the second trip I found a more efficient way: I live-tweeted my journey.

If you’re unfamiliar with tweeting, it means I used my cell phone on the road to type and send text messages to the Twitter service. Twitter messages, or “tweets,” are limited to 140 characters each so it enforces brevity. A great advantage is that every message was timestamped and geocoded by GPS so I have a complete record of what I saw, when I saw it, and where I was. I tried to live in the moment and just write what was on my mind which means whatever happened to catch my eye out the bus window. I know it’s a pretty pedestrian read (irony intended) but I hope I conveyed a sense of El Camino’s diverse profile.

Follow allcamino on Twitter

Below are my 167 tweets from that day from my brand new @allcamino twitter account. It took some effort to extract them all from Twitter’s web site. There are web apps that do this but they didn’t work for me because they rely on Twitter’s search engine which failed me, returning only six tweets (?!). I wrote a Perl script to convert their HTML to the format I wanted for the blog. To improve the readability I put each time stamp and location stamp against the right margin above each tweet. You can click the location links to open a Google map. My live-tweeting strategy worked great. Last year it took me four months to finish the writeup. Here I’ve done it in less than four days.

I cleaned the text up, fixing obvious two-left-thumb typos and grammar issues, but the content is largely raw and uncut. I’ve put a few editor notes in [square] brackets and added hyperlinks for your reference. I’ve written broader post-trip comments in between tweets in italics. You’ll see a bunch of the photos I took, many from the windows of the buses. Please excuse their quality. (more…)

A Pilgrim’s Odyssey, or There and Back Again, Part 3

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

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The Palo Alto Caltrain station was the county-nental divide for my transit trip up El Camino Real. It’s where I left the VTA system which serves Santa Clara County, and boarded the SamTrans Route 390 bus which serves San Mateo County. I had a few minutes to wait so I spent them studying the posted maps and schedules. That’s when I spotted a notice that was as welcome as it was unexpected: select VTA and SamTrans routes accept each others’ day passes in Palo Alto. I could use my VTA pass to board the SamTrans 390! For free! Sweet!

Time : 1:50 PM
Place: Palo Alto Caltrain Station
Route: SamTrans 390 to Daly City BART
Fare: $0.00 w/VTA day pass!
Total: $6.00

The 390 arrived after a few short minutes. It was an impressive articulated coach. I boarded and flashed my VTA pass with just a hint of nervousness that it would be rejected, but my papers were indeed in order so I had no problem at all. The train station is the startpoint for this route so the bus was empty. I had my choice of seats and selected one on the right side as I planned, stowed my backpack at my feet, and settled in for the long ride up the Peninsula.

I’ve lived in Santa Clara county for a while now and I like to think I brim with civic pride, but I have to say honestly that the SamTrans 390 was nice. Really nice. Frankly it blew the VTA 522 off the road, which pains me to admit. The windows were clear (no wrap!), the seats were comfy, and the air conditioning was luxurious. Best of all its general pace was much more leisurely. As we pulled out of the station past the historical marker at MacArthur Park and turned onto El Camino, I could literally feel myself relax as I sat back and prepared to enjoy the ride.

I hate to bag on VTA but I’ve always been ambivalent towards it. There was a period when I took it every day to work and regularly took it to special events downtown. It’s an adequate system, but I wish I could say it’s great. The fact is it’s troubled with low ridership, high fares, and increasingly infrequent schedules. Part of the problem is that the county, especially San Jose, is so gosh-darned spread out with relatively little population concentration that it’s tough to service it efficiently. Plus in our history we’ve been blessed with some boom times, most recently around the high tech industry, that resulted in a solid suburban middle class and drove the adoption of a car culture. So our buses are not world-class. I do have hope for the future of VTA given new high-density development around transit hubs and the plans I’ve seen for dedicated-lane Bus Rapid Transit, but we’re not there yet.

Back to SamTrans, I noted with approval the aptly named El Camino Park as we drove by, then tried and failed to spot El Palo Alto the landmark tree as we crossed San Francisquito Creek; I think it’s just not visible from El Camino. And then just that quickly we left Palo Alto, left Santa Clara County, crossed into San Mateo County, entering Menlo Park.

The Tesla Motors dealership is a hopeful spark in contrast to the three or four closed car dealerships just up the street. There are still plenty of gas stations though, additional reminders of El Camino’s car-serving nature. Jeffrey’s Hamburgers stands out as an eye-catching diner; I’ll have to check it out soon but it will be competing with some of my favorite burger joints past and present on El Camino. At Ravenswood I saw the first historical bell of the county and it was a standout because it’s the first I’ve seen that isn’t hanging from a trademark shepherd’s crook guidepost. Rather it’s hanging on a yoke which I presume is how they were mounted in the actual missions.

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I took pictures of this bell, and these were pretty much the only photos I managed to take out the bus windows all day. The only reason I got these is that I lucked out and the bus was stopped at a lengthy red light. I had planned to take many more, but I was overwhelmed simply trying to look vigilantly out the windows without missing anything. It was hard enough just taking notes; photos were beyond me.

The light finally turned green and I was treated to the ultra-hip Menlo Center and the sublime Kepler’s Books. I noted a historical marker at Triangle Redwood Grove, and that Gaylord Indian Restaurant had closed. Gaylord at the Stanford Shopping Center used to be a favorite with my family and my college roommate. I still miss it.

Soon the businesses went away and El Camino became all trees, fences, walls, and the backsides of really expensive homes. Welcome to Atherton. Many of these houses back right up to El Camino, but I presume none of them has an El Camino address. When the neighborhoods cleared and we got to the business district it felt very close with two-story buildings butting directly against the sidewalk, like a tall narrow corridor. There’s a distinct village feel, but severe and a little creepy, like the kind of place you read about in pulpy horror stories. Pleasantville by day but at night, no one will hear your screams…

Atherton is wide but short so before I knew it we rolled into Redwood City. I jotted something about “SF Water Dept.” but have no idea what that was a reference to. I may have become distracted because around this time the air conditioning on the bus shut off and the heat snapped on, throwing me for a loop. We passed the Target at Charter Street then the SR 84 junction, our first highway crossing in quite a while. Harry’s Hofbrau made me nostalgic with its old-timey decor. There’s an El Camino bell posted nearby at Chestnut Street, welcoming you to town. Franklin Street Apartments provide some residential density convenient to the shops and transit at bustling Sequoia Station, but Maguire Correctional Facility looms soberly behind it. A quick look down Broadway reveals a classic and historic downtown (“Climate Best by Government Test”). The Ben Frank’s hot dog stand is as iconic and appetizing as ever, but it overlooks the too-close at-grade Caltrain crossing which was the scene of a shocking tragedy last year. I chuckled at the odd alternating type sizes on an “EL CAMINO REAL” street sign, then noted with satisfaction that the Caltrain tracks are at a higher, safer grade by the time it crosses over Howard Ave. This stretch has some big culverts which are cool to look at. Somewhere along the line I noticed a couple free newspaper boxes for the Daily Post and Daily News.

As we cruised into San Carlos I stuck dogmatically to my strategy of only observing the right side of the street. That’s when I discovered that in San Carlos, there is no right side of the street, just gravel lots and train tracks. The Caltrain tracks are so close to the road there’s no room for proper businesses so most of it is left open. The businesses that should be there seem to be on the other side of the tracks, on Old County Road. The San Carlos Caltrain depot at San Carlos Avenue however is an eye-catching exception, and is graced with a bell. Things open up shortly and there’s a posted notice for proposed development north of the station, which is a recurrent theme. San Carlos Plaza, a shopping center, leaves no doubt that the right side of El Camino is indeed open for business. Trivia break: this paragraph contains the name “San Carlos” seven times. San Carlos.

Belmont is frankly more of the same. There’s a bell near Harbor Blvd. and another at the Belmont Caltrain station at Ralston Ave. By then the right side narrows to a gravel lot again. Then something surprising happens: El Camino must gain a little elevation because the sight lines clear and you gain an expansive view of the San Mateo Bridge and the East Bay hills. Google Street View tells me this occurs around Marine View Street and Mountain View Avenue. Someone was paying attention when they named those streets.

Now entering San Mateo, the county namesake. I had assumed it is the largest and most populous city in the county, but sadly it is neither. However we started to hit the first heavy traffic of the day around SR 92 so clearly it’s big and populous enough. The first thing I wrote down is there are no sidewalks at 42nd Avenue. Yumi Yogurt was a happy sight at 38th Avenue but it has no sidewalk either. I noted Hillsdale Shopping Center even though it’s on the other side of the street; an unforgivable mental lapse. However I was back on track with Ana Furniture which stands on the correct side of the street, across from the mall. Peninsula Station is a mixed-use development appealingly sandwiched between El Camino and Caltrain. This section has a kind of retro downtown feel with small sidewalks culminating with the highrise Tower Plaza building. There was a line out the door at Heidi’s Pies, people no doubt picking up orders for Turkey Day desserts. There was no rush though because Heidi’s never closes. Ever. Bridge Point Academy was the first school I had seen in a while, and The Beading Frenzy wins for the best business name of the day. My wife and my mom have both been into beading; the imagery in the name describes the ensuing mania perfectly. Scenic Central Park is bounded by 5th Avenue—a sly homage to Manhattan geography—and is the gateway to downtown San Mateo. There’s a multi-level parking garage at 2nd Street which is great since downtown is so strollable.

One notices that there are a lot of churches on El Camino in northern San Mateo. The Church of St. Matthew and St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School occupy beautiful grounds near St. Matthews Avenue. Notably up to this point in San Mateo the street signs say “S El Camino Real” but here they switch to “N El Camino Real.” Indeed the address of the church is One South El Camino Real and this is where the numbered cross streets begin, starting with 1st Avenue and continuing into the forties as you proceed south. San Francisco and Santa Clara of course were Spanish Catholic missions that became cities and counties. San Mateo separates them but there was never a mission here, rather a satellite Franciscan outpost where San Mateo Creek—whence the region got its name—crossed the Royal Road. It’s notable then that here at the equator of the city, where north becomes south, on the El Camino virtual meridian there is no Catholic chapel but rather an Episcopal church. The Episcopal “big-C” Church as an institution was founded during the American Revolution to replace the Church of England in the newly independent nation. So in a sense the Episcopal Church of St. Matthew, built in 1865 on the site of the abandoned mission outpost, represents the region’s Americanness, a Yankee stake in the Ohlone-then-Spanish-then-Mexican ground, the footprint where Mateo got kicked out and Matthew was shoed in. Fittingly here at the crux of San Mateo’s history and culture is placed an El Camino bell marking the spot where a mission might have been.

My parents live in San Mateo, a short stroll from El Camino. As it turned out, it took nearly three hours to get to their house from mine by bus, an amusing family factoid. I’m tempted to laugh at how impractical this mode of transportation seems, but in fact there was a passenger who got on the 522 with me in San Jose, transferred to the 390, and got off in San Mateo. People do it. As I was pondering this we entered Burlingame and were reminded by a familiar historical marker that Juan Bautista de Anza had been there 230 years prior. A public parking lot at Burlingame Avenue is convenient for shoppers and diners. Near Floribunda Avenue I spied a bell and not much further the wonderful onion domes of the Church of All Russian Saints. Russians have a long history in California, but that’s a topic for another time. Crossing Broadway downtown gave me a sense of déjà vu, having crossed Broadway in Redwood City already. There seems to be nothing but churches and apartments here, and I was struck how there were no pedestrians. After the businesses and apartment buildings faded we entered another zone of backside fences shielding single-family dwellings, similar to Atherton. The difference here though is the corps of venerable landmark eucalyptus trees. A bell at Rosedale and Peninsula Medical Center at Trousdale were my final Burlingame observations.

In my life I’ve been to San Mateo too many times to count and to Burlingame maybe a dozen or two, but north of there San Mateo County is the wild unknown to me. Some of those cities I’ve been to a handful of times and others not at all to speak of, particularly not their El Camino profiles. It was actually kind of wonderful finally to experience these cities which are household names but which I had only visited in Google Maps excursions. Let me tell you, when you start a blog about a street, you wind up spending a lot of time in Google Maps. A lot. This in a nutshell is why I undertook this trip. There’s no substitute for being there.

At Millbrae Avenue this bus turned off of El Camino for the first time to stop at the spectacular intermodal bus-BART-Caltrain Millbrae station. That’s when I realized how close El Camino is to US 101 here, probably the closest I came all day. By now it was after 3:15PM so school kids started boarding the bus, happy and chatty, ready for their long holiday weekend. Their presence brought a lively if slightly rowdy change of atmosphere. Back on El Camino, on the 1000 block there’s a bell. A little further a tree in front of the Mission revival Best Western El Rancho bears some kind of historical marker, but I don’t know what it signifies.

San BrunoSan Bruno gets a standing ovation: their street signs sport their city seal which contains not one but two bells. Bravo! Now that’s some El Camino pride. In reality much of El Camino here is a commercial hodgepodge. It is happily broken up at “The Avenue” A.K.A. San Mateo Avenue, San Bruno’s deliberately-branded downtown shopping district. There is an actual bell here, presumably the model for the seal. I wonder though how those traditional downtown storefronts fare in the shadow of The Shops at Tanforan and San Bruno Towne Center. Malls kill commercial strips; that’s the perennial challenge for city planners. So is traffic, which again got heavy as we approached I-380. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Tanforan, and I was until now unaware that there’s a Hooters there, right on El Camino. Look for more in a future post. I will of course be looking for signs of improved morale and career advancement opportunities after their CEO’s epiphany on “Undercover Boss.” Plus I want to see the barstool trick.

This is where I became aware of San Bruno Mountain rising before us. Ironically it is actually in South San Francisco, “The Industrial City.” The mountain really anchors and defines South City. There’s something else in South San Francisco: the headquarters of See’s Candies. I love candy and I love chocolate; I wonder if they give tours? After a while I noticed the road starting to ascend, and sure enough by the time we got to W. Orange Avenue we had gained a bit of altitude as we started to cross the northern tip of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I saw some big honking crows here. Kaiser Permanente Hospital looms large and Park Station condos and Archstone Apartments cozy up to the South San Francisco BART station, which again we had to turn off of El Camino to get to. The bus passed a Costco I had actually stumbled upon once years ago while looking for gas, and nearby there’s a bell. Treasure Island RV Park has a playful name. Here’s something to ponder. San Francisco and South San Francisco are in different counties, as are Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. Fascinating.

Something else that’s fascinating is the city of Colma, “City of Souls.” To make a long story short, in 1900 it became illegal to be dead in San Francisco so Colma grew as a city of cemetaries to hold the San Francisco deceased.  As you roll through Colma it’s literally cemetary after cemetary after cemetary. King of them all, at least from a bus on El Camino, is Cypress Lawn. Holy Sepulchre, Batman, is it ever gorgeous with manicured lawns, serene landscaping, and elegant structures. A nice place to visit. People do actually live in Colma, as evidenced by their landmark police station, and it has a homey village feel. Colma does have a bell, right in front of Eternal Home. Bill Graham is buried there. Here though there are graves just feet away from El Camino which was somehow a bit shocking, but a frank reminder that not every final resting place is a country club. I made a note of pedestrians at the walkway to D street; it could be they were the first people I saw in town. Sidebar: the Colma Historical Association claims that “Colma” is an Ohlone word meaning “many springs” but I don’t buy it. I’m convinced it’s an acronym for “City Of” something, but I don’t know what yet. “Lawn-Mowed Acres”? “Little Motion Anywhere”? “Last Mortal Address”? What do you think?

I noticed the street signs changed to some cool-looking blue ones with a bird logo and indeed the street name itself changed to Mission Street which means we were finally in Daly City. Mission Plaza at Citrus Avenue is a large retail center and there’s a bell in front. The War Memorial Community Center and John Daly Library complex are newly remodeled civic jewels and Landmark Plaza are condos in progress. My main impression was how similar Daly City is to San Francisco, dense and hilly. A spectacular view of Sutro Tower, not to mention some distinctly urban traffic, underscored this notion. Then at long last we reached the storied top-of-the-hill in Daly City, which I was very satisfied to see has a bell planted firmly at its peak in a place of honor. I’ll go out on a limb and claim without substantiation that this is the highest-altitude and westernmost bell in the Bay Area.

The bus turned off Mission onto Hillside to head down to the Daly City BART station, the end of the line. It was about 4:00 PM. I gathered my things, disembarked, and prepared to board Muni for the final push into San Francisco.

Next installment…Do You Know the Way to…?