California Dreaming?
Last week I headed to California, amusingly dubbed the “Left Coast” by some, mostly Right-thinking folks. Thanksgiving with the kids and grandkids, and a chance to take another look at the place I chose to leave behind so many years ago.
The flight was smooth, sunny and uncomplicated, and only a few clouds hovered high over San Francisco Bay so the landing was easy. As a recovering white-knuckle flyer, I am now free to complain about other things, and let me just say this about the traffic here.
Bleagh.
Not really “stop and go,” more like “stop and stop.”
When people ask me how I could have brought myself to move to Waxahachie, leaving behind all the wonders of the City by the Bay, I first point out that I really do like being able to drive 60 miles an hour—not to mention being able to drive 60 miles IN an hour, as a friend pointed out recently. And have a place to park when I get there.
We eventually arrived in Oakland, the city that’s still learning how, a mish-mash of cultures and incomes and great views and perfect weather and serious hills with charming cottages packed onto them in every available space.
The sunlight is different here; beaming in sharply from what seems to be a lower place in the sky onto the light-colored stucco walls that are everywhere (no bricks here, Mabel; remember the earthquake thing), so that the whole place seems lighter. But amongst the ubiquitous stucco and Mediterranean styles, cottages like the 1913 “Craftsman chalet,” the pride and joy of my son and his wife, are everywhere, and could just as easily be in Waxahachie and perfect for the Candlelight Tour.
Cute, two bedrooms, wood floors, just 1300 square feet, only $340,000!
On the other side of the Bay, my daughter and her family live in Foster City, a very family-friendly carefully laid-out subdivision built, some 40 years ago, right on the water just a few miles south of San Francisco, so that it is laced with curving streets, canals and delightful walking trails.
Quiet and, of course, sunny. They are renting for now, until they find one they want – and can afford to – buy.
Three bedrooms, 1500 square feet and really quite lovely, just $2500 a month!
Waxahachians, count your blessings!
The sunshine is everywhere I go, since neither of these communities enjoys/suffers the perpetual fog of San Francisco itself, but here’s another reason I left: Too much sunshine and perfect weather gets boring after awhile . . . believe it or not. (Though I do dearly miss the fresh and fragrant lemons available year-round; I brought home some from my daughter's back yard tree!)
California has been a leader in some useful trends, such as control of automobile emissions and household recycling. The City of Oakland, for example, has taken recycling several degrees farther: each household is provided with a 40-gallon recycling bin and a 40-gallon compost bin (plus a little one for indoors), and a smaller bin for everything else. If they choose to participate in the compost program (basically, everything that was ever food, from coffee grounds to steak bones plus any yard waste, goes into the compost bin), then they are entitled to withdraw nicely-processed compost from the community “heap” for their family gardens.
Anyway, by the time all the recycling and compost are removed from your household waste, there is precious little left to use up space in the landfill. Think about it!
Here lately, San Francisco has outlawed plastic grocery bags, the kind made from petroleum, and as of this writing major grocery stores are required to offer paper or biodegradable “plastic” bags, as well as to sell reusable (like canvas) bags. (I've been the proud owner for years of what has become a dozen or so canvas tote bags, and I am here to tell you they make lugging groceries SO much easier! And they are so big and easy to use, the check-out clerks love them!)
This is a worthwhile effort, since recent studies have drawn attention to the vast numbers of discarded plastic bags wreaking havoc on landfill and in the sea.
Maybe a couple of good trends, d’you think?
One last thought: I don’t know if California invented the shopping mall, but last week it seemed to have reached a level I’d just as soon not import, so to speak. The lead story – I mean the LEAD – in Saturday’s San Francisco Chronicle was:
Makes you wonder.
The flight was smooth, sunny and uncomplicated, and only a few clouds hovered high over San Francisco Bay so the landing was easy. As a recovering white-knuckle flyer, I am now free to complain about other things, and let me just say this about the traffic here.
Bleagh.
Not really “stop and go,” more like “stop and stop.”
When people ask me how I could have brought myself to move to Waxahachie, leaving behind all the wonders of the City by the Bay, I first point out that I really do like being able to drive 60 miles an hour—not to mention being able to drive 60 miles IN an hour, as a friend pointed out recently. And have a place to park when I get there.
We eventually arrived in Oakland, the city that’s still learning how, a mish-mash of cultures and incomes and great views and perfect weather and serious hills with charming cottages packed onto them in every available space.
The sunlight is different here; beaming in sharply from what seems to be a lower place in the sky onto the light-colored stucco walls that are everywhere (no bricks here, Mabel; remember the earthquake thing), so that the whole place seems lighter. But amongst the ubiquitous stucco and Mediterranean styles, cottages like the 1913 “Craftsman chalet,” the pride and joy of my son and his wife, are everywhere, and could just as easily be in Waxahachie and perfect for the Candlelight Tour.
Cute, two bedrooms, wood floors, just 1300 square feet, only $340,000!
On the other side of the Bay, my daughter and her family live in Foster City, a very family-friendly carefully laid-out subdivision built, some 40 years ago, right on the water just a few miles south of San Francisco, so that it is laced with curving streets, canals and delightful walking trails.
Quiet and, of course, sunny. They are renting for now, until they find one they want – and can afford to – buy.
Three bedrooms, 1500 square feet and really quite lovely, just $2500 a month!
Waxahachians, count your blessings!
The sunshine is everywhere I go, since neither of these communities enjoys/suffers the perpetual fog of San Francisco itself, but here’s another reason I left: Too much sunshine and perfect weather gets boring after awhile . . . believe it or not. (Though I do dearly miss the fresh and fragrant lemons available year-round; I brought home some from my daughter's back yard tree!)
California has been a leader in some useful trends, such as control of automobile emissions and household recycling. The City of Oakland, for example, has taken recycling several degrees farther: each household is provided with a 40-gallon recycling bin and a 40-gallon compost bin (plus a little one for indoors), and a smaller bin for everything else. If they choose to participate in the compost program (basically, everything that was ever food, from coffee grounds to steak bones plus any yard waste, goes into the compost bin), then they are entitled to withdraw nicely-processed compost from the community “heap” for their family gardens.
Anyway, by the time all the recycling and compost are removed from your household waste, there is precious little left to use up space in the landfill. Think about it!
Here lately, San Francisco has outlawed plastic grocery bags, the kind made from petroleum, and as of this writing major grocery stores are required to offer paper or biodegradable “plastic” bags, as well as to sell reusable (like canvas) bags. (I've been the proud owner for years of what has become a dozen or so canvas tote bags, and I am here to tell you they make lugging groceries SO much easier! And they are so big and easy to use, the check-out clerks love them!)
This is a worthwhile effort, since recent studies have drawn attention to the vast numbers of discarded plastic bags wreaking havoc on landfill and in the sea.
Maybe a couple of good trends, d’you think?
One last thought: I don’t know if California invented the shopping mall, but last week it seemed to have reached a level I’d just as soon not import, so to speak. The lead story – I mean the LEAD – in Saturday’s San Francisco Chronicle was:
BLACK FRIDAY PACKS ‘EM IN.Four-column spread on the front page, two big color photos, jump to almost a full page inside. Government wiretapping, Baghdad bombing, Mideast peace? Pshaw! It’s about the SHOPPING -- folks just doing their bit for the war effort.
Makes you wonder.
posted by The Voice | 1:15 PM
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