I Visited the Epicenter of the U.S. Housing Crisis

Caltrain is now electrified, with an improved timetable - so I rode it up and down the San Francisco peninsula to check in on Silicon Valley, America's most expensive region for housing. And man do I have thoughts.
----------
CityNerd is on Nebula, the creator-owned streaming service, ad-free! Using my custom link gets you 40% off an annual subscription, and really helps the channel! go.nebula.tv/c...
Also STILL available: the Lifetime offer! $300 for Nebula as long as both you and Nebula exist, and a full 1/3 of the price goes directly to support this channel. go.nebula.tv/l...
And! Gift cards -- get the same deals using my code, but gift a membership to someone who needs weekly (ad-free and promo-free) Nerd propaganda! gift.nebula.tv/...
----------
Patreon - a way to directly support my ability to talk about what I want to talk about every week, and get out to the cities I want to highlight. Much appreciation to all of you who are already patrons!
/ citynerd
----------
Previous CityNerd videos referenced:
Suburbs that are more urban than central cities: • 10 Suburbs That Are Mo...
The NIMBY-est cities: • These Are the NIMBY-es...
----------
Resources:
www.cbsnews.co...
www.zillow.com...
www.greenbelt....
secure.sos.sta...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
----------
Images
Stanford logo By Stanford University - 12-03-2016 Game Notes MBB, Public Domain, commons.wikime...
Acid Test poster By Paul Foster - www.classicpost..., Public Domain, commons.wikime...
----------
Instagram: @nerd4cities
BlueSky: @nerd4cities
Threads: @nerd4cities
Twitter: @nerd4cities
----------
Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (KZbin music library)
----------
Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

[@CityNerd]

I didn't even get to telling you how expensive it is to just eat lunch in some of these Silicon Valley towns, it's just nuts. You know what ISN'T expensive though? That's right, a subscription to Nebula, the creator-owned streaming service where you can find all my videos early, sponsor-free and ad-free! Using my custom link gets you 40% off an annual subscription, and really helps the channel. go.nebula.tv/citynerd

[@ttopero]

Ray, If a city could only build a walkable main street either perpendicular to or parallel to the train/transit station, 2-4 blocks long, which would you advise?

[@SL420-]

I'll get a lifetime subscription to Nebula if you make a joke about dinosaurs in your next video.

[@jerredhamann5646]

Everything is too expensive and the tech industry has already laidoff 100k people in the area recently because work from home means they can easily outsource to low wage nations and all the big firms are monoplies that have no incentive to pony up the man and capital to innovate or that is to say ur turing future detroit

[@meikgeik]

There isn't a housing crisis in the bay area, there is an ownership crisis. Much of the residential apartments and houses sit empty because they're owned by investors driving up prices for rental and vacation properties. This is why there's so many cars, most people drive into the city or ride BART/or other public transit. If you live outside of the peninsula like many people do to afford housing, the walk/bikeability goes way way way down. There's nice pockets of it in city centers, but the moment you get into the burbs you have to have a car.

[@CABOOSEBOB]

@@ttoperodo both and have 2 main streets

[@danielbaulig]

Probably a good thing you didn’t get off in Atherton, not only due to a lack of sidewalks. I used to live in Menlo Park (next stop along Caltrain) and once accidentally got off in Atherton coming home from the city. It was in the afternoon and a nice day so I decided to make the 30 min or so walk to Menlo Park. I had just moved from Germany and that seemed like the most normal thing to do. Besides realizing that there weren’t any side walks, it took less than 5 minutes for a cop car to pull up next to me and ask me what I was doing in the neighborhood. I just told him that I accidentally got off at the wrong station and was waking to Menlo Park and he just let me continue, but it was very clear that random people strolling around Atherton are suspicious and not welcome.

[@GirtonOramsay]

I find it wild that I keep reading stories like this where cops just question pedestrians for walking in the "wrong" area as if it's a crime. I had a cop once yell at me to get back on a sidewalk when I took a shortcut through ungated apartment complex (which I did every school day for 4 years), like they take the concept of private vs public space way too seriously.

[@baltakatei]

Atherton would have converted itself into a gated community with sentry gun mount points along a medieval style castle wall years ago if state law allowed it.

[@starventure]

In cop speak, what you were doing appeared to them to be "casing the joint" or "sizing up the locals." Lots of young minority males get caught doing this, "accidentally" wandering into a vulnerable area and mentally jotting down which house is a good B&E target or which street has cars of value parked on it for GTA. Locals tend to get paranoid after a few bad incidents, which puts pressure on the cops to lay down the law on people, which results in experiences like you had. Rich liberals frightened of crime are the most dangerous ppl out there.

[@nockee]

I was pulled over by cops in Atherton when I was running during my lunch break.

[@ashleyhamman]

I guess it took 70 years for nothing at all to change in Atherton. My dad lived in Menlo in his late teens (the late 50s), and got pulled over in Atherton while driving his first car, only to be asked the trick question of "When is it ok to pass on the double-yellow?".

[@atm1947]

As a native son of San Mateo County who has visited 99% of the locations shown, COVID was really the harbinger of the mass pedestrianization of our downtowns. Prior to 2020, pretty much none of the downtown areas you went to were pedestrianized. Now, the vast majority of them are, because merchants and businesses realized that increased foot traffic means way higher profits.

[@CityNerd]

I'm amazed more communities haven't figured this out. Just massive risk aversion

[@eyv]

We'd been talking about it for years (Mountain View had been pursing a pedestrian mall since 2015 as part of Caltrain grade separation) but it always got pushback from business owners. COVID forced it to happen. Even after COVID, there was a fight to reopen some of the streets because retail merchants blamed declining sales on not being able to park in front of their store (and not, like, people buying stuff on Amazon) but residents and restaurants were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the streets closed.

[@annepaulson7537]

Los Altos pedestrianized our pleasant downtown for Covid and it was great. But then they de-pedestrianized because cars and parking are the most important things in life. Grr.

[@michellechang827]

I concur. I lived in Sunnyvale before covid and Murphy Ave was only closed to cars for a couple hours when the farmer's market was oepn on the weekend. Now it's permanently pedestrianized and the restaurants have double or triple the number of tables by having outdoor seating compared to pre-pandemic. also thousands of apartment units have opened up around the caltrain station, albeit very expensive units.

[@annepaulson7537]

@@michellechang827 But are the expensive units empty units? If not, the people who live in them would have otherwise lived in extant cheaper units, preventing someone with less money from living in them.

[@stripybread3715]

City Nerd may not be pregnant, but he never fails to deliver

[@abbyfluoroethane]

insane statement bestie

[@yungrichnbroke5199]

He’s the OBGYN we need but don’t deserve.

[@Urbanhandyman]

I've always thought of him more as a CesareaN section kind of guy.

[@gamakujira64e23]

Not yet 😉

[@J-Bahn]

No just no

[@nomadzophiel]

If the people working in a walkable city can't afford to live there, it's not a city. It's a theme park.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Or just an oversized office park.

[@randomyoutubebrowser5217]

If they cannot afford to live there, how are they working there or why are they happy to commute such long distances there instead of just working somewhere else with a more comfortable commute?

[@nomadzophiel]

@@randomyoutubebrowser5217You answered your own how, commuting. Why - Because it pays better than their other options. It just doesn't pay well enough to live there. Even most of the entry level tech jobs in the area either require 3 roommates in a 2BR or a 90 minute commute from East Bay.

[@MrBirdnose]

All walkable cities are like that. It's the fatal flaw in the concept.

[@randomyoutubebrowser5217]

@@nomadzophiel I guess prices won't go down until the area becomes unattractive enough for people to subject themselves to such grueling conditions just for the privilege of working there. Are the alternatives that bad elsewhere in the country that people rather have 3 roommates in a 2BR or have a 90 minute commute from East Bay, than to work in another location altogether?

[@shanstereo7022]

Atherton also has the highest pedestrian death rate along the El Camino corridor section because they refuse to put street lights as well as no sidewalks. Driving at night on El Camino from Redwood City hitting Atherton goes from light to almost pitch black just headlights then 3.5 miles hitting Menlo Park light again with street lights. Seems like they have calculated human life against property values and chosen the profit for Atherton property owners.

[@charged-proton]

Not to defend Atherton, but the "highest pedestrian death rate along El Camino" is a bit misleading considering it refers to like 2 deaths per decade

[@jfolz]

You'd think they want the best street illumination to make it easier to spot the "riff raff" at night.

[@charlietian4023]

What else do you expect from people rich enough to live in Atherton?

[@annepaulson7537]

@@charged-proton four deaths and nine serious injuries on the short Atherton section in ten years

[@harvey66616]

@@charged-proton _"...2 deaths per decade"_ -- see corrected figure in the comment above. Also, IMHO it is more interesting to look not at absolute numbers, but the injury/fatality rate relative to the number of pedestrians present, or even better, the pedestrian-miles traveled in the corridor. Given how hostile the environment is to peds, I would not be surprised to find the Atherton rates under that metric are significantly higher than other nearby regions.

[@oliviaallen-price765]

Haha - I'm the editor who worked on that "Can Redwood City Really Boast "Climate Best by Government Test"? story. Funny to see a cameo of my work show up while I'm watching KZbin recreationally. :P

[@PhysicsMarc]

Some more fun facts about Atherton: They shut down the CalTrain stop for "safety", they also disallow train horns at the crossing. El Camino Real going through Atherton is one of the deadliest stretches of roads, with much higher pedestrain deaths than in Menlo Park/Redwood City portions of El Camino. The kicker is that they claim "there is no money in the budget for streetlights" IN THE RICHEST CITY IN THE USA. I think Atherton looks so much worse given that pedestrianized downtown Redwood City is just a few miles away. I've lived in the Bay Area for about 4 years now, and I honestly feel like it's the biggest fumble in terms of urban environment I have ever seen. The potential is so, so, so high. Perfect weather, plenty of resources, lots of diversity. If we installed a good rail system and build more housing I honestly think we could compete with NYC for being the best urban area in the US, but the difference between potential and reality is so stark. I am glad they are making incremental progress with pedestrianizing streets near Caltrain stations, but we really need a total overhaul.

[@frejatotheworld]

It really does feel like any of those cities along the corridor could easily become big and kinda a new center if they would start to build high buildings, like imagine Redwood City (with a rebuilt Dumbarton rail corridor ideally) building some high-rise...

[@julietardos5044]

I'm sure it's true that they have no money for streetlights. Haven't you watched the CN video on how suburbs have no money because they lack the taxes that businesses bring in? They have to rely solely on property taxes. Sigh.

[@alvintcura]

@@frejatotheworld But... maybe they don't want to become that. Maybe they want to remain small-town suburbia, and they have the money to enforce it. (I'm not one of them, and I don't live in Atherton, but I totally get it.)

[@rafangille]

i’m from southern california and the urbanism is so bleak here, the bay area is urban paradise to me

[@David_Journey]

@@julietardos5044 they have money for street lights😃, Atherton is designed to maintain look and feel of a rural community. That means no sidewalks and street lights. If you compare tax income per sq feet of city, Redwood City’s beats Atherton’s. Density does help a lot!

[@tomtaber1102]

Measure T will raise the height and density limit for areas in San Mateo that are close to downtown and the three Caltrain stations. That is exactly where new housing needs to be built. Unfortunately, there are lots of NIMBYs living here who want to keep the height limit to 55 feet and only 50 housing units per acre in those parts of town. If you live San Mateo be sure to tell your neighbors to vote YES on Measure T.

[@CityNerd]

Listen to your cute local indie bookstore owner, they won't steer you wrong

[@familykaplan1341]

Yes

[@josephfisher426]

I don't understand distinguishing between 55 feet / 4 story and higher. 4 story already totally shades the ground and looms over you... compacting the height into smaller footprints would be better aesthetically. 50 units per acre is a lot to keep up, though... it would make more sense to structure the regulation by parcel size, so that individual smaller parcels could be redeveloped at a workable financial return, but larger developments would have to set aside a lot of open space.

[@TinLeadHammer]

​@@josephfisher4264 stories do not loom at all. Maybe starting from 10 stories it does.

[@alexandercampbell9398]

@@josephfisher426we already have Ryan Tower and 55 West. They are essential to San Mateo and provide much needed housing. A couple taller buildings make sense close to the CalTrain Stations. What are we going to do? Just keep building low rises all the way to San Carlos?

[@AdamHaberlach]

Another reason you didn't get off the train and take a walk in Atherton: they removed their Caltrain station a few years back in order to avoid California State mandates to build housing near mass transit.

[@mokisan]

What's Atherton? Sorry not american but who stays there & why do they dont have sidewalk?

[@AdamHaberlach]

@@mokisan It is a very wealthy community right in the middle of the peninsula on the west side of the SF bay area. Old money. Big houses and estates.

[@mokisan]

@@AdamHaberlach thanks 👍

[@barrackobamar]

From what I heard it was lack of use bc usually people that have big ass mansions typically aren’t keen on public transit

[@jorymil]

Damn. NIMBYs are such jerks. People like that need to go work in the Peace Corps for a couple of years.

[@1awrenceofarabia]

As a San Mateo native who was priced out by not working in tech these are spot on critiques. The convenience of walkable urbanism is there if you're upper income while literally millions of others have little choice but to commute to these places via car sometimes for multiple hours. I'm really encouraged to see the peninsula staring to move the needle but it feels like my kids will be adults by the time we could afford to move back.

[@nathaniellindner313]

Another native (though not from the Peninsula) and I tell people that here you're either a techbro or a tentbro. This started as a joke but is less so every passing year. Oh and I and everyone I know from here pronounce El Camino Real the Spanish way, so at least we have that correct.

[@qjtvaddict]

Regional rail for the poor

[@qjtvaddict]

@@nathaniellindner313why don’t non tech bros leave en masse?

[@whalesequence]

​@@qjtvaddictIt's something I ask myself all the time. I wonder what a massive labor shortage would actually do to the area.

[@randomyoutubebrowser5217]

@@whalesequence lack of essential services will make the place less attractive and prices will go down until essential services can afford to come back in again. We're seeing now is the equilibration between how desirable it is for service workers to stomach grueling conditions (expensive house shares, long commutes etc) and the prices people are willing to pay to live with this level of service. I cannot quantify how much better this place is compared to other options around the country, but I'm very surprised service workers are still voluntarily willing to work there.

[@ilanrosenbaum626]

AFAIK as somebody who grew up in the area, Hillsborough and Atherton break California low income housing laws but get away with it because money

[@Madwonk]

Here's to hoping that the builders remedy will make that harder!

[@danielcarroll3358]

@@Madwonk For the non-Californians: If you don't zone part of your town for higher density and actually allow construction of a building for which a permit has been properly applied for, why then the developer can build whatever they want. One developer in San Francisco got so frustrated with all the NIMBYs in a residential area that he applied to build a sixty story apartment. "Now that I have your attention..."

[@Madwonk]

@@danielcarroll3358 yup, there's a process by which the state estimates how much each city/area needs to build and they can plan for that development to happen. But basically for the last 30 years they've either not done what's in the plans (RHNA) or they've just fabricated them entirely (in some cases claiming they'll build a bunch of affordable housing on the side of a hill which can't be built on). So builder's remedy was introduced, which punishes them for doing this (by essentially invalidating their zoning). The choice is, actually let people build *some* stuff, or you lose control of your zoning entirely for the next RHNA cycle

[@blairmacdonald9632]

The alternatives Atherton has come up with to avoid losing zoning control are pretty hilarious/wild. Iirc there was a proposal to create a village for people with a physical handicap or maybe dementia because they were supposed to be a low risk of leaving their homes and residents having to see the 'poors'

[@Madwonk]

@@blairmacdonald9632 My personal favorite RHNA discovery was Carmel by the Sea, which argues it doesn't need affordable housing because they have no homeless population. Why do they have no homeless population? *Within the RHNA document* they say that police escort them to nearby community where there are homeless shelters

[@howardthompson3543]

I'm confident, without checking, that the clip of Highway 101 wasn't taken during the "rush" hour.

[@jdrukman]

you can tell because the cars are moving

[@ArleyLewis]

Thanks for covering my commute, Ray! Your comment at 21:35 describes one of our big problems here: "...you roll by an unbroken procession of auto repair shops, almost hidden and out of sight from drivers but readily apparent to train commuters, it just reminds you what a huge scam so much of suburban living is..." Exactly. In fact, in Belmont, those repair shops use our main bikeable north-south road (Old County Road) as the parking lot for the cars they're working on. This means that we bike commuters on our way to and from CalTrain suffer frequent close passes from cars on this narrow road, half of which is given over to partially disassembled cars. Think about that for a second: The city of Belmont is subsidizing the Old County Road car repair shops by giving them free space on the street to park inoperable vehicles! Kudos to Belmont's better neighbors, San Mateo and San Carlos. Both cities ended this freebie for their autobody shops and instead installed bike lanes!

[@CityNerd]

Man I feel like I really short changed Belmont and San Carlos!

[@ericdew2021]

@@CityNerd you did. I noticed you skipped them entirely.

[@tmswfrk]

I ride through there a lot. It generally sucks. They repaved part of it last year but then it somehow got shitty again. Dunno what is happening over there. But the alternative is either waaay out of the way through Foster City or…El Camino. Oof.

[@stephendoherty8291]

Why not report these to the council or the Police as illegal parking. After some time of ignoring you, they will shrug and do something

[@BirdsNNVA]

You cracked me up with your comment about how replacing a flat grade crossing every ten years means the project will be done about the time California high speed rail opens.

[@olavl8827]

AKA when Hell freezes over.

[@mevans4953]

@@olavl8827 Diverting those funds to Texas seem like it would be a better investment. Looking at the imagery, I can tell you Texas looks far more vibrant. This area looks like it’s a water starved dying Mall

[@raaaaaaaaaam496]

Texas voted to increase Houston freeways last year. They are not better than Dallas

[@TheF9f9f9f9f9]

I want to give a shout out to LucidStew's high speed rail news channel which has a lot of great coverage about California High Speed Rail and it's projected 2052 completion at current rates. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3PNpIpnbs-UoZo

[@mattstewart9055]

I'd laugh if it wasn't so depressing

[@chris8339]

As an sf resident I appreciate the positive comments about the city and fair criticisms! Still way too many cars, I’m hopeful for muni and bike improvements to encourage more mode splits soon.

[@nockee]

The new bike lanes on El Camino between Palo Alton and Sunnyvale will be a big win when they are completed.

[@psee]

Went to sf last month and was already blown away by being able to take Muni to GGP! Coming from somewhere where only vta buses are option, this was a dream.

[@dontomato9550]

hope came soon because muni proposed a new metro line along geary and 19th ave, construction estimated to start in 15 years though (probably longer if we're being honest)

[@GirtonOramsay]

17:29 To answer your curiousity - I came to southern California as a remote tech worker, then got laid off after a month of moving here. I'm a min wage worker trying to make ends meet now and wonder the same damn thing...turns out most of my coworkers either own a house for 20+ yrs, live with family in their upper 20s (including me), or have 4+ roommates and pay 40-50% of their paycheck to rent. For reference, I moved from a very affordable area of the country where I could have my own apartment.

[@mevans4953]

@@GirtonOramsay Cali is an oil rig. Make your money and get out.

[@baddriversofcolga]

"ends meat"? Is that what they make burnt ends with?

[@GirtonOramsay]

@@mevans4953 haha I never intended to be staying here long and working on my back up plan

[@Zorave-qi6fs]

Additional context for the communal housing: A lot of people come to Silicon Valley to earn money-many are 20 something male software engineers who don’t mind living like college students to make hundreds of thousands annually. We also have a lot of people (from new immigrants to longtime natives) who come from cultures that fully embrace multigenerational housing regardless of housing affordability.

[@atm1947]

@@mevans4953the difference is that oil rigs don’t have people living on them permenantly. This is our home. Blood-sucking vultures with the same mentality as yours are what makes it hard to live in our home.

[@CoziestCozy]

The ad placement at 15:46 got a genuine laught out of me, well played

[@iamfishhead]

Hey, I'm in my apartment across from the 4th and King station right now. I'm really enjoying these shots of my neighborhood more than I should. Not finished with the video yet, but, so far, it's accurate.

[@mokisan]

What's Atherton? Sorry not american but who stays there & why do they dont have sidewalk?

[@Christian-vp3vp]

Can't believe you're over 300k subs I remember joining when you still would intro with a stadium that could fit your sub count, like 30k or something!

[@lws7394]

Those were the days. The gimmick of the stadiums he could fill was part reason to follow ! He has some great vids. My favourites the p9tential high speed rail corridor plane-train-car comparisons. And the one how congestion develoos at traffic lights : when a traffic lights can hNdle 140 cars per lane per hour , 2x3 or 2x4 lane freeways , with a 2k vehicle capacity per lane per hour, make absolute no sense ! Within city 1x1 arteries should be the norm , like in the Netherlands !

[@thetransbay]

You know I never really realized the moment when he filled the last stadium and I've been unable to find what video it happened ever since.

[@ods94065]

Mr. Nerd, The pedestrianization you note is almost completely brand new - as in, started during COVID and kept around since. The densification is also relatively new. Had you done this video ten years ago, the tier list would have looked a lot different!

[@DIYRandomHackery]

Exactly. COVID shutdown created all these pedestrian downtowns. It's been so long coming, I've been asking for it for ages (Sunnyvale, mountain view). Nobody believed it was even possible

[@MyGoodFriendJon]

10:26 - Born and raised in Mountain View; now living in San Jose. Everyone I've ever encountered knows the proper pronunciation of "El Camino Real". Spanish is also the dominant secondary language to learn in the schools in the area.

[@more__plz]

Came here to say the same

[@ehlava7331]

its just his condescending way. he hates CA, esp any rich areas

[@arjunyg4655]

@@ehlava7331Look it’s not entirely unwarranted; Let’s just look at how we pronounce San Leandro…

[@DGotliebVids]

We know how to say it... But no one bothers and it's just El Camino

[@bootkins]

Menlo Park native now in SF - have never heard any native say “el camino reel” in my life. How do you pronounce Gough Street, city nerd (lol)

[@falaise6077]

It was pleasing to see the cul-de-sac cut-throughs. In England these have been designed into housing estates for ages. You also need ways to walk to a shop half a mile away without having to drive 4 miles!

[@GoranXII]

Down here in NZ too.

[@TohaBgood2]

Yep. In California this is actually very common. People don't seem to realize that a good majority of these towns were build pre-car. they all have these walkways because these towns were built by the rail companies around their electric interurban and streetcar lines. So they needed the people to be able to walk to their stations and to the little "Main street" with shops and restaurants. All the 1950s + development came much later after the cores of the towns were already fully developed around the train stations.

[@GoranXII]

@@TohaBgood2 Well the area where I live in Auckland NZ was mostly agricultural until the 60s and 70s, thus well into the era of cars. And the development that came then was mostly single-family zoning, though not quite as sprawling as in America, or as disconnected (most suburbs are dotted sporadically with small commercial premises, usually 3-5 businesses). And yet, we still have those pathways.

[@TheHaighus]

​@@GoranXII I think they meant most of those towns in California, not in the rest of the world. They never stopped being used in other countries. I live in an 80's UK housing estate with them.

[@BirdsNNVA]

When I lived in Palo Alto 1978-1981, i was told that BART did not extend down the Peninsula because the upscale people in the south did not want the riffraff of the north to have easy access to their area. Same with Robert Moses making the bridges over roads connecting the NYC burroughs to Long Island low, so a city bus could not fit under them.

[@jediphong]

Partially true, but the South Bay back then was a lot less wealthy than it is now. As far as I can tell, these are more or less the reasons: 1. At the time BART was being proposed, Santa Clara County was mostly farmland, and they couldn't see the use of rapid transit going there, especially because ... 2. Southern Pacific was still running the Peninsular Service, and didn't want the competition even though SP wanted to end PS and they found an ally in ... 3. The owner of Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo didn't want the perceived competition of the shops in San Francisco proper. And so, Santa Clara County did not opt-in to BART, and San Mateo County reversed their earlier support. In fact, a BART station was planned to service Palo Alto right over the county line. San Mateo pulling out also doomed Marin County's hopes to join in on BART, too. Everyone regretted these decisions, even with the enormous BART cost overruns.

[@markarbanasin4]

Exactly this. The Penninsula didn't want the train line running through. And set the region back by 60 years given the idiotic hodge podge. CalTrain is great, but the reality is for most peninsula living and working people - your housing or job (or both) are not easily accessible by it.

[@melaniebagby6467]

Not entirely apocryphal . Also why Marin doesn’t have BART nor housing.

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

That's fairly typical with public transportation. I have heard that in countless places. Wealthy people don't want poor people (who don't look like them) taking buses to their wealthy neighborhood, looting, and then - what? - taking the bus back? Carrying sofas and big screen TVs I guess? It is all pretty transparent. They just want poor people to be invisible and on their side of town.

[@julietardos5044]

@@HowardThompson-ux7kf How do these people think their servants get to work?

[@hermosillaignacio]

I've visited Google and currently work for a tech company in Seattle. I can say two things: - Tech companies put a lot of emphasis in incentivizing not driving to work, with the shuttle system, rideshare options and other benefits - No employee will agree to invite you to let you film without permission, it's a big no no (since you could be considered "press") to so without explicit authorization, happy to put you in touch with the people that do so in Meta and see if they agree to something.

[@robinmorris8201]

Thanks for featuring San Mateo. I saw about 8 yes on T signs on my run yesterday in the yards of SFHs and only one no on T sign, so I'm hopeful. This is to override the very Nimby measure Y, which won a few years ago by less 100 votes. I have a sign, too, of course. Downtown San Mateo has a walk score of 96, so it is a great place for high density housing. In general, the peninsula is a great place to live if you can afford it. I wish more people could. Coming from a life where driving 20-30 minutes to get anywhere was normal, it is so wonderful not having to drive regularly. Btw El Camino Real is pronounced the Spanish way, but in 18 years living near it, IDK if I've ever heard anyone say the Real part. It is just El Camino.

[@beandoggle]

All those peninsula downtown main streets went carless during the pandemic and thankfully it stuck.

[@solomonreinman7452]

I used to live in the Bay. I miss it so much, but it was desperately unaffordable.

[@terriellis3697]

San Mateo native (now exiled) here. Love the love for my home town- I think I know exactly where that cross road cut through is. El Camino Real- yes the King's road between the Spanish Missions it goes all the way to San Diego in some form. As for the comments about Atherton- it was built that way from the very beginning- so the large lots and no sidewalks are an original feature, not a bug. It was meant to be the rural suburb to the rural suburb of Palo Alto. Same with Hillsborough (sub- San Mateo) and Woodside (for the horsey set). Each has their own flavor of pretension.

[@mokisan]

What's Atherton? Sorry not american but who stays there & why do they dont have sidewalk?

[@philipgrasso6255]

Your delivery is so deadpan and with an air of almost disinterest that something shocking happens…instead of falling asleep as expected, I’m pulled in and engaged further! 😂 Yes, that was a compliment. 👏

[@pux0rb]

Those "No on T" signs claiming it will be a "taxpayer's nightmare" are really confusing to me. I'll admit I don't know much, but doesn't allowing for more building types lead to more housing, which in turn, leads to lower taxes on average because they just increased the tax-base?

[@danielbaulig]

@@pux0rb Pretty sure that “tax payers” is a synonym/euphemism for “property tax payer”, i.e. “home owner”. More development has the (intended) effect of reducing home prices which is a worst case scenario for people owning homes with not much more than 10% in equity in them. A not uncommon scenario in an area with prices as high as in the Bay Area. In general, individual home owners are the biggest objectors to more development and underpin the entire “NIMBY” movement.

[@pux0rb]

@@danielbaulig Ah that makes a lot of sense. They don't want their "investment" to lose value. What a crime and a shame that housing is looked at this way instead of necessary shelter.

[@BrooksMoses]

​@@pux0rb Even among the people who can afford housing here, not many people have the financial luxury of being able to spend a million and a half on something without having some way to treat it as an investment. And it's not about "investments" losing value, when people can't afford to have much equity -- if you have 10% equity in the house and prices go down 20%, you can end up underwater on the mortgate, and that means you literally have to pay $150k to the bank in order to sell the house if you need to move elsewhere.

[@notstarboard]

@@danielbaulig I think "euphemism" is being far too generous. They mean "everyone" / "every taxpayer" because they want to win everyone / every taxpayer over, but they are lying through their teeth about who this hurts. Which is to say "no one", but it helps rich homeowners a lot less than people locked out of the housing market.

[@XxxThePsyCheMisTxxX]

​@pux0rb amen, it's why US housing prices are whack in general. Home owners are disincentivised enough, then add PE and real estate investment firms buying up all the unsold inventory and sitting on it to raise prices.

[@sakapfetnegla]

Red-lining is a big part of the story of what you're seeing from the train stations, and of course the fact Atherton is a lot of hundred-billionaire c-suite NIMBY's who run SV and a few folks suing the Town to prevent multi-family housing compliance with the new state law. Almost all of the main streets that closed off to cars happened during or after COVID hit, so you can thank the pandemic for a lot of the improvements to the place. The question about how folks live and do retail: either they have roommates, live at home with parents, and/or commute from hours away. At my old job I think 80% of the people I worked with commuted at least 20 miles a day. Edit: I forgot to mention that some 20-30%, also an estimate, commuted for 2-3 hours a day from outside of the Bay Area proper

[@reevegarrett8412]

Nice to see you finally acknowledge the insanity of Atherton. I work in that town, and it's wild. The bus stop by Menlo College is just comical.

[@annepaulson7537]

The city is now pretending that full parking lots on the Menlo School and Menlo College campuses will become low income housing, so they can avoid zoning for housin*anywhere else.

[@andrewsedik6161]

SSF resident who works in RWC, it was cool to see my new office building in the clip. Been riding Caltrain for 30 years and the new electric trains are awesome. SSF is now a bullet stop so I can get to RWC in about 20 minutes. I got priced out of SF years ago but living in South City isn't half bad and our city is doing a decent job at building more housing (and constantly adding more biotech office parks). What I hate about it is how car dependent it is. We have Caltrain, BART, SamTrans, and even the ferry but they don't really connect with each other. We have a few bike trails but riding a bike in the city is incredibly dangerous. Would offer that if you thought the trees you featured on El Camino (or ECR) are bad, you haven't been to Burlingame. The trees have grown past the sidewalks and encroach the road.

[@moynge]

As I'm binge viewing a slew of City Nerd videos, I realize it's a good time to make this note: City Nerd is one of my go-to anxiolytics, better than [substance name removed], [substance name removed], [substance name removed]. Indeed, City Nerd competes with top-shelf anxiety reduction experiences such as riding my bicycle, taking a nap with my chihuahua, and finding a new Trader Joe's frozen meal product.

[@Julianzazaza_kb]

As a Millbrae native, it's nice to see the dense housing around the Millbrae station. Most of that land just a couple of years ago was just parking lots for BART/Caltrain.

[@rx97_mc]

Really loved the deep dive into the silicon valley towns. Missed out on the lack of San Jose and Santa Clara!

[@mplbooks]

My husband works at Genentech in South San Francisco, and their campus is lovely. Lots of outdoor walking trails designed to encourage people to get outside a bit.

[@PapaJohnShatner]

I heard someone call it the "All Coast Conference" and I can't think anything different now

[@whalesequence]

I believe that's actually the name now

[@bean_TM]

BLACKSBURG MENTIONED!! honestly a great walking city if you're within the college. but it gets worse the further you go, of course. main street is vibrant and can get busy though. especially with all the bars

[@nocontentfromoldman5595]

Plus LOTS of bike paths to get around town/campus and into the rural outskirts.

[@colinwarn4606]

You missed one of the best parts of the Palo Alto transportation experience: Roundabouts with Stop signs right before you enter them.

[@TheHaighus]

...why would they prevent the chief benefit of roundabouts?

[@rogerk6180]

Why? I mean, why would you do that?

[@danc2014]

The round about was inserted in a normal street intersection crossing to slow traffic down. They are actually worst for pedestrians because the put plants in them and make seeing bikes and pedestrians difficult.

[@TheHaighus]

@@danc2014 The one I found in Palo Alto on street view only has a stop sign on one entrance, and it looks primarily like it was added due to a combo of poor design and maybe lack of roundabout familiarity in the US. The road with the stop has a clear line of sight and straight route to continue through the roundabout, so probably they were worried people wouldn't actually slow for the roundabout and the collision rate would rise. If they'd angled the road as it came in so you had to turn more sharply to clear the roundabout, the stop sign would probably be unnecessary.

[@rhombusx]

They also tend to have massive speedbumps all around them

[@davidpetersen6694]

I am so excited to finally see Mountain View, California since it is the default weather location for my Apple IPad. I never changed the default setting so yes, they have year round excellent weather just as you discovered. These tours are really well curated. I’m glad you stopped at each city. Hope you can do 3 or more city tours/visits a year forever. BTW…you are not AI because you take care of and love your cat. From David in Houston, Texas.

[@MariaNattestad]

Oh my god, I thought I saw someone who looked just like you on Castro Street in Mountain View recently! It was at the intersection right next to the shot of Castro street at 0:12 in this video!

[@Madwonk]

Wild City nerd spotting, it's a fun sport!

[@xanderkay315]

Gotta love those San Mateo NIMBYs with their 'No on T' placards.

[@Greg-om2hb]

Fun fact: When the Bay Bridge first opened, the lower deck was dedicated to rail lines for public transit between Oakland and San Francisco. I’m shocked by the transformation of B Street in San Mateo. El Camino Real is the road that connected all the missions built by the Spanish.

[@user-pi7sj4wm8p]

Hello from Davis! We aren't in the Bay Area but out east between here and Sacramento on the Capitol Corridor. We too were a minor community served by historic fright and passenger rail that now has a fully pedestrianized street leading up to the train station. Being a student here at UC Davis is a massive breath of fresh air (literally) from the LA/OC suburbs I grew up in.

[@moniquemurphy4851]

How’s the weather?

[@user-pi7sj4wm8p]

@ Heinous. I miss LA/OC beaches and weather but the independence from cars is beautiful. Only other relevant thing I can complain about is the cost to take the train into the Bay and BART. Other than that I really like it.

[@suprensa4393]

"This is the company that sends me a check for all the terrible ads they interrupt my video with." *Ad proceeds to pop up*

[@mrfochs]

El Camino Real is a disaster of a road. It is controlled by CalTrans and is falling apart because the cities cannot modify or maintain it. The Moffett/Castro intersection has been approved to be converted to a non-surface crossing and redirect the road termination, which causes undue congestion around the area.

[@greenmonkeys626]

Grew up in Los Gatos and Campbell, and I would say that you didn't see the experience most people have. There was decent bike infrastructure and it's only gotten better, but the transit and housing density is really unfortunate as soon as you get even 0.5 miles away from a Caltrain station. The sprawl is mind numbing and everyone uses a car for everything. The Caltrain corridor is good but most people don't live or work near it, even tech people.

[@mindyzuckerman936]

Yes, this. I used to live just south of SJSU a short walk from downtown San Jose and even there I had to have a car to buy groceries.

[@norcaljennifer]

South San Jose here. I use CalTrain to get to my job in Palo Alto. I get on deisel train at Capitol and change to the electric train at Diridon. The first 2 weeks that electric trains went into service, the planned transfers were a little gnarly but they seem to have it worked out now.

[@BrooksMoses]

Oh, that's good to hear. I was wondering how annoying the transfers were going to be.

[@adamg347]

One time, I was in Chicago, and I got stuck on an Amtrak for over an hour because they couldn't figure out how to release the parking brake. The real reason behind America's slow train times: tricky parking brakes.

[@Aarrenrhonda3]

In my opinion, a housing market crash is imminent due to the high number of individuals who purchased homes above the asking price despite the low interest rates. These buyers find themselves in precarious situations as housing prices decline, leaving them without any equity. If they become unable to afford their homes, foreclosure becomes a likely outcome. Even attempting to sell would not yield any profits. This scenario is expected to impact a significant number of people, particularly in light of the anticipated surge in layoffs and the rapid increase in the cost of living.

[@Rachadrian]

I suggest you offset your real estate and get into stocks, A recession as bad it can be, provides good buying opportunities in the markets if you’re careful and it can also create volatility giving great short time buy and sell opportunities too. This is not financial advise but get buying, cash isn’t king at all in this time!

[@Derekhoffman312]

You are right! I’ve diversified my 450K portfolio across various market with the aid of an investment coach, I have been able to generate a little bit above $830k in net profit across high dividend yield stocks, ETF and bonds.

[@Pconradsmith]

@@Derekhoffman312 Do you mind sharing info on the adviser who assisted you?

[@Derekhoffman312]

Annette Christine Conte is the licensed advisor I use. Just search the name. You’d find necessary details to work with to set up an appointment.

[@Pconradsmith]

Thank you for the lead. I searched her up, and I have sent her an email. I hope she gets back to me soon.

[@Jorora_Dev]

I think it’s important to note in the case of Atherton and California that they don’t do this because they “don’t care about safety” but because they don’t want poor people around, full stop, end of story. Rich people have no problem getting around in their cars and when they need to walk they just go downtown or to a gym or use their personal tracks in Atherton. Most of these unincorporated cities works like this to be honest. The goal is to ultimately displace and get rid of as many lower and middle income individuals as possible so they can be pushed out into SF, the East Bay, or even as far as the Valley. Where they then let cities get overrun by cars, littering and unsafe conditions. Because this god damn state operates like an island of the rich despite its attempts to seem progressive or caring. Which is why I think states like Oregon do a much better job at this at least in regards to Portland.

[@popstars7037]

I'm from California and we pronounce it as "REE - AL". I've never heard someone do otherwise.

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

Yeah, that was an odd comment he made. With all the Spanish named things in California, most people are comfortable with Spanish pronunciation. If you said it heavily anglified, you'd get a lot of weird looks.

[@Narcindin]

Everyone I know drops the “real”, just el Camino.

[@FriscoKittens]

The Pete Ellis Dodge jingle is forever burned into the minds of many of us and it’s pronounced that way in the song.

[@ods94065]

⁠@@HowardThompson-ux7kf"ree-AL" is pretty heavily Anglicized IMO. All of us are put to shame when someone from Latino USA shows us how these things are properly pronounced. 😆

[@gabriell.4440]

If you don't at least pronounce it "Ray-all", we'll know you're not from California lol.

[@MrBranh0913]

I’ve always considered Silicon Valley anything inside Santa Clara Valley. Things are much much worse down there. A whole different world from the Pennisula

[@LucasDimoveo]

When I lived in Boulder Colorado working as a dish washer at a cafe I lived in an apartment with 6 other people. My room was a storage closet on the patio. I paid $50 a month in rent. I saw set ups like that all the time growing up in NYC. Now I live in San Francisco working as a parkour coach. I wouldn’t be able to do it here without living with other people I wish that there was more incentive to build micro studios for people on the lower end of the working class

[@stephaniekurland7807]

I value all you do!

[@CrabNoodleSoupp]

The guy running that taco truck might be doing pretty well. They charge like $17 for 3 tacos. As for the service workers you're wondering about, they probably commute further inland from more affordable towns, or from South San Jose where houses are expensive, but you can rent a single bedroom in someone's house or ADU for less than $1000 a month. Not at all cheap or convenient, but still doable.

[@BrooksMoses]

I don't know about that particular taco truck, but I just found out that the one over next to Walgreen's on El Camino near Escuela is open starting at 9am in one location, and then drives to the Walgreens parking lot after lunch and is open there until 10pm. That sounds like a really long day, especially when you add in the commute time (which is presumably driving the truck) and cleanup and restocking.

[@rogerk6180]

A bedroom for 1k... 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@a55tech]

elsewhere in the bay I seen a hot dog cart w/ $10 hot dogs, starts u off lower & charges u separately for condiments so it adds up right quick

[@AdventureVixen]

I live in Palo Alto and I do enjoy how the cities have kept Castro and California Ave car free. We bike there now instead of driving. Also Atherton properties are mostly surrounded by tall hedges or wall. These are the super-rich. There is nothing to see for us regulars

[@408sophon]

Sunnyvale born and raised here. I've spent a lot of time in each of these cities, and you nailed it, point after point! This is why you're my GOAT CityNerd :-) shared w/ everyone

[@josephstroud5149]

If you think they aren't charging enough for driving on 101, you should see the express lane prices during rush hour. Twenty bucks for four miles of driving. The one camera shot you have doesn't do justice to the car commuter experience

[@David_Journey]

If you travel 3+ you are likely traveling for free. People like to play victims, but thanks to induced demand we know there is no end of supply of single-occupant cars…

[@dontomato9550]

I'm from Redwood City and it has urbanized so quickly, essentially all the tall buildings you see there are new and were previously either 1-2 story buildings or giant parking lots. For the longest time Redwood city was called Deadwood city and was mainly just a car dealership town with some supermarkets like costco and target.

[@kevley26]

9:40 Jesus Christ that is the greatest argument for the state of California taking control over local planning I have ever seen.

[@HappyQuailsLC]

My father bought a condo in East San Jose during the late 80's in anticipation of a train line being extended to that area, as an investment. Although it stood empty from time to time over the years, it was eventually extended and he said he did well on that. : )

[@masatanida9119]

As someone who currently lives in Redwood City but has also lived in San Diego for many years, I can definitively state that Redwood CIty does NOT have the best climate.

[@BrooksMoses]

But, but, there was a Government Test! :)

[@Dfox4]

Yes. Its Burlingame now.

[@ZO6Buccaneer]

7:00 the number of at grade crossings for Caltrain is insane, especially considering that CAHSR will still have most of these as it’s just going to operate on the Caltrain alignment. The northeast corridor has ZERO at grade crossing between DC and NYC, while CAHSR will have dozens in this area. Good luck with speed and safety…

[@FullLengthInterstates]

we no longer have infinite money for full grade separation. Brightline may be famous for its at grade crashes but it is still safer than driving. Our communities have a very high risk tolerance and we must use this advantage to get transit built as fast as possible.

[@MrBirdnose]

CAHSR will never be finished so it's a moot point.

[@Rhaegar19]

Especially considering how you could probably do most of them for the price of one big complex freeway interchange.

[@BrooksMoses]

@@Rhaegar19 : I think you underestimate the cost of raising a railroad track, and how far it needs to be raised. And how impractical and disruptive it would be to lower the roads enough to avoid raising the tracks. The Rengstorff Ave. crossing in Mountain View is slated to be converted to an underpass starting in a year or two. The plans expect it to take three years to complete. I think they are lifting the tracks about 12 feet, which at a 0.5% grade means starting the elevation over a half-mile away on each side -- and even so, lowering the road enough to go under the tracks means that the intersection with Central Expressway adjacent to the tracks also needs to be lowered, which means putting in grades in three directions from that intersection and completely re-aligning the entrance to the gas station on the corner. And then on the other side of the tracks, there's another intersection and a grocery store, and lowering Rengstorff Ave. while maintaining access to the store means bulldozing four housing lots (with a value of about $2m each) to put in a service road. Even without the service road, those housing lots would lose connections to their driveways, and we're just lucky there aren't houses with frontage on the other side of the street. And that's a mostly-residential street. For the next crossing down, at Castro Street in downtown Mountain View, the conclusion was that the only reasonable option is to just remove the crossing entirely.

[@Rhaegar19]

​@@BrooksMoses I understand that trains can't take the same grades that cars can, but grade separation isn't some extravagant thing. We do it for literally every freeway crossing without even batting an eye. We build wild intertwining bridges 60 ft. in the air for our freeways on a regular basis. Surely we can build a few simple bridges and ditches for the rail line.

[@jmhessel]

One extra tidbit about Atherton --- there used to be a caltrain stop in Atherton, but Caltrain and the city removed the station entirely in 2020.

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

I was wondering about that. I remember they definitely used to have a stop there, back the the later 90s when I was a Caltrain commuter, though I am not sure anyone ever got on or off there. Atherton residents aren't exactly the expected clientele for commuter rail.

[@jmhessel]

@@HowardThompson-ux7kf Last time I went to the bay, I didn't see the atherton stop and thought it might have been one of those "Mandela Effect" things where there never was one. Wikipedia says 122 passenger boardings per day in 2005, so you're totally right about low usage. I went to middle/high school around atherton (sadly, I could not transit in and drove ~25 minutes each way each day); m̶y̶ ̶s̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶u̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶u̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶e̶w̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶v̶i̶s̶i̶t̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶n̶i̶n̶s̶u̶l̶a̶.̶ (update: further mandela effect research with google street view reveals this bus from times gone by was actually to the menlo park station, which is still open. nonetheless:) It's sad they closed it instead of doing something more productive with it, but, par for the course in that area.

[@mokisan]

What's Atherton? Sorry not american but who stays there & why do they dont have sidewalk?

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

@@mokisan Atherton is a town in the San Francisco Bay Area that has local rules against sidewalks among other things. It is a VERY, VERY wealthy town, even in comparison to the wealthy towns that surround it, and things like multifamily housing and public transportation and walking are considered to be things "poor people" do, the sort of people Atherton does not want to encourage or have blighting their community (this may sound inflammatory, and it sort of is, but this is usually the underlining motivation for such zoning restriction and home owner association rules).

[@mokisan]

@@HowardThompson-ux7kf thanks!

[@niradgupta4075]

all these beautiful pedestrian streets... that are only a single story with no housing above. everything is so balkanized between these cute downtowns, huge corporate campuses, suburban tract homes (the majority of the land by far), and then the ugly "service" areas that remain hidden out of sight.

[@Zorave-qi6fs]

So I’m almost 30 and native to the Bay Area-I was born in RWC from parents born and raised there, and I’ve also lived in Dublin (East Bay/Tri-Valley) and San Jose. I also have a friend who lived car-free and commuted from SF to Silicon Valley on one of the Apple shuttles (private bus). The issue with that and the answers to a lot of your questions about the Bay Area is just the balance of commute time and salaries. Individuals making ~250k+ a year don’t want to spend 2+ hours daily commuting. Likewise, a waitress is willing to drive further for higher salary and tips. Seems like you visited on a Saturday? 101 during commute hours is often a parking lot; 280 is also parallel to it. There’s often a direct correlation with Bay Area (and beyond e.g. Central Valley) housing prices and the rush hour commute times. For reference, I’m basically the only member of my family left in the Bay Area because I got the right combo of lucky/privledged/hardworking to get a Big Tech job. It breaks my heart because my family all moved different places and I hate the idea of raising my future kids somewhere they most likely can’t afford to live. On the other hand, I’m a climate wuss, I love the Bay Area and my friends, if I move I can never afford to come back, and by staying here with my salary I’m earning more money to establish financial security (e.g. my parents will literally never be able to afford to retire) to follow my kid wherever they want to live. beginswithhome.org is a cool site I learned about recently trying to improve affordability for Bay Area housing

[@_mball_]

Woo! Bay area love. As a SF resident, though it's not optional, the Central Subway is a HUGE daily improvement. Wish is were longer, but it is very useful. What's amazing about the Peninsula is that most of these Main Streets were *not* car free prior to 2020. It's a bit perverse in what it took, but the Pandemic has left a mark on urban infrastructure.

[@matthewoehler2472]

OMG, I've used San Mateo Station thousands of times. Left pre-Covid, but love that you stopped there. The roads you were showing blocked off were always ones I thought should be and I'm so happy that it happened.

[@mokisan]

Where are you now?

[@nestwr]

I remember in about 2012 when everyone was making fun of SF for their 1k$ a month studios. Not so funny now, eh?

[@HowardThompson-ux7kf]

Yeah I remember in the late 90s when houses in Mountain View were $500K - I mean HALF A FREAKING MILLION - and that was just gob smacking.

[@the.abhiram.r]

nowadays, even studios in philly are going for 1k 😭😭😭

[@burgundian-peanuts]

If you adjust for inflation, $1000 back then would be equivalent to $1400 today. Still not much for a studio in a highly desirable city.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Now you'd be lucky to get a single room occupancy (SRO) for that!

[@jorymil]

$1k a month is now a studio in St. Louis, Kansas City, or Omaha.

[@lemapp]

Thanks for Mountain View scenes. I lived there for about 7 years. Across the street from that Valero gas station with the taco truck. My condo was built in the 1960's to attract NASA engineers. When I left we still had the highest maintenance fees on the Peninsula. With some 16 acres, we kept 2 full time gardeners employed.

[@a-penny-farthing]

I think it is worth praising the pedestrianized main streets of all the towns along the Caltrain corridor, but it's important to mention how most of them actually work: a veritable SEA of parking just behind the buildings. Outside of San Mateo and Redwood City (and to a lesser extent, Palo Alto), there is essentially no dense housing. Most suburbanites (like me when I was growing up in this area) drive into "downtown" to enjoy the walkable, mixed use urbanism for a bit before driving home. Unlike in San Francisco, where the retail corridors developed around the historic streetcars, these are not "real" neighborhoods where people live, work, and play. The vast majority of people live miles away, drive into work, and maybe stop downtown after for a bite to eat. These cities could be doing so much more to leverage these great walkable areas into real neighborhoods where people could live too.

[@anybleepinusername]

Also worth noting that most of these streets were only changed to fully pedestrian during the pandemic in an attempt to encourage foot traffic to ailing businesses. Thankfully the benefits not just during the pandemic were realized and the pedestrian streets remained.

[@aquaticko]

Since we know you're a native Portlandian, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Nike global campus in Beaverton. It's sprawling very car-dependent--surrounded by 5-lane stroads--and while there's a MAX station not far from the campus, it's pretty clear that Nike--whose products assume you're moving around a lot and need their products to make it happen--anticipates basically everyone driving to work.

[@szurketaltos2693]

Sportswear is mostly not designed for commutes though. It's designed for high intensity or long duration sport which fits well with the weekend warrior or every morning training ethos; those are perfectly compatible with otherwise being completely sedentary.

[@aquaticko]

@@szurketaltos2693 you’re not wrong, but c’mon, tons of Americans wear that kind of stuff everywhere they aren’t at work.

[@szurketaltos2693]

@@aquaticko for sure, just my 2 cents on the likely mindset at Nike HQ.

[@BalooUriza]

22:38: Oh man I love that weapons-grade sarcasm there. One thing I miss about Portland, the weather might be wet but the wit's always bone dry.

[@ScottAtwood]

Please come back and cover San Jose! I think it really is interesting from an urbanism perspective. It retains its historic downtown area with quite good urbanism, but due to a starry-eyed city manager in the 1950s, AP “Dutch” Hamann the city very intentionally leaned into car oriented sprawl that forms the bulk of the city today. We have a laughbly awful light rail system, but we also have Caltrain, a fully electrified commuter rail system, BART (a metro/commuter rail aystem), and may one day have the busiest rail hub west of the Mississippi when CA HSR arrives. We even have some great protected cycleways and intersections in our urban core for good cycling. We also have super expensive housing, and rampant homelessness. It is interesting: a lot of bad, some good, and hints of moving in a better direction.

[@ods94065]

Good to see a familiar face on the CityNerd feed. 😁

[@mindyzuckerman936]

Yes! I'd love to see SJ on this channel!

[@DGotliebVids]

If I could rule by fiat. I would move San Jose airport south of the city on the CA-HSR/Caltrain alignment with a airport station. And then convert the freed up land into dense development. Also would free up the down town height restrictions. Also el Camino becomes a bus/bike priority route with dense housing

[@JMurph2015]

Tbh SJ is mostly bad from an urbanism POV. Apart from one BART stop and one Caltrain stop, there's little, if any non-bus transit (idk if VTA even serves San Jose?). The cycling isn't terrible, but it's worse than everything north of SJC. It's making progress though. North San Jose seems to have the best understanding of what the Valley needs to become in order to get enough housing (it's like 6-story mixed use apartments for as far as the eye can see).

[@ScottAtwood]

@, I would agree that much of the land area of San Jose has very bad urbanism, but I think you underestimate the urbanism that does exist. San Jose has not just one Caltrain stop, but five of them (Blossom Hill, Capitol, Tamien, Diridon, and College Park). VTA light rail doesn’t merely serve San Jose, but the bulk of the service is within San Jose. The core of the service has interlined Blue and Green lines service from Tasman station in North San Jose all the way through Convention Center in downtown, with the Green line going on to connect to Diridon station, while the Blue line follows 87 and then 85 to terminate at Santa Teresa station in South San Jose. Within the core of the city approximately bounded by 101, 280, 87, and 880, cycling conditions are quite good, with lots of bike lanes, many of them buffered or protected, several protected intersections, and lots of quality bike racks for parking. I do agree that aside from the core downtown and surrounding areas (which has good, verging on great urbanism, including lots of new apartments going up), the North San Jose area is one of the best up-and-coming areas of the city, with lots of dense housing, several mixed used transited-oriented developments, and of course good access to the VTA light rail system.

[@rontalbot4966]

As a resident of Oakland living (intentionally) near a BART station it is very frustrating that there is no connection between BART and Cal Tran. I am pretty sure this is intentional to kept the unwashed east bay types from sullying the peninsula suburbs. Cal Tran is nice but very limited.

[@kathyw4811]

No it’s not likely intentional. It’s more that infrastructure often seems to live forever. The awkward location of the SF Caltrain station (a full MILE south of Market St) was established well over a century ago and was ridiculed in the press even then. There have long been plans to connect Caltrain to the Transit Center, but that’s a very costly endeavor and probably won’t happen soon.

[@exelixium]

Of course there is! Millbrae Station is a cross-platform station that connects BART to Caltrain. You're not connecting in the City, but if you're headed to the South Bay (which is really the only reason you would take Caltrain), then you connect to it in Millbrae Station.

[@Zeyev]

Thanks for your tour of my area. I live in the southern part of Mountain View, very low walkability score and very high housing prices. Decades ago, while in college, I carried mail in Redwood City/Woodside one summer and in Menlo Park/Atherton/Portola Valley the next summer. Like every letter carrier I have stories but I won't share them here. The average temperatures are what that "Climate Best" folderol was based on and Redwood City does quite well in that regard. The Bay Area often has heat waves in October that make it seem to outsiders that we've cooled down from 120 or so in the summer but in truth we've warmed up from high 70s or low 80s down the Peninsula. There was another "rail" line down the Peninsula. My mother used to talk about taking Market Street streetcars (complete with cow-catchers on the front) down to a park in San Mateo in the summer for a little sunshine and warmth. Also, Los Altos once had commuter rail on a different line. Mountain View itself, like some of the other cities, was a stagecoach stop on the run between San Francisco and San Jose.

[@AshmewStudios]

One thing about Mountain View is that they're actually leveling the pedestrianized streets in downtown with the sidewalk. Most of these cities pedestrianized the streets pretty recently, so the old road is still there - Mountain View is essentially filling in the road part and raising it to sidewalk level.

[@Nilessterner]

I live in sf off the bart line. Its fantastic. I do own one car. I use it regularly but only for costco and h mart runs. I have ben using Caltrain far more since the upgrade. Its really fantastic. Air conditioned, with fast wifi. I can sit and chill instead of sitting in traffic fearing for my life. I lived in the bay area during college ten years ago. Its really amazing to see what has been done post covid to improve the urbanism. Let the "Dutchification" continue!

[@orbital1337]

These pedestrianized areas are basically just outdoor malls or some kind of urban theme park. You drive there from your house in the suburbs and park in a garage, walk around for a bit, then head home again. I lived in Sunnyvale and San Jose for a bit and I just hated the suburban sprawl there.

[@Maxime_K-G]

I love how the Bay Area can create some of the most brilliant tech the world has ever seen and innovations that take over the world but at the same time they can't figure out how to make housing that is both nice to live in and more than one floor tall. Especially a lot of recent innovations like VR headsets or self-driving cars seem specifically created to solve their own little suburban hell in the only way they know how, through tech, software and venture capital. 😅

[@Maxime_K-G]

@@nebula_rasa Yeah, exactly. They're trying to solve the issues of social isolation, long commutes and car dependency, but without the right tools and a bad approach it's just a band-aid solution. I don't know how big the people in these industries are on housing reform but after paying a million bucks for a small house and learning about public transport through Elon's tweets, I can't imagine they're all vocal supporters to increase density.

[@gloofisearch]

I lived for some years in Sunnyvale and must say, the Bay area is one of the nicest places ever to live in. People are friendly and outgoing, open to change and new things (Besides more high density housing). Nature is still in abundance around for hiking and biking. The climate is great year round and many of the cities still have their old school charm. A better, more expanded tram system would be awesome to get around without a car. I would have hoped that all these ultra rich tech giants in the area, get together and invest in such a thing. I am sure, if they foot the bill, cities would approve the changes, plus, they would get huge tax breaks for it. But hey, better to buy back stocks for Billions of Dollars as that is way more important.

[@jaiveersingh5538]

They all have private shuttles for employees only :) Why invest in a public good when you don't have to?

[@jimmythestoryteller]

@@jaiveersingh5538 The other side of the coin is that those employees don't flood the streets with their cars. But I get your point.

[@danielleweber8914]

Yes imagine if we could get San Mateo County and SF to cooperate and extend muni down ECR (El Camino Real) from Mission and put bike lanes on ECR as well

[@siberx4]

So... I looked up Atherton in Google Maps after this video and you don't even need the normally-helpful red dotted line to see the outlines of the city. Yikes.

[@davidblackburn2567]

Thx!! I grew up in Palo Alto in the 1970s, Ray. I rode my bike EVERYWHERE. There were bike lane over much of the city. I didn’t get my first car until after I graduated college. Alas, the Palo Alto I grew up in is long gone. It was a great place to grow up but could never move back - too expensive. Walking down University Avenue it feels like it’s European stroller wars…how has the most expensive/tricked out pram. Really appreciate this video AND the compilation of your videos.

[@teohahs9464]

Yah Sunnyvale used to be mostly just Murphy street and that was about it, but they planned out a whole design for a new shiny downtown over the last 5-10 years, and it’s worked really well.

[@danc2014]

Sunnyvale had a indoor mall and outdoor mall before the redevelopment started in 2003. But things went bad and it has been 20 years to complete. Only Murphy street and Macy's was kept but Macy was eventually taken down too. Target was a converted Montgomery Wards store and was able to open in the remodeling first.

[@JoyClinton-i8g]

The entire Caltrain route has NOT been electrified. Caltrain runs south of San Jose to Gilroy. South of Tamien Station, it is still diesel. It will likely remain diesel for the next 50 years, or until CAHSR comes through, whichever comes first. P.S. Stanford used to be The Indians. And the mascot reflected that. But are now they are The Cardinal (not the bird, rather, the red color). P.P.S. When nearby UC Santa Cruz was built, they put the choice of mascot to the students. Hence, the Banana Slugs (you can see John Travolta wearing the sweatshirt in PULP FICTION).

[@qjtvaddict]

South of SJ it’s useless anyway

[@jmlinden7]

@@qjtvaddict It's used by commuters who live in Gilroy and commute into San Jose/Silicon Valley

[@homebrewfutures]

Good overview, Ray. I'm happy that Atherton's getting broken by California's statewide mandatory upzoning. I know you're from Seattle so, as one of those fabled viewer suggested topics, I'd be interested in seeing you cover some of the cities in eastern Washington that have made efforts at reforming sprawl, such as Walla Walla and Spokane. Walla Walla consolidated a lot of their residential zoning into "neighborhood residential" of up to 4 units and pedestrianized a block of downtown street into a plaza. It's got a cute, historic downtown and the busses are fare free. Spokane recently abolished its parking minimums, got a BRT line and has reformed the heck out of its zoning code.

[@wake266]

One interesting quirk you may have missed (or elected to omit) - on gamedays, CalTrain makes a special stop at "Stanford Station", which is much closer to the stadium than the Palo Alto station (which is not that close to the University itself because of how long Palm Drive is). So, there's a relatively easy way for folks up and down the peninsula to go to Stanford games without driving.

[@tahajfirst6836]

Small note: all of the pennisula counties, i.e. the "west bay", had some of the most severly red-lined cities in the country, for a good chunk of their history. Not to "make it all about race", but it is definitely a factor in the general differences between e.bay, and w.bay communities.

[@BrooksMoses]

Yeah -- my friends bought a house in Mountain View in 2008 that still had a term in the deed prohibiting them from reselling it to anyone who wasn't white and requiring them to pass the restriction along to the next owner. Completely unenforceable these days, but still there like a bad chain letter.

[@HappyQuailsLC]

Those brown fields are gorgeous green and yellow flowered fields after the winter rains, onward... always creating the signs of an early spring!

[@MsAngrybutterfly]

I am so happy someone *finally* made a video that touches on the bike friendliness of Silicon Valley. I moved from San Francisco to Mountain View 3 years ago and now use my car so rarely that I’ve put less than 1K miles on it since I moved. I was able to bike to a friend’s party in Cupertino without ever leaving bike infrastructure, I don’t know of anywhere else in North America where you can go through 3 different municipalities without ever leaving the bike lanes. My former employer offered a $15 a day stipend to bike commuters. Just FYI, you missed out on the neighborhoods where Mountain View is adding density, which is “Castro City” not to be confused with Castro Street, and San Antonio, which has a Cal Train station, but isn’t on all the schedules.

[@MsAngrybutterfly]

Oh, I forgot to mention, 82 El Camino Real is adding bike lanes between Santa Clara and Palo Alto right now. It’s part of a plan to get a continuous bike route along 82 from San Jose to San Francisco.

[@ivandragomiloff2356]

The Feudalistic political structure of the Bay Area is the problem. Too many gated manors protecting the elites and intelligentsia, while masses live in poverty and crime ridden areas, like serfs.

[@troygaspard6732]

The traffic used to be worse in SF before the pandemic, The greatest number of traffic violations come from Uber and Lyft drivers.

[@darkwoodmovies]

I used to work in Silicon Valley. In theory, the towns are actually pretty nice and well-organized and bike friendly. In practice, everything you need to get to is 20 miles away, far from the downtowns, and there’s no way to get there without a car. It’s still a car-dependent sh*thole through and through. A few closed streets and a better Caltrain schedule is just the tip of the iceberg of what needs to happen to get any effective change.

[@nellj9495]

It's definitely much better than a lot of other places.

[@darkwoodmovies]

@@nellj9495 Fair enough. But also, the standards are so low in our failed third-world country that it’s not even worth comparing.

[@alexaramachandran7392]

I went to school at Stanford and I'm so grateful for the Caltrain. The timetables still kinda suck (no service after midnight), but without it it'd be impossible to get off campus to have a day in SF. South Bay is suburban sprawl nightmare, especially how expensive Palo Alto is for a college student, so I'm so grateful to have had that transit there (though I wish the BART had better access throughout SF!!!) Also insanely bikeable. Didn't know how to ride a bike when I got to college, but by the time I left, I couldn't imagine not riding my bike to get anywhere.

[@kathyw4811]

BART is a regional system, not local.

[@jorymil]

It's nuts: Silicon Valley was great to visit, but when I went to interview at Google, an apartment was going to be 3x what I was paying in Boston for a comparable commute distance. The salary wasn't. But I bike a lot, so I would have been biking everywhere. I could see myself moving out that way if some of the bigger tech companies relocate and housing costs normalize. There is fabulous infrastructure, tons of cultural amenities, great schooling, lots of higher education, lots of natural resources, etc. But everything was 1950s-era: there wasn't any history. And of course, it cost _so_ much to live.

[@Niorath]

We say Real as a Spanish speaker would, at least here in the bay. That being said most people don't call it by its full name and just say El Camino. Same with Alameda de Las Pulgas, we just say Alameda - which runs parallel to El Camino for a while

[@LeonidAndronov]

Caltrain does not even stop at Atherton anymore

[@Narcindin]

All those pedestrianized streets only started during Covid and mandatory outdoor dinning. At least in Millbrae and San Mateo. I believe that the residents realized how amazing it was and refused to go back.

[@BrooksMoses]

That's definitely true for Mountain View.