Not Even Silicon Valley Escapes History | Hacker News Reader

Not Even Silicon Valley Escapes History

theatlantic.com

82 pointsssclafani10 comments

Milpitas/North San Jose is basically one big dump and superfund site. Soon the home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Used to eat at that Peppermill. Toward the end it was a neon colored dump. Then they tore it down and built this new thing called BJs--har-dee-har-har. Now it's one of the three things that's happening in Cupertino past its sleepy bedtime.

I also remember the AMD buildings he's talking about, down the block was the original Fry's. Outside the theme was CPU; inside it was dark, cramped, and a mess. I remember getting a SoundBlaster sound card from there. It was $150.

My old boss at the mothership told me how when she was growing up there used to be a windmill on Stevens Creek and De Anza where people would go to get their grains milled and how back then it was just swaths of orange groves.

I wonder if she feels about the change as I feel about the change now. Hopefully more benevolent and less angry than me because my home kept disappearing, eaten up by these newcomers. Though to her, I'm just as alien.

Should call her.

> Then they tore it down and built this thing called BJs. Now it's one of the three things that's happening in Cupertino.

Ah, IL7. I could do me some Chicken Parmigiana and Ahi Poke right now.

Be sure to show your badge.

I dunno, the comparison to a coal mine at the end seemed a little far-fetched. I get that he's trying to tell a story, but that's a bridge too far for me.

Personally, I'm glad the industry has moved up the valley a bit. It's too damn hot in San Jose.

I used to live at Tasman and Fair Oaks, and it was always interesting to go on walks in the area and try to decipher the local area. It was pretty easy to tell where the former industrial was in that area, and it was fascinating. Heck, I was surprised to find out that Atari used to own most of the buildings in that area.

Since I'm also a railfan, I'll throw in this-the VTA light rail between Evelyn Station and Moffett Field used to be a spur that ran off the SP/Caltrain tracks to Moffett Field for the military (and some industrial customers). Going by on light rail near Middlefield, you can actually see tracks in the pavement branching off next to some of the office parks, where there used to be spurs.

This growth affects more than just Silicon Valley and California. Take any area that's boomed in the last 4 decades and you will find something similar. I'm sitting in a office building on what used to be some of the most productive farm land in Texas. Now Collin County is exburbia and corporate headquarters. Most of the residents are originally from other states, countries or 1st generation Texans.

http://www.plainsite.org/environment

Now covering all of California.

Bay area born and raised. Reading this makes me wonder what some of the people I chatted with on my last trip overseas (Puglia) though when we asked questions about history and the like. Things change, people and communities adapt, I don't recall what was there but an orchard at one point.

Looks like I work just a short walk away from the illustrious "center of Silicon Valley". Neat!

Just don't drink the groundwater...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com