Article: 179098 of talk.bizarre Newsgroups: talk.bizarre From: ceej@netcom.com (C J Silverio) Subject: repost: new building 1 Message-ID: <ceejD0DLGu.FMI@netcom.com> Sender: ceej@netcom.com (C J Silverio) Reply-To: ceej@netcom.com (C J Silverio) Organization: Lettery Pompous Ink Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 06:17:17 GMT Lines: 71 Status: O --- |From: ceej@genmagic.com (C J Silverio) |Newsgroups: talk.bizarre |Subject: new building 1 |Date: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 19:00:39 -0800 |Organization: Rabbits from a Hat |Lines: 57 |Message-ID: <ceej-0112941900390001@dyn-n2-14-6.genmagic.com> --- (My email works again. Really. I just tested it.) [Editorial note: actually, it broke again just after I posted that. --ceej] General Magic has just moved its offices from a pretty nice location in Mountain View to a fairly terrible location in Scummyvale. I mean *Sunnyvale*. Actually, I'm being redundant. All locations in Sunnyvale suck. A brief word on Silicon Valley geography: suckitude increases to the south as you approach San Jose. Suckitude is at a maximum at the intersection of highway 880 & 101. (Also known as "the Heart of Darkness." Well, it's known as that to me, anyway. Fittingly, a large mall marks the spot.) San Jose & Santa Clara are armpits with no culture and (almost) no edible food. Housing is cheap-- but who'd want to live there? Sunnyvale is a strip-mined strip-mall hell-hole. Mountain View is has pleasant spots and decent housing. It has a downtown which was actually improved by its recent "revitalization." Rents are at a pleasant spot on the price/performance curve. Palo Alto has great food and great housing with high rents. It has a downtown with bookstores and movie theaters and the above-mentioned great food. I live in Palo Alto. I judge building locations by two criteria: - How nice is the bicycle commute to the spot? Pleasant residential streets? Hellish distressways? - What's available within walking distance? Edible food? Nice parks? Strip-mine-malls? My commute to Magic's previous building was a 5 mile bike ride through pleasant residential Palo Alto along a mostly car-free bike boulevard. Good food, Tower Records, banking, and the DMV were immediately adjacent to the building. This location rated highly for me. My commute to Magic's current building is problematic. Do I take the City of Sunnyvale suggested bike route along the Central Expressway, where the bike lane disappears at each high-speed exit and where a cyclist was killed last year? Or do I take Middlefield and cope with a minor maze of streets where Middlefield ends? Either way, it's about 10 miles. What's within walking distance? Inedible strip- mine-mall food (bad chain burritos, bad chain pizza, terrifying Japanese cuisine, greasy Chinese cuisine) and no parks. It's industrial "park" wasteland. This location rates MAJOR SUCKITUDE for me. It's the difference between Mountain View and Scummyvale, and it's painful. --- C J Silverio ceej@[netcom.com | well.sf.ca.us | genmagic.com] <a href="http://wiretap.spies.com/ceej/ceej.html">cj's home page</a>