Here in the South Bay, mammoths once roamed. Imagine those massive, hairy creatures tromping around what is now Silicon Valley. It sounds preposterous. Yet, impressive remains were unearthed near the Guadalupe River a decade ago.
The South Bay is more than just tech. It has layers of weird and fascinating history. This area was not always the domain of tech giants. Long before computers, the Ohlone tribe thrived here. Their spirit lingers, especially in the name of Ohlone Community College. Development unearthed ceremonial burial grounds causing consternation. Some even believe parts of South San Jose are haunted.
Mining was also a major industry for the South Bay. Forget the image of endless fruit orchards. Almaden Valley was once home to quicksilver mines. The mining boom faded by the 1920s. After cleanup, the area became Almaden Quicksilver Park. Look closely. You can still spot sealed mine shafts and ruins.
San Jose once held a prestigious title. It was California’s first capital city. The original state seal still stands. It is surrounded by palm trees between the San Jose Museum of Art and the Fairmont.
Many famous people hail from the South Bay Area. Olympians Brian Boitano and Kristi Yamaguchi once skated at the Vallco ice center. Dustin Diamond, Teri Hatcher, Scott Weiland, and Steve Wozniak were all born here. Soccer star Brandi Chastain attended high school at Mitty and college at Santa Clara University.
The San Francisco Bay Area is immense. It is often misunderstood. It is sprawling and multi-racial. The Bay Area has been integral to the production of modern American suburbia. Its urban system embodies contradictions of the contemporary moment.
The Bay Area is the fourth largest urban area in the United States. It has over 7 million people. Most residents are spread across a suburbanized city. It spans over 100 miles north to south and 50 miles east to west. This covers nearly 7000 square miles.
One strange thing is that almost no one agrees on what defines the Bay Area. Locals have only a vague notion of a unified Bay Area. San Franciscans barely speak of realms beyond their city. Silicon Valley enjoys worldwide fame. Oakland enjoys fierce loyalty. The North Bay considers itself a rural paradise.
One factor that makes the Bay Area strangely disconnected is its three central cities. These are San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. No other major metro has three relatively equal centers. The Bay Area is the mythical three-headed monster of North American cities.
San Francisco still holds priority in the popular imagination. It dominated the region from 1850 to 1900. That early start means it has more historic sites and museums. It is still more central to the region than San Jose, though less so than Oakland.
Silicon Valley is the global heart of electronics, information, and biotech. Silicon Valley is the Bay Area’s principle node of employment.
The electronics age has inverted the metropolitan area. This made San Francisco and the East Bay subordinate to Silicon Valley. No other metropolis in the country has seen anything like this flipping centrality on its head.
The vast majority of the built-up area is low-rise. It rarely exceeds four stories. Suburbanization is normally attributed to transport and the single-family home. The Bay Area was an innovator in these decentralizing technologies.
The region has been particularly affluent. This has supported its addiction to the single-family home. The Bay Area is a longtime mecca of the single-family home. The Victorian city had miles of single-family row houses.
The region is the greenest metropolis in the United States. San Francisco Bay is the centerpiece. The amount of parkland is almost double the size of the urban landscape. The greenbelt is a product of a century of political battles over land conservation. The Bay Area has become more compact behind urban limit lines. The nodes of suburban growth may be more compact than in earlier eras.
The Bay Area has been at the forefront of the credit machine of American capitalism. The Bay Area has been in the vanguard of American suburbanization. A big reason for this was easy credit.
The housing boom of the 1990s and 2000s blew the San Francisco metropolis up like a balloon. A new generation of suburban towns have spilled into the Central Valley. The Bay Area commuting field now reaches far beyond the 9-county boundaries.
The pattern of racial settlement, segregation, and inequality has been inverted in the Bay Area. The same forces have flipped its racial geography upside down. For all the success of the Bay Area, it is no closer to racial equality than before.
The new geography of the working class is striking. High housing prices in the central Bay Area have driven working people to the new suburbs in the Central Valley. The fragility of the new open-housing suburbs was revealed by the Great Recession.