Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog - 1SiliconValley.com

Who says startup companies are the only reason Silicon Valley is glamorous?  Who says you need to head up to San Francisco for the urban scene?

Santana Row is a uniquely Northern Californian fusion of design, culture and accessibility, recreating the atmosphere of Paris’ Champs Elysees using a distinctly Silicon Valley neo-Mediterranean architecture.

A bustling farmers market lines the streets on Sunday mornings in quaint contrast to the exotic car meets on Saturdays.

But for all the testosterone from the horsepower and club life of the weekends, Santana Row is an amazingly eccelctic place where strollers share the spotlight with Ferraris and people of all walks of life can enjoy the live music.

This walking tour starts from the garage on Olin Avenue, which is most easily accessible from Winchester Blvd.

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Mar.16.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info, Neighborhoods, Santana Row ] 4 Comments »

Tired of hearing that friendly "Howdy, Neighbor!" from the folks who live down the block?  How about the encroaching silence of a winter breeze followed by hollow footsteps falling beside you, matching your cadence as you peer over the breath on your shoulder to… nothing?

Did you ever think the odd chill you feel when you walk into a house may not be the air conditioning?  No?  Well, let's rest our left hemispheres for the moment and let our imaginations run for a little while.

As fortunes come, go, and IPO here in the only land that's had a gold rush in three different centuries, the Bay Area and its Valley of the Heart's Delight (now modern-day Silicon Valley) isn't without its own stories of mystery.

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Mar.10.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info ] 4 Comments »

The reality of Silicon Valley is that you need a car to get most places you'd actually need (or want) to get to on a regular basis.  This is unfortunate because other urban-suburban regions have shown that it's both possible and practical to have large scale mass transit. 

Boston, for example, has the amazingly interconnected T which seamlessly integrates its rail, subway, bus and boat system through everywhere from its Charles River neighbor Cambridge all the way out to "You Name It, Massachusetts"!

In contrast, the Silicon Valley equivalent is a myriad of public transportation silos which include the VTA, SamTrans, BART, MUNI, and ACE, among others.  The good folks at Google helped make sense of all the acronym soup by working with 511.org to create what I call the Silicon Valley Public Transportation Wizard.  It's essential for anyone hoping to get the most out of Bay Area public transport.

The other reality of our car-based culture is that gas is expensive in Silicon Valley.  I remember a time when I loved to take random drives with friends to Gilroy or Half Moon Bay at the spur of the moment, much like we might have taken the Green Line in Boston to Sunset Grill and Tap. 

That type of escapade has turned from pleasure to guilty pleasure and to add salt to the wound in our wallets, the Associated Press reports that gas prices have topped $3 in California.  (Locals driving down El Camino or in the City have seen this a few times.) 

So what can people do to ease the crunch?

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Mar.08.2007 [ Filed under: Commuting, Bay Area Info ] Comment Here »

Whoever said "virtue is its own reward" didn't know that the 511 Rideshare Rewards Program is giving away up to $100 in gasoline and Safeway gift cards to new carpoolers in the Bay Area. 

To encourage Silicon Valley commuters to make the switch from "California carpools" (you know, where everyone going to the same place uses their own car) to real ones, they're giving away $10 in swag every five days you carpool — and one person who carpools over 40 days will win $1,000 in cash!  The program ends Halloween 2007 or when the money runs out.  

For carpool newbies, the next logical question is, "Where do I find a carpool partner?"

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Mar.03.2007 [ Filed under: Commuting, Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

Ever wondered how your favorite shopping mall rates or whether there might be a much nicer one within a few minutes of where you're going now?  Scott Parsons of the BIGMallRat Guide to Shopping Malls has a solution.

His site focuses on Northern California and Reno, Nevada and rates some of the biggest shopping malls in and around the San Jose area.  He brings us this beautiful picture of the Stanford Shopping Center courtyard in Palo Alto to the right.

There's no surprise Santana Row (it's more urban experience than pure shopping mall) and Valley Fair get 10 out of 10 ratings and there's also strong coverage of malls in the East Bay, including the 10 out of 10 rated Stoneridge Shopping Mall, Walnut Creek's upscale Broadway Plaza, and the Fremont Hub — which didn't fare so well in the ratings!

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Mar.01.2007 [ Filed under: Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

Menlo Park is a Tree USA city, adhering to four national standards for tree management and budgeting on forestry maintenance. Nestled into the lush greenery is a bustling area in central Menlo Park where hundreds of people will gather on a typically bright summer afternoon in Northern California, enjoying a glass of wine and walking the local scene.

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Feb.23.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News, Neighborhoods, Menlo Park ] 1 Comment »

Just when you thought Berkeley was becoming a gentrified shell of its former self, with the surprisingly large population of young Republicans there, KGO updates a fantastic story about local activists who are opposing the construction of a Cal gymnasium, which threatens a local oak grove.

It started off in December like any other stereotypical tree protest with demonstrators climbing the trees and making temporary residences out of their arboreal friends — stereotypical until today…

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Feb.22.2007 [ Filed under: Bay Area Info, Bay Area Real Estate, Home Buyers, Home Owners, Silicon Valley News ] Comment Here »

Responding to reports about mountain lions sunbathing at the Fremont BART station, California Department of Fish and Game officials flew over the area with a helicopter and heat-sensing equipment but didn't find the offending felines.

When I first moved to Silicon Valley almost a decade ago… I spent a lot of time inside because of El Niño.  But when it finally dried out, I dismantled the ark I'd been building, and took to hiking around beautiful Northern California.

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Feb.21.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News, Neighborhoods ] 1 Comment »

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!  If you're not in New Orleans (like me), you're missing out on the best reason ever concocted to throw a party on a Tuesday.  According to the folks on KGO today, my hometown hotels are 95% booked and people are having fun and spending cash there like you wouldn't believe.  Geaux Nawlins!

Those of you looking for a gigantic bacchanalia here in Silicon Valley are in luck: the second annual HR Week West is being held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on Great America Parkway.

But outside the carnival atmosphere there, the California Highway Patrol has redoubled their efforts to crackdown on speeding in the Bay Area.

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Feb.20.2007 [ Filed under: Commuting, Silicon Valley News ] 1 Comment »

Palo Alto calls itself the "Birthplace of the Silicon Valley" and has a legitimate claim: it is the home of the garage where Dave Hewlett and Bill Packard founded the original Silicon Valley startup, HP.

But Palo Alto, with Stanford University to the south, has grown into an upscale community complete with an active downtown area that boasts high-end stores, an affluent atmosphere, and great restaurants.

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Feb.17.2007 [ Filed under: Activities, Bay Area Info, Silicon Valley News, Neighborhoods, Palo Alto ] 2 Comments »