Over 70,000 people live in Mountain View, but somehow, the place still feels like a small town. The way neighborhoods are built now, it's so easy to live in a world where you just don't know the people who live around you. For so many friends I've met and neighborhoods I've visited, there's no community, no sense of place.

"Who are you're neighbors?" I might ask, and a shrug and confused glance is what I get back. Nothing to ground you to where you live. Your neighborhood is just a place your house happens to be in. Your house is just an investment for 5 or so years, than its time to upgrade and move on. Nothing is constant, place only equals property value.

For me, this weekend was a perfect example of what I value in a community, how it can add an entire other element to life that a lot of American society seems to have lost since the 1950s.

This was my Saturday, this is why home, and my slice of Mountain View, is so great:

For lunch my brother Chris and I grabbed some burgers and took them to Shoreline Park to eat. Got a nice bench right next to the sailing lake looking towards the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was an awesome day weather-wise and it was nice to be outside.

When I got home a neighbor (who lives on the street behind our property) ran up to the car to grab his kid's tennis ball which had rolled our way. Even though we've only met once or twice at my family's Halloween haunted house, he immediately waved and cheerfully said 'hello and how ya doin.' I returned the greeting.

As I got out of the car our next-door neighbor to the north, Tom, walks over. Tom is in the National Guard Air Rescue Squad and was in Turkey from October till January. I say "hey Tom!" Tom says hi to me and "trigger" or some other funny name he calls my brother. (Maybe he's just making up for my dad calling him "Pat" for so long. Pat....Tom...who knows. My dad's has called me "Chris" and "Snickers" in the same breath.) We talk for a little while outside the yard, he asks how school is going, tells me to thank my Mom for taking care of his plants while he was gone. My mom had a big phobia about killing them, and is thrilled they're back at his house.

After that I decided to walk Downtown, take some pictures and do some research in the library. As I walk out the door my life-long "across the street neighbors", the Garcias shout from across the street their normal "howdy neighbor!" and ask how things are goin. The Garcias have always been close to my family. They come to almost every party we have at our place or at my grandparents. Joella Garcia and her sister Jamie and I grew up together, and spent a lot of our summer days as kids hanging out. We stayed friends through high school, and at least once every summer a quick hello turns into a conversation that goes past midnight in my grandparent's backyard. So anyways, I say hello to them and start my walk.

One block down the street another neighbor who just purchased a home in north Mountain View drives by and waves. Her son is my brother's best friend since they were little kids. Get this, we're all Portuguese-Mexican mixes, so for the longest time we could jokingly call our street stub the Porto-Mex ghetto of MV. The house they rented is empty now, but we're happy they were able to afford a home in Mountain View. Another branch of their family is building a new home one house down from my grandparents, so we'll still be seeing a lot of them.

A few steps after that I come across my neighbor Mark with his kid, who was sitting on the lawn of my other neighbors, Peter and Nancy, talking to Peter. All three of them are part of the historic preservation group I co-founded. I stop and talk for a while, ask Peter how things are goin, he recently had heart surgery, and I bug Mark about not typing up our meeting minutes yet, joking that's the reason I came home. They tell me to make sure I don't stay in the library too long...especially on a day like this. I totally agree with them, say "see ya later" and head on my way.

I pass my great-grandma's old house where my second cousin and his family live, but didn't see em' outside so I didn't stop by. A couple blocks later I'm in the middle of Downtown, which is bustling with the lunchtime crowd. It's always cool to see the place so alive, considering that when I was a kid the place was almost a ghost town. One of the best things about living in my neighborhood, the old part of MV, is being able to quickly walk down to the main street. I live five short blocks from one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.

I get to the buildings I wanted to take a pic of, and bring out my big ol' digital camera. Some people driving by in a new convertible see me taking the picture and yell "hey! how many mega pics is that?!....thinking its a NEW digital VIDEO camera. I am reminded that yes, this is still the Silicon Valley. I yell back, it's an old digital camera, and that's why its so big. They say "oh! all right! thanks!" and continue driving down the street.

But anyway, the picture ended up cool. I did a then and now pic of an old photo my great grandma took in the early 1950s. Cool to see how things have changed, and not changed. For those curious, here ya go:

1950


2003

The c. 1920s building with the ugly tinted glass facade is going to be restored to something that looks more like the 50s pic.

After walking home, I got Chris to go on a "half an hour" drive to take a few pics at the city's last orchard. On the way home, Chris got disoriented and asked if we were in Mountain View when we were in the freakin' middle of the city. (THIS is why he still has not passed his driving test, he has no sense of direction. hehe) I pull off on a side road to show him exactly where we are, and we end up going towards the neighborhood a branch of my extended family lives in. On one street alone, I have two sets of aunts & uncles, two cousins, one cousin by marriage, two second cousins, and their extended family to whom I'm not related by blood. Chris decides we should go visit some of them. As we turn on to their street, we see my grandparents turning out of it after visiting them.

My aunt was so happy to see us, she was jumping around the room. My aunt, uncle, Chris and I ended up talking for hours about family history, Mexican-American racial issues, Bush's war, school, Chris' college plans, and then eating dinner from the previously mentioned Mexican restaurant. My uncle even baked cookies. We didn't end up leaving until after midnight. Hehe...so much for "half an hour." It was great though.

Sunday was similar. I got KFC with Chris and my cousin Marisa, and took it to eat at Shoreline. I visited my aunt again to get some advice on a topic for polysci term paper. After that my parents got home from their anniversary trip in Monterey, and we went out for dinner, which was really nice. When I got home I spent a few hours next door with my grandparents showing them the wonders of the internet, looking up whatever they wanted and showing how their club web page used a picture of them in the title graphic. Every time I show them the internet they're amazed. I also showed them a web page I'm trying to get together for our family about our history, they really enjoyed that, making jokes and telling stories about our history. After that I came back to Berkeley.

So that's my neighborhood. That's what I go home to. My small town in the giant faceless suburban blob that much of the Bay Area has turned in to. That's why I'm so passionate about Mountain View. That's what I want to fight to save and work to recreate through an education in Urban Studies. The physical things, the parks, the buildings, the landmarks, are just icing on the cake...they're the symbols that represent what truly matters....the people, the diversity, the community, the history, and my own family.