Yeah, I used to love popping over the hill to go to Berkeley and pick up a slice of pizza a Blondie's. However, I was sans car in high school and I rarely could convince my "homogenized" friends to go over to "Bezerkeley." They liked to play it safe and hang out on the sidewalk on Main Street. Ugh. <br><br>Don't get me wrong, I think the valley in which Walnut Creek sits is absolutely beautiful. It's the over crowding of materialistic people that make it ugly. When I moved there in 1976, we still got our milk from the DuMont dairy in glass bottles and the Southern Pacific RR still ran through town. Now it's filled border to border with, as one friend puts it, "the land of shopping." There's even a Tiffany's going in. <br><br><pre>** sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn **</pre><p>

Hey, shouldn't your avatar be square?<br><br>

Hee hee. Actually, that's smiley. He's a comic strip character that I created (long before emoticons) while doing a daily strip for the university newspaper. He's sort of evolved into my alter ego.<br><br>My squareman moniker came about because I'm short and thick and—at the time I got the name—had a square goatee, wore a porkpie and drove a square car (Reliant). <br><br><pre>** sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn **</pre><p>

Yeah I know what you mean about the changes there. Left the Bay area in 1988. Have been back maybe three or four times since then and have driven through that area again. Shopping is at the center of our culture today unfortunately. We all have to shop for stuff, but to make your life revolve around it is a bad indication of what is important in people's lives. Apples stores don't count. <br><br>

It's a mall world after all <br><br>Seriously, though, I have to use malls, but I hate them. Downtowns are places where there used to be store, but the downtowns weren't dedicated to buying. There was the courthouse, the police station, the Repulican and Democratic clubs, various other meeting places. And there were stores. Malls around here try to become sort of like downtowns. They have special days dedicated to this that and the other thing. They invite all the nursing home residents in the area for old follks day. They host police workshops in home security. But still, they are shopping malls and all the other stuff is marketing to get people to come shop some more.<br><br> Alas, poor Yorick. -- Hamlet

I recently read that decllining sales at malls have forced them to rethink malls altogether. Now instead of everything being on the inside, the trend is to have the storefronts on the outside and more of a community feeling kind of thing. I think the Spectrum in Irvine (CA) may be just such an example of the new trend in shopping design. Kind of like a little village with meandering walkways, restaurants, entertainment, etc. <br><br>