Quote:
Originally Posted by homebucket
Sounds like someone has never been to Oakland or Berkeley. Or Alameda or San Mateo or Palo Alto.
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I agree that Oakland and Berkeley are urban. But Alameda, San Mateo and Palo Alto... not so much. They're "urban" in that suburban/small town with a traditional downtown kind of way... like Claremont, Whittier, Upland, Santa Ana... Actually, Santa Ana is more urban than Alameda/San Mateo/Palo Alto---probably the most "urban" city in all of Orange County.
Much of the Bay Area is indeed suburban in built form. How could it not be, being that much of it was still agricultural until after WWII, and then the suburban explosion happened---just like everywhere else in the US.
When I was in college, I made friends with Bay Area people, from Albany, El Cerrito, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Santa Clara, Fremont, Brentwood, Danville... I visited them in all those cities, and there's nothing urban about them. They're all typical suburban California towns.