My dad was a municipal bond financing consultant of some note on projects such as the Stockton deep water channel and bulk loading facility, the Oakland Airport, and any number of water treatment projects. So I've had an unusual perspective on the role of big infrastructure projects in shaping a developmental history of an urban area.
In any event, it's the farms of the Santa Clara Valley I miss the most. It just seems terribly wrong to me that we ruined the best soil on earth simply because it was cheaper to pave.
I know what you mean. I moved to the Palo Alto / Mt. View area in '73 after everything had been paved over, but I distinctly remember a photo exhibit long ago at Syntex dedicated to the "Valley of Heart's Delight." It was a spell binding and magical place, that's for sure. Paving over the world's best soil is indeed criminal. On the bright side (in a perverse sort of way), the lousy economy and extremist environmental regs have stopped the paving over of the Central Valley. Too bad you can't grow anything there because of lack of water, though. But the soil is still there for future use.