You seem to be attaching "isolated" onto the definition of "small". You're correct in noting that Palo Alto is part of a large metropolitan area, but size and isolation are two separate things.
The heart of your statement is that Palo Alto isn't a small town... it's just a part of a bigger metropolis. I have to disagree.
First and foremost, there's nothing mutually exclusive about being both a small town and being part of a larger metropolis. Palo Alto doesn't rely on the larger metropolis to define itself. It's got a distinct identity that is easily distingushed from both its immediate neighbors and other members of the metropolis. If you can't tell the difference between Palo Alto and Mountain View, or Palo Alto and Hayward, for example, then you're simply not paying attention.
I've lived in the SF Bay Area for 18 years now, and something I've come to appreciate is how each town has managed to maintain its own unique identity, especially on the peninsula. Aside from San Francisco, the entire peninsula is basically a series of small towns until you hit the south end of the Bay some 35 miles later. They may not be isolated from each other, but they still all have their own distinct "flavor" and it's really not hard to distinguish between them.
By comparison, in Orange County, where I grew up, there are a lot of small towns, but they all kind of run together. There's really nothing significant to distinguish Westminster from Garden Grove from Stanton, etc. Oh, it's not like you'll forget which one you're in at any given time, but they are much more interchangeable than towns in the Bay Area. Unlike Palo Alto, they do rely on the greater metropolis to establish their identity.
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budikavlan
16 years ago
That's as may be, but you're forgetting that a "small town" is a town that is small. It doesn't have to be separate, or isolated, or unique, it just has to have a population which is under that which would be considered large. Though the definition of "town" vs. that of "city" is malleable depending on context, I've never heard of a municipality the size of Palo Alto called a "town" in the context of "town vs. city." And while compared to New York or Mexico City, Palo Alto might be called a "small city," that comparison would be a bizarre one to make in this discussion. Palo Alto is NOT a "small town."
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pzman84
16 years ago
How many small towns have a Four Seasons? Not even Portland, OR (pop. 568,380), Albuquerque, NM (pop. 518,271), or Denver, CO (pop. 588,349) have that hotel (though for the record, Denver will be getting Four Seasons condos in 2010). No one would argue those cities are "small towns." Palo Alto is not a small town by a long shot. Rich suburb, yes. Not a small town.
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XYZZY123
15 years ago
Well, Palo Alto doesn't have a Four Seasons Hotel either. It's in East Palo Alto, which is of course a different town in a different county.
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15 years ago
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budikavlan
15 years ago
Who's bitching (besides you, I mean)? You've contradicted yourself (and proved my point) several times in your post. In saying "you cant compare it to the rural 'small towns' of the midwest" you've precisely nailed what I was saying. Those ARE small towns. Palo Alto is a city of approximately 60,000 people. It may be compact, it may be quiet, it may be whatever, but comparing it to its neighbors is moot--none of them are small towns, either. When people refer to modern metropolitan cities as "small towns," they are usually (deliberately) attempting to confuse people about what goes on there. Small towns don't have persian rug shops. I can see, however, that they DO have aggressive fatheads who don't know what they're talking about.
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15 years ago
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budikavlan
15 years ago
I have been there, but the standard moron argument "I live there/know the person/have some oblique connection to the subject, therefore I automatically am right" is just as wrong here as it usually is.
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15 years ago
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budikavlan
15 years ago
It's not hard to dispute--if you're an idiot, you could think you know all kinds of things. That doesn't mean you do, though. As to whether it's a "matter of perspective," you clearly haven't been paying attention to what I've been saying--my whole point has been that it ISN'T a matter of perspective. A small town is a definable, shared, objective idea; Palo Alto, CA does not fit that nugget of shared knowledge.
I replied to your post because I had an email regarding it when I turned on my computer after I got home from work, and I read and responded to it as part of emptying my mailbox. It was a coincidence that it happened so close to when you posted it.
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StoneGriffin
14 years ago
LOL! Kudos on saying Palo Alto Sucks Ass. ROFLMAO. It does. And I was BORN THERE. It votes more left wing than Berkeley, and that's saying something.
But people have a point. There are tons of posters on this very forum who are from small towns of 4000 people. Palo Alto is about 75,000 people. It's technically NOT a small town when compared to the tons of towns in America who have populations in the low thousands, even hundreds, heck, some even dozens. Throughout the history of cinema, I don't think I have ever seen a screenplay that depicted a city with a population of 75,000 as a 'small town'.
Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.
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