Oh Silicon Valleyers, We Must Unite!

As you may know from reading my blog, I am perpetually missing the urban life in Silicon Valley. But I wake up each day determined to cast a loving gaze, determined to find the Fun, the Culture, the Food, the Hot Spots (and I don’t mean WIFI!)….

Recently though, I have been thinking that what Silicon Valley maybe suffering from is not a shortage of fun places…but perhaps more a shortage of… well, err, fun people?!?? Please, let me explain.

For 4 years I worked in downtown San Jose. Across the street from two large towers owned by an elite Silicon Valley company, Adobe, which, rumor has it, employs thousands. Around the corner from a huge convention centre and steps away from a university with over 30,000 students (not to mention a large number of faculty and administrators). Nestled among 100 or so other office high rises, presumably filled with people.

For 4 years I would step out of my office at least twice a day, wondering whether I would ever run into another person. This downtown is eerily empty of the young and beautiful people you would normally expect roaming around business districts or university quarters in practically any city in this day and age. A line at Starbucks meant one more person ahead of me. Lunch rush at the cute neighborhood café never gave me the slightest anxiety for not being able to find a place to sit.

I have been to polluted, wet, freezing, humid, gloomy cities where lunch time and coffee time pulls practically everyone out on to the streets. And I can’t figure out how cute and sunny downtown San Jose can not manage to do the same. The same predicament goes for almost the entire collection of quaint cities stretched between San Francisco and San Jose, which make up Silicon Valley.

***

We recently paid a visit to the new ultra chic Rosewood Sandhill. We had coffee on the patio, hugged by Santa Cruz Mountains, lounging on the most comfortable couches, Alone. There was not one other soul in the pool, in the lounge, or on the patio. Hello... helloo... helllloooo

Coming to think of it, what makes places like Paris, New York, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Tehran exciting to me, is the way the locals adore their cities. Walking their streets, checking out their stores, taking lunch at their parks, meeting friends and colleagues at hotel lobbies for coffee or after work drinks…

Oh Silicon Valley Lovers, Where Art Thou?

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