As for "parks" - that's not a park. That's a quarter city block with trees (Cuesta Park. Which is by far the biggest "park").
"Rapidly densifying". /lolsob. Adding a few four-story buildings isn't "densifying". "adding housing" - sure, if you don't mind paying a fortune for mediocre places. 1br for the amount of money that buys you a 3br w/ pool in LA.
And sure, I can drive to Napa. Or Tahoe. Or south to the beaches. But that's not Mountain View, that's Northern California. That's like saying Gary, Indiana is a great city because you can drive to Chicago.
Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no.
Unless you like living in a culturally dead suburban monoculture, it's not a city I'd recommend to anybody.
How many cities of a similar size have even 1?
> Art?
I'll grant you this one. No great museums (maybe the Computer History museum?) or art galleries in MTV.
> Music?
Shoreline Amphitheatre? It's a rather large music venue by the water. If you want a smaller venue, Dana Street Roasting Company has live performers every weekend. The city does free concerts a few times a year.
> (Cuesta Park. Which is by far the biggest "park").
Did you just completely forget the Shoreline recreational area? You can learn how to sail, windsurf, and stand-up paddleboard there.
> Dance?
Two nightclubs and a (salsa?) dance club in downtown. MVCPA for performances. Is that unimpressive? It's a city with 80k population, how much exactly are you expecting?
> That's like saying Gary, Indiana is a great city because you can drive to Chicago.
That would be a true statement if Gary had Mountain View's economy, weather, crime rates, and Michelin-starred restaurants.
> In terms of diversity, yeah, no.
What kind of diversity are we talking? There's plenty of people with varied cultural backgrounds and national origins.
> culturally dead suburban monoculture,
I'm not sure you've lived in an actual culturally dead suburban monoculture. There are some other towns I could introduce you to. I can also introduce you to towns that are actually a "pit" :-)
Taking the first Italian city from this list that has 7x,xxx population, turns out to be Fiumicino, and seems to have two 1-star restaurants. This was a kind of random sample of size 1.
You want MTV sized? Asheville. Boulder. Greenville. Santa Fe.
Slightly bigger: Ann Arbor. Berkeley. Cambridge. Lafayette.
Good chunk bigger: Savannah (140k), Madison (250k)
Smaller: Bozeman. Port Chester.
Elsewhere: Plenty of cities all over Europe that are in the 100k pop range and _much_ more vibrant than MTV.
The point is, Google's presence doesn't magically improve the place. It's still a bland suburbia, like, yes, 99% of US cities this size. Google's presence won't improve SJC, either.
You're right that there are cities that are worse than Mountain View. What's upsetting about it is not merely the blandness, but the fact there could be tremendous potential. A rural city of the same size, with a historically uniform population and a relatively small tax base, has very little choice. Mountain View does, and they squander it.
But even if they didn't, "it could be worse" has never been a statement that attracted me to a city ;)
> Unless you like living in a culturally dead suburban monoculture, it's not a city I'd recommend to anybody.
What level of Maslow's hierarchy is this because I'm legitimately becoming concerned I'm neither wealthy enough or educated enough to understand or appreciate any of this and it's scaring me.
Well, unless you're in a city like Mountain View, which lacks these things - but even here, the public library carries excellent recordings of music/dance performances, and has wonderful art books. There's also https://artsandculture.google.com/ for a vast number of the world's greatest art pieces.
It's really not a question of wealth.
Neither is it "education". You don't need education to appreciate beauty, and there are quite a few pieces that have a beauty that's immediately accessible even without a background in art or dance. Some art might not resonate with you -- and that's OK. Find the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you dislike.
Sure, you can go from there and get an education, and it will open more avenues for you. But it's not necessary. And as far as Maslow goes - setting aside that the "hierarchy" isn't - I'd put art at "Love and belonging". It's a connection to people across space and time, and it can unlock deep, profound emotions.
Give it a try, don't be scared!
Yep, when I say to people that the south bay is completely devoid of anything resembling culture they still look at me funny. Until they go, that is.
Because it's hyperbole - it's not a literally true statement. The Bay Area is culturally middling. It's no Paris or NY or even Atlanta - unless we count Valley tech culture's influence on the world, which obviously is immense. But it has its share of museums, theaters, music venues, and good food.
One of the themes of Pleasantville was the insularity and closed-off-ness of the town - literally in a geographical sense (only at the end do buses start going to out of town). Whereas MTV conveniently places you close to awesome things that you can access easily, while still having a good career.
There are other equally prosperous and thriving cities in the US that I would consider to be a distinct step down in terms of quality of life.
Bland means you've made it. Singapore is "bland" Yokohama is "bland". One could say life is not "bland" in the Donbass region. Santiago might be bland, but Rio de Janeiro is not bland. I'd wager many of the non-bland places would trade an arm to be successfully bland. Busan used to be gritty. Now it's a "bland" city.
Furthermore, even foreign transplants who settle in foreign places be they from India, China, Russia, Nigeria, etc., if they can, they settle in these so-called 'bland' cities, if they can. I have not yet heard anyone going to Paris saying, you know what, I'm going to settle in one of the exciting arrondisements --nevermind those other places most people gravitate to.
Mountain view isn't as exciting as living in a cultural center (SF and Oakland being them), but it's a lot better than most of the places you compare it to.
First, it's actually majority non white, meaning you get a lot of cultural diversity you'd miss in elsewhere "white middle upper class neighborhoods".
Secondly, has access to great outdoors and weather. (Not all places in the city limits, but close enough).
Interesting tech scene (especially if you count next door Palo Alto)
Decent downtown for a city its size.
And reasonably dense by American suburb standards. While not SF, it also isn't full of the mcmansion type housing found in other affluent suburbs.