Redwood City, CA

That's where I am now; Redwood City. I went out for Chinese for dinner tonight; I can't really afford that kind of luxury, but my dietary options are pretty limited. Buying a week's worth of groceries and starving are both out, and most other places were closed. At 3 pm. On a Saturday. What the hell is up with this town?

As it turns out, I have an answer to that question. The waitress at the Chinese place was rather nice and talkative, and there weren't any other customers, so we had a little chat about local history. Apparently, this town used to be home to quite a few major tech companies. But rents on office space changed, the Sacramento area offered better rates, and everybody pulled out. Now, the people who're left have to try to continue to hack out a living, now that all the money has been sucked out of town.

I walked around town for a while after dinner. It's not Detroit. It's more like Monroe. This isn't a cavity in the San Francisco Bay area; it's just a town that has to rely more or less on itself, and it's struggling. Is it any wonder I can relate?