I was a bit puzzled with Pleasanton. The city is very prosperous-looking,
the property values are rather high, but I didn't find any huge booming
scenes of commerce. Sure, there's the Stoneridge mall, but no auto dealerships
(beyond the classic car place downtown), and the software company based
there is no longer kicking in to the city's tax base. Curious, but a nice
place anyway.
Even if you sneak into town on the back roads, you'll find they
don't scrimp on multi-colored signs.
There's a handful of quarries out on the edge of town, and they
are still running at full speed.
Not *all* of the streets are nearly so tree-lined, but those that
are definitely have a rural feel to them.
The downtown area is very 1950s-styled, traditional, slower-paced.
And again, oodles of trees.
A hotel since 1864, suffering a few fires and a name change, the
hotel is still more or less unchanged.
PeopleSoft's 3,500 or so workers sat up in here (prior to Oracle's
takeover of them in December '04).