Personal Dork Assistant

Virtual Reality on Bay Street

Damn it, this is exactly what I've been saying all along. The new development in Emeryville is nothing more than your typical yuppie mall placed in a pseudo-urban environment, created out of whole cloth since there wasn't a real urban corridor to rehabilitate like Old Town Pasadena or 3rd Street Promenade. It doesn't help the illusion when the construction is still going on and you can see behind the facade and see the cinder blocks and the big box stores. The mixed-use smart-growth hype is bogus anyway, since the Bay St. dwellers will have to hop in a car to do mundane things like buy groceries. With the narrow streets and the jammed freeway maze all around, however, that could be a tricky proposition. A man can't live by Godiva and Pottery Barn alone. Although I might do okay with Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble, Ikea, Best Buy, the Apple Store, and the Home Depot also being in the area. Of course, it would be a materialistic, spiritually bankrupt existence in a corporation-dominated world. Maybe some nice restaurants would make it better.