Connect the World? The Bay Area Can’t Even Connect Its Trains

A New Light Rail System Underscores the Frustrations of California's Richest Region

The northern terminus of SMART, the new light rail system officially opening this weekend in the North Bay, is the Sonoma County Airport Station in Santa Rosa. But after my 8-year-old son and I disembarked from an Alaska Airlines flight, we learned that the airport is more than a mile away from the train.

We didn’t know how to bridge this transportation gap. My son wasn’t up for a long walk. There is as yet no shuttle from plane to train. The public bus that would take us in the train’s …

By Joe Mathews | August 28, 2017

All Aboard, Bay Area, on Your Fast Train to Wasco

This Kern County Town, a Conduit for High-Speed Rail, Has a Lot to Offer

By Joe Mathews | March 2, 2017

Dear Bay Area,

Welcome to Wasco.

You may never have heard of this small city of 25,000 in the San Joaquin Valley. You probably can’t pronounce it (it’s WAW-skoh).

But you and …

My California

In Novelist Edan Lepucki’s Home State, the History Is Fictional, the Terrain Is Otherworldly, and the Population Is United by Difference

By Edan Lepucki | August 22, 2016

In the story about myself, I was born in Santa Monica, in a rental on Sunset Ave. (yes, Avenue, not Boulevard). Early February, which is a bleak month elsewhere, but …

The California City Where Ideals Are Punched in the Face by Reality

My Hometown, Where the Bay Area and the Central Valley Collide, Gave Us the Mexican Mafia, Rock ’n’ Roll’s Worst Day, and a Troubled Version of the Suburban Dream

By Jason Sexton | February 10, 2016

You might know Tracy, California, if you’ve traveled along Interstates 5 and 580, and had to decide if you want to head towards the Bay Area or Sacramento. What we …

Please, No, Not a Water-Related Fact!

Californians Know Next To Nothing About the Gazillions of Gallons Of H2O They Consume. What Single, Unfamiliar Fact Should They Learn?

November 11, 2013

Where does your water come from? Ask many Californians that question, and the most common answers will be the tap or the bottle. Surveys show we know very little about …

My Two Oaklands

My Hometown Depends on Movement. Which Direction Should We Go Now?

by Eduardo Jimenez | September 17, 2013

This spring, the city of Oakland was awarded two very distinct honors within one week. The Movoto blog officially named Oakland “The Most Exciting City in the Country,” as measured …

Bay area