Bay area

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

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 Wasco share a future.

You could be connected—at least temporarily—by the most expensive infrastructure project in state history.

Your Wasco connection is a byproduct of problems with high-speed rail’s plan for a San Francisco to Los Angeles train. The financial and engineering challenges of tunneling the Tehachapi Mountains have delayed construction to L.A. And the project is short $2 billion to …

By Joe Mathews |

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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 |

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 |

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?

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 |

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 …

The Beautiful Truth of ‘Fruitvale Station’

Do Not See This Movie For Its Tragedy But For Its Cockeyed, Utterly Californian Optimism

by Joe Mathews |

In this state, our fictions are often better teachers than the truth.

The most significant California film in years is Fruitvale Station, based on the shooting death of a 22-year-old …


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