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You mean there is a restaurant with a star? Hold the presses. Yes, there's more than one restaurant. The quality for the vast majority of them is barely scratch

You mean there is a restaurant with a star? Hold the presses. Yes, there's more than one restaurant. The quality for the vast majority of them is barely scratching at "mediocre". At pricing that's well beyond "ridiculous luxury". As for "parks" - that's not a park. That's a quarter city block with trees (Cuesta Park. Which is by far the biggest "park"). "Rapidly densifying". /lolsob. Adding a few four-story buildings isn't "densifying". "adding housing" - sure, if you don't mind paying a fortune for mediocre places. 1br for the amount of money that buys you a 3br w/ pool in LA. And sure, I can drive to Napa. Or Tahoe. Or south to the beaches. But that's not Mountain View, that's Northern California. That's like saying Gary, Indiana is a great city because you can drive to Chicago. Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no. Unless you like living in a culturally dead suburban monoculture, it's not a city I'd recommend to anybody.

seppin 8y ago
> Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no. Yep, when I say to people that the south bay is completely devoid of anything resembling culture they still look at me funny. Until they go, that is.
- jogjayr 8y ago
  > devoid of anything resembling culture they still look at me funny Because it's hyperbole - it's not a literally true statement. The Bay Area is culturally middling. It's no Paris or NY or even Atlanta - unless we count Valley tech culture's influence on the world, which obviously is immense. But it has its share of museums, theaters, music venues, and good food.
  - seppin 8y ago
    It's strip malls and chain restaurants with far too much concrete everywhere. And for what you do get, absurdly overpriced.
akhilcacharya 8y ago
>Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no. > Unless you like living in a culturally dead suburban monoculture, it's not a city I'd recommend to anybody. What level of Maslow's hierarchy is this because I'm legitimately becoming concerned I'm neither wealthy enough or educated enough to understand or appreciate any of this and it's scaring me.
- pm90 8y ago
  Wtf? People like different things from their cities. Some people like living in cities with lots of different options for entertainment, lots of diversity. Others like the quietness, calm and cleanliness of suburbia.
- groby_b 8y ago
  Most art galleries have showings open to the public. Museums are fairly affordable. Your local community college will have dance and theatre performances on the cheap. Well, unless you're in a city like Mountain View, which lacks these things - but even here, the public library carries excellent recordings of music/dance performances, and has wonderful art books. There's also https://artsandculture.google.com/ https://artsandculture.google.com/ for a vast number of the world's greatest art pieces. It's really not a question of wealth. Neither is it "education". You don't need education to appreciate beauty, and there are quite a few pieces that have a beauty that's immediately accessible even without a background in art or dance. Some art might not resonate with you -- and that's OK. Find the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you dislike. Sure, you can go from there and get an education, and it will open more avenues for you. But it's not necessary. And as far as Maslow goes - setting aside that the "hierarchy" isn't - I'd put art at "Love and belonging". It's a connection to people across space and time, and it can unlock deep, profound emotions. Give it a try, don't be scared!
jogjayr 8y ago
> You mean there is a restaurant with a star? Hold the presses. How many cities of a similar size have even 1? > Art? I'll grant you this one. No great museums (maybe the Computer History museum?) or art galleries in MTV. > Music? Shoreline Amphitheatre? It's a rather large music venue by the water. If you want a smaller venue, Dana Street Roasting Company has live performers every weekend. The city does free concerts a few times a year. > (Cuesta Park. Which is by far the biggest "park"). Did you just completely forget the Shoreline recreational area? You can learn how to sail, windsurf, and stand-up paddleboard there. > Dance? Two nightclubs and a (salsa?) dance club in downtown. MVCPA for performances. Is that unimpressive? It's a city with 80k population, how much exactly are you expecting? > That's like saying Gary, Indiana is a great city because you can drive to Chicago. That would be a true statement if Gary had Mountain View's economy, weather, crime rates, and Michelin-starred restaurants. > In terms of diversity, yeah, no. What kind of diversity are we talking? There's plenty of people with varied cultural backgrounds and national origins. > culturally dead suburban monoculture, I'm not sure you've lived in an actual culturally dead suburban monoculture. There are some other towns I could introduce you to. I can also introduce you to towns that are actually a "pit" :-)
- sampo 8y ago
  > How many cities of a similar size have even 1? Taking the first Italian city from this list that has 7x,xxx population, turns out to be Fiumicino, and seems to have two 1-star restaurants. This was a kind of random sample of size 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Italy
  - jogjayr 8y ago
    I wasn't implying 0 other cities of similar size have Michelin stars. Heck there's a small town in Napa valley with 5k population, with a 3 star restaurant, so even more stars/capita than Fiumicino :-). But of all the ~70-120k population towns in the world (even excluding developing nations), I'd wager proportionally not that many have Michelin stars.
- kkarakk 8y ago
jhedwards 8y ago
What city would you recommend? I’m genuinely curious because I thought Mountain View was alright but now you’re making me feel like I’m missing out on cities with amazing parks, cheap gourmet food, and lots of culture. The closest I’ve had to that was Changsha, and that’s not considered a nice place to live by a long shot.
- mav3rick 8y ago
  There are far more interesting cities in the US and the world than MTV. Berlin is one of them. In the US I like Austin and San Diego.
  - jogjayr 8y ago
    That's moving the goalposts though. I was originally disputing the categorization of MTV as a "pit". I'm not at all arguing it's comparable to Berlin - that would be crazy.
    - mav3rick 8y ago
      You also asked what cities would you recommend. I recommended some :)
      - jogjayr 8y ago
        Nope, that was someone else. I'm just defending MTV being called a "pit" and a suburban dystopia - it's not the most interesting city in the world but it has interesting parts and tons of opportunities not available elsewhere.
- kkarakk 8y ago
  Some cities just never develop "good" living conditions for values of restaurant diversity,art and things to do - whether out of apathy or bad luck.
- groby_b 8y ago
  Los Angeles. New York. You want MTV sized? Asheville. Boulder. Greenville. Santa Fe. Slightly bigger: Ann Arbor. Berkeley. Cambridge. Lafayette. Good chunk bigger: Savannah (140k), Madison (250k) Smaller: Bozeman. Port Chester. Elsewhere: Plenty of cities all over Europe that are in the 100k pop range and _much_ more vibrant than MTV. The point is, Google's presence doesn't magically improve the place. It's still a bland suburbia, like, yes, 99% of US cities this size. Google's presence won't improve SJC, either.

seppin 8y ago

> Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no. Yep, when I say to people that the south bay is completely devoid of anything resembling culture they still look at me funny. Until they go, that is.

jogjayr 8y ago
> devoid of anything resembling culture they still look at me funny Because it's hyperbole - it's not a literally true statement. The Bay Area is culturally middling. It's no Paris or NY or even Atlanta - unless we count Valley tech culture's influence on the world, which obviously is immense. But it has its share of museums, theaters, music venues, and good food.
- seppin 8y ago
  It's strip malls and chain restaurants with far too much concrete everywhere. And for what you do get, absurdly overpriced.

akhilcacharya 8y ago

>Culturally it is almost completely dead. Art? Music? Dance? Just forget it. In terms of diversity, yeah, no. > Unless you like living in a culturally dead suburban monoculture, it's not a city I'd recommend to anybody. What level of Maslow's hierarchy is this because I'm legitimately becoming concerned I'm neither wealthy enough or educated enough to understand or appreciate any of this and it's scaring me.

pm90 8y ago
Wtf? People like different things from their cities. Some people like living in cities with lots of different options for entertainment, lots of diversity. Others like the quietness, calm and cleanliness of suburbia.
groby_b 8y ago
Most art galleries have showings open to the public. Museums are fairly affordable. Your local community college will have dance and theatre performances on the cheap. Well, unless you're in a city like Mountain View, which lacks these things - but even here, the public library carries excellent recordings of music/dance performances, and has wonderful art books. There's also https://artsandculture.google.com/ https://artsandculture.google.com/ for a vast number of the world's greatest art pieces. It's really not a question of wealth. Neither is it "education". You don't need education to appreciate beauty, and there are quite a few pieces that have a beauty that's immediately accessible even without a background in art or dance. Some art might not resonate with you -- and that's OK. Find the stuff you like, ignore the stuff you dislike. Sure, you can go from there and get an education, and it will open more avenues for you. But it's not necessary. And as far as Maslow goes - setting aside that the "hierarchy" isn't - I'd put art at "Love and belonging". It's a connection to people across space and time, and it can unlock deep, profound emotions. Give it a try, don't be scared!

jogjayr 8y ago

> You mean there is a restaurant with a star? Hold the presses. How many cities of a similar size have even 1? > Art? I'll grant you this one. No great museums (maybe the Computer History museum?) or art galleries in MTV. > Music? Shoreline Amphitheatre? It's a rather large music venue by the water. If you want a smaller venue, Dana Street Roasting Company has live performers every weekend. The city does free concerts a few times a year. > (Cuesta Park. Which is by far the biggest "park"). Did you just completely forget the Shoreline recreational area? You can learn how to sail, windsurf, and stand-up paddleboard there. > Dance? Two nightclubs and a (salsa?) dance club in downtown. MVCPA for performances. Is that unimpressive? It's a city with 80k population, how much exactly are you expecting? > That's like saying Gary, Indiana is a great city because you can drive to Chicago. That would be a true statement if Gary had Mountain View's economy, weather, crime rates, and Michelin-starred restaurants. > In terms of diversity, yeah, no. What kind of diversity are we talking? There's plenty of people with varied cultural backgrounds and national origins. > culturally dead suburban monoculture, I'm not sure you've lived in an actual culturally dead suburban monoculture. There are some other towns I could introduce you to. I can also introduce you to towns that are actually a "pit" :-)

sampo 8y ago
> How many cities of a similar size have even 1? Taking the first Italian city from this list that has 7x,xxx population, turns out to be Fiumicino, and seems to have two 1-star restaurants. This was a kind of random sample of size 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Italy
- jogjayr 8y ago
  I wasn't implying 0 other cities of similar size have Michelin stars. Heck there's a small town in Napa valley with 5k population, with a 3 star restaurant, so even more stars/capita than Fiumicino :-). But of all the ~70-120k population towns in the world (even excluding developing nations), I'd wager proportionally not that many have Michelin stars.
kkarakk 8y ago

jhedwards 8y ago

What city would you recommend? I’m genuinely curious because I thought Mountain View was alright but now you’re making me feel like I’m missing out on cities with amazing parks, cheap gourmet food, and lots of culture. The closest I’ve had to that was Changsha, and that’s not considered a nice place to live by a long shot.

mav3rick 8y ago
There are far more interesting cities in the US and the world than MTV. Berlin is one of them. In the US I like Austin and San Diego.
- jogjayr 8y ago
  That's moving the goalposts though. I was originally disputing the categorization of MTV as a "pit". I'm not at all arguing it's comparable to Berlin - that would be crazy.
  - mav3rick 8y ago
    You also asked what cities would you recommend. I recommended some :)
    - jogjayr 8y ago
      Nope, that was someone else. I'm just defending MTV being called a "pit" and a suburban dystopia - it's not the most interesting city in the world but it has interesting parts and tons of opportunities not available elsewhere.
kkarakk 8y ago
Some cities just never develop "good" living conditions for values of restaurant diversity,art and things to do - whether out of apathy or bad luck.
groby_b 8y ago
Los Angeles. New York. You want MTV sized? Asheville. Boulder. Greenville. Santa Fe. Slightly bigger: Ann Arbor. Berkeley. Cambridge. Lafayette. Good chunk bigger: Savannah (140k), Madison (250k) Smaller: Bozeman. Port Chester. Elsewhere: Plenty of cities all over Europe that are in the 100k pop range and _much_ more vibrant than MTV. The point is, Google's presence doesn't magically improve the place. It's still a bland suburbia, like, yes, 99% of US cities this size. Google's presence won't improve SJC, either.