Pinole
July 2018 — Back in the late 90’s i used to live in a suburban area 30 miles off the city of San Francisco, and that small town is called Pinole. Pinole was a small little town that was great to raise kids and was out of the city life. Very very quiet and not a lot of people unlike today. The town became a city in the early 2000’s when the neighboring town called Hercules economically exploded and many more tech people, professionals, and etc. have started pouring out of the city and started settling in the suburban areas. The city of Pinole has drastically changed due to the fact of more people coming in, meaning the city shown a lot of growth with many corporate shopping centers appearing in the early 2000’s, unlike in the 90’s most of the shopping centers are mom and pop stores and cute small businesses that made the town unique. Though i left to move to the city, many of family still live in the Pinole/Hercules area, and when im around there every other weekend, i still remember the beautiful parts of the area i used to hangout at, even though things have changed such as renovations and what not, the little suburban area will always have a place in my heart because that’s the first place i have known when i migrated here in America in 1993.
Walnut Creek
June 2018 — Walnut Creek is a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. Walnut Creek is primarily known for it’s vibrant downtown district with many restaurants and shops. In the 1990’s the downtown was always a fun place to be. Walnut Creek is known for it’s annual art festival in the downtown area. There a prominent local theater called Lesher Theater for the Arts that is best known for their annual production of the Christmas Carol. Walnut Creek is a very safe community so parents are comfortable with letting their kids ride their bikes to the local parks or to the downtown area. The best part about growing up here was the sense of community. There were many festivals, parades, and fairs to visit and enjoy. There is also land for hiking in the hills the locals call the “open space”. There are many types of animals in the “open space” and on a clear day a person can see all the way out to the Bay. Since my childhood in the 1990’s the amount of stores and type of stores has dramatically changed. There is now a Neiman Marcus as the anchor store of the shopping district. Also, many more prominent restaurants have developed.