A California subtlety often missed by those who didn't grow up here (and many that did) is the fact that Silicon Valley started out a lot like the other 'the valley' that grew up with the aerospace / defense industry, the San Fernando Valley, which have extensive similarities, including small details like the Fry's electronics and bigger details like the main drags through town. Ventura Blvd. and 82 are basically the same El Camino Real. The 101 (which parallels Ventura Blvd for quite a distance) is marked as El Camino Real, as is 82 in Silicon Valley. Both have foundations in the Spanish missionary trail. They're basically two sections of one very long road.
If you've seen Steve Blank's presentation on the 'secret history' of Silicon Valley you'll see where I draw the parallels. Lockheed Martin, Rocketdyne, General Dynamics, Litton, Rockwell, and many others were once based there.
But the divergence was inevitable I suppose - the valley up north has gotten comparatively nicer in the past 15 years, though, as San Fernando's fortunes have faded a bit. The SF valley now basically lacks a coherent high technology business base and all the aerospace and defense has moved out. It's been replaced by Hollywood entertainment, healthcare, porno, import/export, and a bunch of other smaller industries and some light manufacturing. It's not defunct in any way - it's still pretty nice, but it's just not as nice as up north. Most of the newer wealth is in other areas of LA.
Both are nearly entirely made up of suburban housing and low laying office parks and are situated just outside of the main urban area. The biggest/tallest buildings are the chain hotels and a select few office buildings. Strip malls are everywhere, which is where all the good food is.
It's an interesting kind of an 'alternate reality' in the other end of California that many people aren't aware of. Personally I'd rather live bayside in Santa Monica or San Francisco (and have in both), but to each his own, some people like the suburbs more.
All the big Southern California aerospace spending was big in WWII and for a decade or two after (Lockheed, Douglas, Hughes North American Aviation, &c.), but for various reasons in the 60s congress started moving those contracts elsewhere, especially throughout the South (e.g. a lot of NASA stuff went to Florida). Perhaps the kind of tech that was being done in Silicon Valley had a more plausible transition to non-defense uses, or perhaps defense-related contracts just continued a bit longer there than in SoCal?
If you've seen Steve Blank's presentation on the 'secret history' of Silicon Valley you'll see where I draw the parallels. Lockheed Martin, Rocketdyne, General Dynamics, Litton, Rockwell, and many others were once based there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
But the divergence was inevitable I suppose - the valley up north has gotten comparatively nicer in the past 15 years, though, as San Fernando's fortunes have faded a bit. The SF valley now basically lacks a coherent high technology business base and all the aerospace and defense has moved out. It's been replaced by Hollywood entertainment, healthcare, porno, import/export, and a bunch of other smaller industries and some light manufacturing. It's not defunct in any way - it's still pretty nice, but it's just not as nice as up north. Most of the newer wealth is in other areas of LA.
Both are nearly entirely made up of suburban housing and low laying office parks and are situated just outside of the main urban area. The biggest/tallest buildings are the chain hotels and a select few office buildings. Strip malls are everywhere, which is where all the good food is.
It's an interesting kind of an 'alternate reality' in the other end of California that many people aren't aware of. Personally I'd rather live bayside in Santa Monica or San Francisco (and have in both), but to each his own, some people like the suburbs more.