- Mountain View, California
- Location: Santa Clara County
- (378 Miles North-Northwest of Disneyland)
- Founded: 1902
- Castro Street-The "Main Street USA" of Mountain View
- By Nick (Nap 98)
Downtown Mountain View is yet another example of the old fasioned idea of an American Main Street that still exists today. Downtown Mountain View is the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Mountain View. It's centered along Castro Street, which is the city's "Main Street." Downtown Mountain View was first built in the early 1900s and thrived and grew, up till the 1960s, when like many downtown areas, it suffered from the birth modern malls that took away business. The entire area was revitalized in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is now once again the thriving center of Mountain View.
The layout of Castro Street is very similar to Main Street USA at Disneyland. On one end of the street is the train station and on the other side near the end of the street is Mountain View's own castle the "Pink Palace" a.k.a. City Hall. Between the train station and city hall, restaurants, cafes, the civic center, the City Theater, grocery stores, bookstores, and gift shops line the street. And along the way, old fashioned street lamps, benches, flowerpots, and music from bands in the coffeehouses make it a pleasant place for visitors.
However, unlike Disneyland's Main Street, Castro Street is not frozen in time. Historic buildings from the early 1900s coexist with new buildings. Unlike the Victorian Main Street of Disneyland, Castro Street has an urban atmosphere with shops and restaurants serving the many cultures that exist in the city. It's an ever growing and evolving portion of the city, but despite that it still serves the purpose that it did during the turn of the century. It's still the focal point of the community; it's a place where you always run into someone you know, and where friendly shopkeepers know your face when you walk into their store. Like the Main Street in Disneyland, it's home to annual parades including the Spring Parade and the Chinese New Year Parade (which reminds me of the Mulan Parade in many ways) People fill the tree lined sidewalks to watch colorful floats and bands march by.
Here in Mountain View, and the entire San Francisco Bay Area, downtown districts are once again thriving. Part of the reason this is happening is that the people of California today, grew up with summer vacations to Disneyland. Main Street became to many of us, the ideal downtown and we wanted our hometown's downtowns to be like Main Street USA. So, as result, Downtowns are once again the centers of our communities. As the years have gone by, we have rediscovered the "Main Street USA" that exists in our own backyards. We have begun to leave the malls that destroyed the main streets in the 60s, and revitalized the forgotten cores of our cities. The historic main street of America has been reborn here in Mountain View and the rest of the Bay Area, and the Main Street in Disneyland can be partially thanked for that.
-Nick (a.k.a. Nap)
For more information on Downtown Mountain View, or Mountain View as a whole please visit my page "A Guide to Mountain View" at: http://members.aol.com/Nap98/MtnViewGuide1.htm
[Is your home town as quaint as Main Street USA and worthy of a comparison? Let me know and I'd love to link to your page]
[Castro Street]
[Kapps Pizza Bar and Grill]
[Mountain View Performaing Arts Center]
