Talk:Pleasanton, California

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[edit] Created history section

I created a History section out of the top, in preparation for a major expansion of the town's history; luckily this did not require any other edits. However, there are some problems with the history as stated. While John Kottinger named the town "Pleasanton" after Gen. Pleasonton [sic], it had already been a town for some years, under the name "Alisal". (Clearly, if the town existed in the 1850s, as is mentioned in the article, it could not have been named yet for a famous Civil War figure!)

I have some reference material, some of it from the Museum on Main St. and the local historical society, and plan to expand and rewrite the History section. --MCB 21:03, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Cool. I had been thinking this needed to be done too after some historical tidbits got published a few weeks ago in the local paper, but I really have no time for it. About names, isn't the name "Verona" also associated with the town? --Stacey Doljack Borsody 22:35, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
According to Google Maps, "Verona, California" is located in the median of I-680, just east of the intersection of Pleasanton Sunol Road and Verona Road (where the old bridge crosses Arroyo de la Laguna). Google Maps: show map Presumably the tracks there were a couple hundred feet east of where they are now until I-680 was built.
This is one of a bunch of names that I believe were given to railroad junctions or stops (others in the Pleasanton area include "Radum" and "Asco", as well as "Dougherty" and "Komandorski Village" in Dublin). I'd be interested myself in knowing more about when and why these names were used. Apparently there's a big list o' city names somewhere that includes these, which is why there are bunches of web pages out there with come-ons like "find wedding planners in RADUM, CALIFORNIA!"--NapoliRoma 18:20, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
Never heard of Radum, but I found this [1] which shows the old railroad junction with the Iron Horse line. I didn't know about these names for junctions. What I recall was that a band of indians lived either at or near a place called Verona, which is supposed to be adjacent to the Hearst Hacienda. Re-googling for this info I found this [2] and [3].

During the 1880s, George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst purchased part of the old Bernal Rancho located south of Pleasanton, which also contained the Alisal Rancheria with approximately 125 Indians residing there. Escaping the cold and foggy summers of San Francisco, the Hearst’s built their Hacienda del Poso de Verona (later Castlewood Country Club) on this newly acquired land. Western Pacific Railroad also built a train station so that the Victorian elite and other guests could visit with Mrs. Hearst at the Hacienda. This railway stop was called Verona Station.

Edit: One more interesting point, this was the site of the last Ghost Dance in the Bay Area according to the old Weekly article. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 20:35, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Also, late last year I visited the Museum on Main and picked up a booklet entitled A History of the City of Pleasanton by Herbert L. Hagemann, Jr. Unfortunately it doesn't mention anything regarding Verona or Radum. The name Alisal is used for the general area (the Valle de San Jose) while the town that Kottinger founded was called Murray Township. One last thing I want to mention, this page [4] is interesting in that it shows an old air navigation chart from 1944 for the area. I think most historian buffs of this area know that the site of the Lawrence Livermore Lab was originally a naval air station, but probably unknown is that several sod runways were scattered around the Tri-Valley to assist with training. The runways located in Pleasanton were NOLF Cope, NOLF Rita-Butterworth, NOLF Spring Valley. Unfortunately it is difficult to tell from the chart where these runways exactly were placed. Two look like they were north of downtown and one looks like it might have been east of downtown and adjacent to Stanley. It would be interesting to try to find out more information about these NOLFs and their location and incorporate it into the article. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 20:35, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Cool stuff -- before coming back and reading this, I did some Googling of my own for Pleasanton Verona and found a UC Berkeley site with photos of the Hearst Hacienda, which I've added as a ref to the article.
I can't remember right now if it's visible from I-680 south or from Pleasanton Sunol Road, but somewhere in that area there is a railway signal box with "HEARST" stenciled on its side -- the last vestige of Verona Station?--NapoliRoma 21:06, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
Followup -- there are actually at least three boxes labelled "Hearst", visible from both the freeway and the road -- they're located in a stretch beginning at Verona Road and ending a mile south.--NapoliRoma 23:07, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NOLFs

(That'd be "Naval Outlying Landing Field" if anyone else was wondering...)

The article you reffed had the latitude and longitude for the three Pleasanton NOLFs, which happily enough, paste right into Google Maps:

Smack in the middle of the gravel quarry directly across Stanley from Shadow Cliffs
  • "NOLF Rita-Butterworth, 3,000' runway, located at Pleasanton (37.7/-121.85)" Google Maps: show map
Immediately south of I-580 and west of El Charro
  • "NOLF Spring Valley, 3,500' runway, located at Pleasanton (37.7/-121.9)" Google Maps: show map
Owens Drive, just west of the BART station

...which blew my theory, that maybe the Sports Park was once a runway... So what was the Sports Park property before the USG gave it to the city?--NapoliRoma 22:27, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Cool. I have recently been thinking about making community posts on Google Earth documenting "lost" locations around the Tri-Valley and having the locations of these NOLFs is a good beginning! --Stacey Doljack Borsody 20:22, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sports Park

Found this [5]. At least it mentions a year... can probably now search city archives... Hrm. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 22:48, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

All I found was the original city resolution (71-133) [6] adopting the deed for the land from the USG. My gut feeling tells me the USG had the land as part of something related the old seasonal Tulare Lake since one of the canals runs parallel to it and that area roughly corresponds with an area once covered by the lake. Know anyone who has lived in Pleasanton back in 1971? I wonder if the Museum folks know what it was for. Certainly the USG gave it up due to a lack of use. --Stacey Doljack Borsody 20:21, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Municipal WiFi

I have heard that Pleasanton is currently doing a trial run of a municipal/emergency services wifi network downtown... Has anyone heard more about this? I would be worth mentioning in the article.66.245.157.216 23:59, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

  • An interesting tidbit here is that its primary purpose is described as to "allow City personnel access the City's private local area network" . (Let's hear it for grammur: it's to be compatible with "notebook computers, PDA's [argh] and "Smartphone's [ARGH!]".)
  • May 2007 story saying service is slated to start "next month"; I haven't heard anything since then, nor have I tried it (I have spotted the transceivers downtown, tho).
--NapoliRoma 22:58, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] YA "P-Town"

Charles Huff rings in with yet another P-Town origin in today's Tri-Valley Herald article about the 75th anniversary of the arch: as part of WW II blackouts,

Only the letter "P" was lit at night during the war, Huff said. Soldiers would come into town at night to visit clubs and started to call Pleasanton "P-town," he added.

If this gets added into the article, it should not be in the intro, but rather in the history section. That'd be a good chance to move the "cause for confusion" bit out of the intro as well.--NapoliRoma 22:41, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notes to myself

[edit] Edge City

The whole "edge city" concept appears to be some sort of urban planning theoretical thing and apparently we're not quite an edge city yet so I removed it (see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1998/03/15/SPECIAL111.dtl). I suppose once the Firehouse Arts Center is built, Pleasanton would qualify as an edge city, but it would really need some citation to get added back in. Traditionally Pleasanton is a bedroom community (and citations can be found for that), although that's really changed within the past 10-20 years. --Stacey Doljack Borsody (talk) 21:17, 7 May 2008 (UTC)