Talk:Pleasanton, California/Archive 1

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Nearest university

what is the nearest university to Pleasanton (decent university that's accredited)? thanks.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.206.119.3 (talk • contribs) 01:55, 15 May 2006.

The nearest university is probably California State University, East Bay (formerly CSU Hayward), but University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and San José State University are within commuting distance. Hope this helps. MCB 05:23, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Hey, what about San Francisco State University? As far as CSU's go, San Francisco State is the second closest, after Hayward. SFSU is closer than SJSU. When you include UC's, however, Berkeley is the second nearest.
Also, Las Positas and Chabot colleges do offer Associates degrees, as well as transfer programs.--Livermorekid 05:21, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Pro-war?

From a previous revision: "Pleasanton is becoming known as the home of pro-war protestors."

It is? I'm downtown every Saturday for the farmer's market, and every Thursday evening for band practice, and while I've seen protestors about various local political issues, I've never seen pro-war demonstrators. Also, this doesn't belong under geography. --Wnissen 03:47, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'm assuming that the statement must stem from the controversy concerning mayor Jennifer Hosterman, who signed her name as the Pleasanton mayor on a petition to stop fighting in Iraq. It really got some Pleasanton residents very hot under the collar.--Livermorekid 05:24, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
I doubt if it had anything to do with Hosterman; I think it's more likely referring to some people who used to stand out at Valley & Hopyard with some pro-war or at least "support our troops" signs; I also saw some people with similar signs in front of the Veterans' building downtown one morning. Haven't seen anything at either place for a while now, but then, the "previous revision" mentioned was from June 2004. --NapoliRoma 06:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Hart's article

Hi, I think that since all the other middle schools have articles, Hart should too. Does anyone think so?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.110.46.8 (talk • contribs) 00:37, 12 December 2006.

Removed non-notable residents

I removed the unnamed "sister of famous Bollywood actress Rekha" and unnamed "cousin of bhangra/pop singer Daler Mehndi" on the grounds of lack of individual notability of the residents themselves, plus lack of verifiability. It is the usual practice to only list notable residents, that is, people with their own articles (or who would be eligible for articles). --MCB 20:20, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Word to Potential Editors

Clearly, it does not matter what you put on the Pleasanton page, because NapoliRoma has taken it upon themselves to be the Pleasanton editor, even at the sake of distributing misinformation. Therefore, whatever people put on the page, NapoliRoma will edit it at s/he sees fit. Even if they make it incorrect, turn it into poor grammar, or just needlessly make changes, NapoliRoma simply feels the need to edit the page at least twice a day.

For example, they changed the page to say Pleasanton is called P-Town because of it's hotrod culture. Huh? This hotrod thing is relativley new compared to how long the city has been called P-Town. They also make edits to needlessly "tighten" things up and take out "wikilinks to nowhere". Huh? Now people aren't allowed to request new articles? Not if the boss of the Pleasanton page, NapoliRoma, has their way. Maybe they should go back to NapoliRoma and leave the Pleasanton page to people who actually know about it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Livermorekid (talk • contribs) 17:55, 15 August 2006.

Please take a look at the note on the bottom of each edit page next time you get the chance:
If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly [...] do not submit it.
It's important to grasp that this is the way wikis are in general, and it's the rule for Wikipedia in particular. Don't let it become an emotional thing; check out WP:BOLD for more insight.
That being said, I don't think I've been exactly merciless. Yes, if you put something on a page, I or someone else might "edit it as we see fit" -- what other way would one edit things? However, "how I see fit" is fairly simple:
  • it should be factual;
  • it should be grammatically correct; and,
  • it should make stylistic sense -- that is, it should fit in with the flow of a Wikipedia article.
So, my edits that you commented on:
  • I added a comment that the P-Town nickname was favored by car enthusiasts. I put this here knowing full well it might not be the whole story, but it was based on personal observation: seeing the name "P-Town" often used by car clubs and the like. I fully expected that someone would come by and correct me if there were a better explanation -- and you did, and the article was better for it. No problem, right? That's how wikis work.
  • However, your addition had a side effect: it made what was supposed to be the brief summary section at the beginning of the article perhaps too long -- my belief was that two sentences were too many to spend on one nickname. A longer treatise on the history of Pleasanton nicknames would be more apropos to the "History" section. So, I shortened it "as I saw fit" -- I didn't take your part out, I didn't revert to the "hotrod" version; I edited it. We're all editors on this bus. Your response was to revert, typos and all, to your original two sentences. Your right to do so; maybe not so good to start in with flamage on "someone with poor language skills" creating a "run-on sentence". Let's take a look at the sentence:
  • Pleasanton is sometimes referred to as "P-Town", a moniker earned, according to local lore, when a section of the famous "PLEASANTON" sign that arches over Main Street burnt out.
This is not a run-on sentence. (It might be too long, but that's different, and you could have dealt with it by editing it instead of reverting.) Why isn't it? For clarity, let's construct a shorter example that uses the same language concept:
  • Kari Byron, an accomplished actress, is known for once having photocopied part of her body for a popular television program.
You'll probably agree that this is grammatically correct, and even kind of intriguing as well. The dependent clause is understood to be short for "...who is an accomplished actress." Similarly, the P-Town sentence has within it
..."P-Town", a moniker earned when the sign burnt out
short for
..."P-town", which is a moniker that was earned when the sign burnt out.
I can see how at a quick glance this could be mistaken for a comma splice (slightly different from a run-on sentence), but it isn't.
  • But, since you diplomatically registered your confusion, I gave it another try, this time using two independent clauses separated by a semicolon, which is again grammatically correct. Argue with it being clumsy if you will, or better yet, take a shot at editing "as you see fit", but it is not incorrect English usage.
  • You noticed that I took out some redlinks. Did you also notice that upon reflection I put them back almost immediately? I did so for exactly the reason you mentioned; I realized my first impulse was wrong, and undid it. And I see you even took the cue as an opportunity to create a TV30 article, so cool beans there.
So, sorry if you object to people—especially me, I guess—editing as we see fit. That's the world of wikis. I can't go back to Napoli Roma, since it's a variety of tomato, sorry; you'll have to deal with all kinds of people being here with you, some of whom might occasionally disagree with the way you see things. Hey, it's good practice for the real world. --NapoliRoma 19:46, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

"P-town" nickname

I have removed the various folk etymologies of the "P-town" nickname because they are unverifiable and not confirmed by reliable sources, as required by Wikipedia guidelines. More to the point, it is most likely that none of them are true: a number of cities and towns (including Pleasanton, Texas) have been called P-town, and it is a natural nickname for a place name beginning with "P" and ending with "-town" or "-ton". (The most famous P-town is undoubtedly Provincetown, Massachusetts). --MCB 04:02, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Sports Park

Found this [1]. 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) [2] 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)

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
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)

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)

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)

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 [3] 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 [4] and [5].

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 [6] 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)

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)

Vallecitos Atomic Electric Power Plant

P'raps someone should include the Vallecitos Atomic Electric Power Plant, the first licensed nuclear power plant, opens at Pleasanton, Calif. on November 25, 1957 as featured in e. g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N19Zy7ixT80

Regards, Peter —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.79.245.236 (talk) 19:10, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Economy Section has some incorrect statements

Two things I found within the Economy Section: The end of the second paragraph in that section: "In addition, Pleasanton is the site of a large AT&T campus." Is incorrect. If what is being meant is the campus at Rosewood Dr, Then AT&T does not own that building anymore. It it was sold to a building management company, And AT&T maintains now only one building on the campus site, which it leases. Note that Ross now also resides with it's headquarters in one of the buildings on the Campus. Similar situation with Oracle, Oracle sold buildings, including the main buildings on the campus, to Kaiser Permanente, and maintains itself only one of the original buildings, plus it has built one addition to it after the merger. The original Oracle Campus is Split by Owens Dr, North of which Oracle Occupies, and South of which Kaiser Permanante Occupies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdesmet (talk • contribs) 17:45, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Notable People section removed

This section was removed from the article as it contained only trivia. The section is preserved here on the talk page as it still may be of some use. Deltawk (talk) 02:05, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

And why is this trivia? if the articles for these people indicate (with sources) their having been born, grown up, gone to high school, or lived there for a significant period, then its not trivia. Most city articles have sections on who comes from there. Of course, most of the lists are ball players, and from my personal standpoint, since most sports facts seem like trivia to me, im not fond of them, but many others find these facts eminently fascinating, and thus are notable. I have restored the section, but only based on names i found in the pleasanton category, and some of the first names from a search for "pleasanton california". Mercurywoodrose (talk) 20:28, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Demographics info

I've removed the following demographics info from the article and placed it on this talk page. It's unformatted and lacks a citation, though my guess is that it's either US or CA census data.

INCOME AND BENEFITS (IN 2011 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS) Total households 24,222 +/-471 24,222 (X) Less than $10,000 630 +/-160 2.6% +/-0.7 $10,000 to $14,999 378 +/-119 1.6% +/-0.5 $15,000 to $24,999 872 +/-171 3.6% +/-0.7 $25,000 to $34,999 1,009 +/-229 4.2% +/-0.9 $35,000 to $49,999 1,471 +/-287 6.1% +/-1.2 $50,000 to $74,999 2,832 +/-363 11.7% +/-1.5 $75,000 to $99,999 2,799 +/-319 11.6% +/-1.3 $100,000 to $149,999 5,547 +/-334 22.9% +/-1.3 $150,000 to $199,999 3,590 +/-374 14.8% +/-1.5 $200,000 or more 5,094 +/-379 21.0% +/-1.6 Median household income (dollars) 118,713 +/-3,195 (X) (X) Mean household income (dollars) 143,045 +/-4,622 (X) (X)

With earnings 20,764 +/-445 85.7% +/-1.1 Mean earnings (dollars) 144,980 +/-5,094 (X) (X) With Social Security 4,959 +/-284 20.5% +/-1.1 Mean Social Security income (dollars) 18,109 +/-731 (X) (X) With retirement income 4,062 +/-287 16.8% +/-1.1 Mean retirement income (dollars) 34,239 +/-3,301 (X) (X)

With Supplemental Security Income 342 +/-98 1.4% +/-0.4 Mean Supplemental Security Income (dollars) 11,703 +/-1,964 (X) (X) With cash public assistance income 294 +/-80 1.2% +/-0.3 Mean cash public assistance income (dollars) 5,006 +/-1,459 (X) (X) With Food Stamp/SNAP benefits in the past 12 months 234 +/-120 1.0% +/-0.5

Families 18,670 +/-396 18,670 (X) Less than $10,000 344 +/-150 1.8% +/-0.8 $10,000 to $14,999 163 +/-87 0.9% +/-0.5 $15,000 to $24,999 338 +/-128 1.8% +/-0.7 $25,000 to $34,999 505 +/-172 2.7% +/-0.9 $35,000 to $49,999 1,054 +/-222 5.6% +/-1.2 $50,000 to $74,999 1,752 +/-242 9.4% +/-1.3 $75,000 to $99,999 1,887 +/-246 10.1% +/-1.3 $100,000 to $149,999 4,465 +/-307 23.9% +/-1.6 $150,000 to $199,999 3,286 +/-328 17.6% +/-1.7 $200,000 or more 4,876 +/-388 26.1% +/-2.1 Median family income (dollars) 136,464 +/-3,714 (X) (X) Mean family income (dollars) 161,511 +/-5,816 (X) (X)

Per capita income (dollars) 50,745 +/-1,698 (X) (X)

Nonfamily households 5,552 +/-525 5,552 (X) Median nonfamily income (dollars) 65,750 +/-5,741 (X) (X) Mean nonfamily income (dollars) 73,915 +/-5,094 (X) (X)

Median earnings for workers (dollars) 60,063 +/-3,862 (X) (X) Median earnings for male full-time, year-round workers (dollars) 102,263 +/-4,678 (X) (X) Median earnings for female full-time, year-round workers (dollars) 63,655 +/-4,336 (X) (X)

Talu42 (talk) 07:48, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

"Old Hearst Ranch"

A friend of mine just sent me the image that heads up this article on vintage matchbook covers. It's copyrighted, so it can't be included in the article, of course, but I thought it was an interesting vestige of Pleasanton history. I'm guessing that Castlewood was once called "Old Hearst Ranch" -- in the '20s / '30s? --NapoliRoma (talk) 21:25, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

...and yes, the Castlewood Country Club web site notes:

In the 1940’s, John Marshall bought the property from the bank seeing an unpolished jewel with income potential, which he turned into a dude ranch, called “The Old Hearst Ranch.”

--NapoliRoma (talk) 21:30, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

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