California Somerset / Pleasanton Meadows

I mainly stop by this neighborhood before jumping on the freeway or to gas up. But I took a little drive around here the other day and it actually looks like a pretty nice neighborhood. Verrrrrrrry Pleasanton, which basically means that there are lots of big contemporary style homes with red-tiled roofs on every other house. Clean wide residential streets with an abundance of cul-de-sacs which are perfect for kids riding their bikes and doing that sort of thing because it slows down traffic a bit.

I guess I shouldn’t overgeneralize. This neighborhood—just because it is obviously one of those planned sort of neighborhoods--is not all the same. On the far eastern end, the tiles are a lighter shade than in the middle of the neighborhood. More ash colored tiles sort of. See, it’s like a whole different universe over there.

The overall feeling is sunny and wholesome.

Homes here aren’t really million dollar homes, I don’t think, but they probably are above $500K I’m guessing. On average anyway.

If I had a family I suppose I would like a neighborhood like this, nice and quiet and boring.

In terms of commuting its nice too: you are right next to the freeway so you can hop right on and get stuck in rush hour traffic right away instead of having to negotiate surface streets before finding your place in the Silicon Valley parking lot which is the everyday commute.

You are also really close to all the shopping just north of the freeway—you can catch a movie, get a book, get yogurt or just generally do all the adding to GNP sort of thing which is the central joy, as far as I can tell, of living in the suburbs.

In the neighborhood itself you can find a MacDonald’s, some gas stations, a car wash, and, of course, the required Thai place (there must be a law in Pleasanton that requires every neighborhood to have its own East Asian food joint).

And Trader Joes is where, 3 times a week, you can find me with all the other displaced earthy crunchy types.
In a nutshell: good neighborhood, but way out of my price range, like everywhere else in Pleasanton really.