Tag: palo alto

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Interstate 280

The Most Beautiful Freeway

A curving six-lane freeway follows a ridge beside a long reservoir, surrounded by rolling California hills covered in oak and chaparral, glowing in warm golden-hour sunlight.

I’m writing a book about Interstate 280 — how its route was chosen, and who chose it. I’ve reached the point where I need your help.

Drive Interstate 280 south from San Francisco on a clear morning and the city falls away fast. Eight lanes curve through rolling hills — oaks, grassland, the reservoirs flashing between the ridges. No billboards. No clutter. Just the road, doing exactly what a road is supposed to do, in a landscape that looks like it was arranged for the purpose.

People call it the world’s most beautiful freeway. I’m writing its biography.

Not a coffee-table book of pretty pictures, and not an engineering manual. The question that hooked me is simpler and harder: how did this particular road get to run exactly here? Who decided, who objected, what did it cost, and who paid? Every mile of freeway is an argument that somebody won. I want to know who argued, and what the winning cost.

My model is Michael Wallis’s Route 66 — a main narrative braided with what he called “sideshows”: short detours into the odd, human, funny details that accumulate around any great road. The book opens in Millbrae. Its center of gravity is a chapter I call “The Ridge Bargain,” built around a single question: what did it cost to move four miles of Interstate off a city’s drinking water?

For the last few months I’ve been in the archives — the San Mateo County History Museum, the Caltrans transportation library, the Cañada College archives — and the documents have been generous with dates and votes and contract numbers. I can now tell you, for instance, that the final seven miles of 280 opened on September 7, 1973, at a cost of $21 million.

What the documents can’t give me is people. And that’s why I’m writing this.

The open questions

These are the things I most want to know — the gaps no archive has filled:

  1. November 1961. Three years after the state adopted the Skyline Boulevard alignment, its engineers suddenly revived an older plan to run the freeway through Millbrae — over El Camino Real, wiping out the Kings Drive-In on Millbrae Avenue. San Bruno said yes; Millbrae held out. Nobody has ever said why the route came back from the dead. Was it engineering? Politics? Leverage? If your parents or grandparents followed San Mateo County politics in those years, I’d like to hear what they said about it at the dinner table.
  2. The Ridge Bargain. In 1968–69, four miles of Interstate got moved off San Francisco’s watershed. The deal involved the city, the county, the state, and the federal government. But who actually sat at the table? I have agencies; I need names.
  3. January 1968. The Highway Commission approved a realignment that month. How did Redwood City and Woodside react? Who announced it, and how did the local papers play it? The big-city dailies missed most of this story; the weeklies might not have.
  4. The scenic highway. The Peninsula stretch of 280 is a designated state scenic highway, which is why you’ll never see a billboard on it — unlike US 101, just to the east. Who pushed for that designation locally, back in the 1960s? Somebody had to, before the easements were signed.
  5. The construction years. The Crystal Springs section went up between 1970 and 1973 — grading, drainage, watershed protection, three vista points. Did you work on it? Drive past it every day? Photograph it? The union papers covered it; the family albums might have the better pictures.
  6. The statue. For 49 years, a 26-foot concrete Junipero Serra stood at the Crystal Springs rest area — dedicated in 1976, demolished in 2025. Half a century of graffiti, proposals, and “turn left at the statue” directions. What are your memories of it?
  7. The road’s own police. The California Highway Patrol has owned this road since before most of it existed. I’m hoping to ride along with them. But first: did you patrol 280, get stopped on it, or know someone who did — back when the limit was 55 and the rest areas were full?
What I’m looking for

Photographs most of all — construction, the corridor before the freeway, the rest areas in their prime, the statue. Then documents: clippings, letters, planning papers, company newsletters, anything in a shoebox. Then memories: what it was like to drive it new, to live next to the fight, to work the job. And introductions: retired Caltrans District 4 engineers, CHP officers, planners, county old-timers, anyone who was in the room.

If you can help, please reach out to me using either the Contact page on this site or directly at scott@loftesness.com

Somebody should try to tell the story of this road. I’ve decided that somebody is me. But I can’t do it alone — and I have a feeling the best material isn’t in any archive. It’s in your scrapbooks, journals, or maybe upstairs in the attic.

Categories
Aging Atmosphere

The Atmosphere Business

There are some rooms you just want to be a part of. A restaurant critic wrote that recently in the Financial Times, and I’ve been turning it over ever since. Not because it’s surprising — anyone who loves restaurants already knows it’s true — but because it named something I’ve been experiencing without quite having the words for it.

I’ve been paying more attention to rooms lately. Not to what’s happening in them, but to the rooms themselves. The light temperature. The materials. The way a space settles around you when you walk in.

There’s a Greek restaurant in Palo Alto called Evvia that I’ve been going to for years. It has no modern feel whatsoever — no reclaimed industrial aesthetic, no Edison bulbs performing nostalgia, no carefully curated emptiness. Instead: a wall of jars and bottles filled with colored liquids, honey-blonde wood, light that feels like it was chosen by someone who understood that warmth is not a design choice but a form of hospitality. I couldn’t tell you what era it conjures. I just know that when I walk in, something in me slows down. And the food is superb. That matters too — not as the reason you came, but as the room’s final kept promise.

I don’t think I would have noticed any of that at 35.

At 35 you move through rooms. You’re pointed forward — toward the person across the table, the evening’s agenda, whatever brought you there. The room is backdrop. At 35 I was probably thinking about the wine list before I’d finished reading the menu, planning the next thing while the current thing was still happening.

Something shifts. I can’t name the moment it happened, because there wasn’t one. Just a gradual noticing — that I was paying attention differently. That the room had become as interesting as the reason I came.

The word that comes to mind is savor. Which has an interesting relationship with time. You’d think that with less of it ahead, you’d move faster, extract more, optimize. Instead the opposite happens. Each thing becomes more worth inhabiting fully. The scarcity makes you slower, not faster. More permeable.

The FT writer talks about wanting to be held by a room. That’s a passive construction — something done to you, not by you. I think that capacity to be held requires a surrender that younger people can’t quite manage. Too much forward momentum. Too much else to get to.

What comes with the savor, I’ve found, is peacefulness. Not contentment exactly — contentment can be a kind of settling, a lowering of expectations. This is different. Peacefulness has knowledge in it. You’ve seen enough to know what a good room is worth. You’ve been in enough bad ones — too loud, too bright, too eager to impress — to recognize when a room is simply, quietly doing its job.

Evvia does its job. The honey-blonde wood absorbs the evening. The jars catch the light. The atmosphere, as an old restaurateur once put it, is what they’re actually selling.

Later in life, I know how to buy it.

Categories
Food and Drink Palo Alto

Salt and Pepper Bagels: A Game-Changing Discovery

During a recent visit with relatives, we brought along some snacks to share, including bagels and cream cheese spread. Little did we know, this would lead to a fascinating discussion about bagel preferences!

We’d picked up the bagels that morning from Boichik Bagels, a fantastic local spot in Palo Alto. As non-connoisseurs, we opted for just plain bagels, which, in hindsight, was a bit… unadventurous.

As we savored these delicious local bagels, my son revealed his enthusiasm for salt and pepper bagels. Seriously? I’d never ventured beyond poppy seed, so I was skeptical. But he persisted, encouraging us to give them a try.

The seed was planted, and on my next visit to Boichik Bagels, I ordered a couple of salt and pepper bagels. And, as you might expect, I was hooked! The perfect balance of savory and peppery flavors won me over. Now, we only order salt and pepper bagels!

Trying new foods can be a thrilling (or disappointing!) experience, and this encounter reminded me to be more open-minded even at my “advanced” age. Who knows what other flavors await my discovery? Life is so rich!…

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iPhone 12 Pro Max Photography Photography Workflow

Sunday Morning at Boronda Lake

Recently the city of Palo Alto has opened up access to Foothills Park which for many years has limited access only to residents of Palo Alto. I’ve never been there so this morning – a grey one here on the San Francisco peninsula, I decided to take a quick drive to visit Foothills Park and see what it’s like. In particular, I was interested in seeing the small lake – Boronda Lake.

Last week I finished up a workshop led by Dan Burkholder on iPhone Artistry. Dan reawakened my interest in capturing and editing photos just on my iPhone. I made the following image using the Camera app on my iPhone 12 Pro Max:

I then used the free Snapseed app that Google provides to edit and stylize this image. Dan had walked us through the capabilities of Snapseed during his workshop so I put many of the tools he taught us to edit this image – here’s the list of tools that I applied:

I was particularly intrigued by the Grunge tool – one of my fellow workshop participants was a fan of the tool and shared some of his techniques with us. Using the Grunge tool, I was able to colorize and texturize the image resulting in the final version:

Earlier today, Om Malik shared a post comparing the iPhone camera with the old Kodak Brownie Camera – see Why the iPhone is Today’s Kodak Brownie Camera. It is amazing what these small “supercomputers in our pocket” are capable of in terms of image making and processing. This morning’s image of Boronda Lake is just my latest example.

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Photography Stanford

Now at Cantor: Outside Looking In

Last year The Capital Group Foundation gifted a remarkable collection of over a thousand 20th century American photographs to the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford. Cantor has been exhibiting from this collection – beginning with last fall’s display of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston photographs. Today the next exhibition is now up – with photographs from John Gutmann, Helen Levitt, and Wright Morris.

Each of these photographers has a distinctive style which this exhibition mixes beautifully. I was not familiar with Gutmann’s work – but really enjoyed discovering how he captured moments from unique perspectives. Levitt’s New York City photographs (in a mix of both black and white and color) are more familar. Morris’ photographs from the American midwest are uniquely different yet again.

Here’s one of Gutmann’s photographs on the cover of the brochure available at the exhibition which is sitting in my lap. Such a great image with that hand coming out of the broken window!

If you’re able, be sure to visit Cantor between now and April 26, 2020. Cantor doesn’t charge admission – making it a delight for me who lives about 10 minutes away enabling frequent visits! Parking can be challenging up until 4 PM during the week but very available on most weekends. Cantor is open six days each week – closing on Tuesdays.

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Lightroom Palo Alto Photography Photography - Fujifilm X100S

Ah Evvia!

Ah Evvia - Palo Alto - 2013

One of my favorite local restaurants is Evvia at 420 Emerson St. in Palo Alto. A long time favorite, this restaurant serves up great Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. In addition to the great food, the setting is also superb – with lots of texture, color and ambiance.

Here’s a shot from a lunchtime visit last August when I happened to take along my then-new Fujifilm X100S. I happened to have a table right across from the oven – and loved this scene with the bread and bread baskets piled high and the copper cookware hanging from the rack above.

This image is straight out of the X100S (shot as a JPEG) with a bit of vignette added in Lightroom 5.

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Palo Alto Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photoshop

New Photoshop Learnings from Jaime Ibarra

I recently took a 1:1 workshop with Jaime Ibarra – wanting to learn more about his technique for post-processing images. His approach to post-processing is strikingly different – and one which I enjoy. And he’s also an amazing photographer as well!

Jaime and I spent a couple of hours together via Skype video talking about both his approach to photography, some new challenges for me, and then his approach to post-processing images in Photoshop. I’ve been to several photography workshops over the last couple of years – but this one was really unique and different – and I learned a lot!

Frankly, I expected our time together would focus mostly on post-processing – but we spent a lot of time upfront talking just about photography, what it means to us, how we approach it, how we’re challenged by it, etc. That discussion was surprising for me – and enlightening. Great fun. Perhaps even more useful to me in terms of my wanting to learn about portrait shooting than the post-processing techniques Jaime subsequently shared.

So, what did I learn? Here’s an example of an image I both shot and post-processed earlier today using some of what I learned from my workshop with Jaime. The colors are different – not exactly unusual, but different. Different enough to matter and capture the mood. The venue is the California Avenue Farmers Market in Palo Alto. The image is titled “Karmel Korn” – shot with my Canon 5D Mark II with the Canon 135mm f/2 lens.

Kettle Korn -Palo Alto - 2011

Thanks to both Trey Ratcliff and Victor Cajiao for introducing me to Jaime.

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro Stanford

The Power of Black and White – Canon S95 HDR

Maybe it’s the visit to the Ansel Adams show with Chris on Saturday that has sent me over the edge, but I’m continually intrigued by how one can take a color photo and turn it into a much more powerful black and white image.

See the photo below – it’s #3 from my initial Canon S95 HDR post earlier this morning.

Rodin's Gates of Hell @ Stanford

Frankly, I didn’t spend much time on this photo – the point was to provide it (a traditional HDR post-processed shot) as a point of comparison with the new in-camera HDR feature built-in to the S95.

As I was looking at it, I wondered how a conversion to black and white might look – now that I’ve become acquainted and familiar with Lightroom 3’s excellent Black and White Mix controls.

So, I gave it a shot – here’s the result – after about 10 minutes of tweaking in Lightroom:

Rodin's Gates of Hell - Canon PowerShot S95 - HDR

Obviously, it’s the same subject as the original photo – Rodin’s Gates of Hell – but it’s been transformed into a more powerful photograph through the conversion to black and white.

I also experimented for the first time using the new Lens Correction features in Lightroom 3 – to remove the distortion in terms of angle, etc. that I had in the original image. It now looks very close to a direct, head-on shot at the scuplture.

Finally, I tweaked it in Flickr – using Picnik to add a museum frame around it – dressing it up a bit.

I like the result. What do you think?

You may also want to view my Flickr set of Canon S95 HDRs taken this morning at Stanford.

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro Stanford

Shoot HDR on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Rodin’s Gates of Hell

IMG_0088_89_90_tonemappedHere’s my first attempt at handheld HDR photography using my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

The setting is Rodin’s Gates of Hell at the Cantor Arts Center on the Stanford University campus.

I love their description:

“The Rodin Sculpture Garden is open all hours, with lighting for nighttime viewing. Admission is free.”

I took three raw shots while seating on the ground, holding the camera as steady as I could, using Aperture Priority with three high-speed shots on the 5D Mark II.

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