Posted on 02/22/2022 6:18:05 PM PST by thecodont
Awesome </s>
Walnut Creek sure isn’t the “Little Geneva” it used to be....
I've never heard it called that. Will have to look it up.
I hadn't gone shopping there for a couple of years due to the COVID-19 shutdown of everything. Went this weekend and was amazed. BART is filthy, you can count on seeing homeless people on the cars. People put their feet (shoes on) up on the seats, making the dirty places even dirtier.
The Walnut Creek BART station is still undergoing extensive renovation of its parking area, I think some of it may be to control possible criminal traffic flow in and out. There is already a police substation there (just like Eastmont Mall in Oakland).
Earlier that afternoon, the #4 free shuttle to the Broadway Shopping Plaza was out of service, with "Police" "Call 911" signs flashing. Passengers were left waiting and some headed to the shopping district on foot.
Broadway Plaza has Jersey barriers at each end of the street, to keep the motorist drive-by looters (remember last November and December?) out. This means the regular #4 shopping shuttle can't enter the area at its regular stop and has to take a detour about a block away.
Back to the BART station. The incident yesterday evening had police blocking the major open entrance, with lots of cars twinkling. There were about a dozen cops at the fare gates telling people to stay away and get into the nearby parking garage to stay safe. Some officers entered the station with armor and guns (rubber bullets? They were long guns) and shields.
A drone was circling the place to get a better view of things, probably a cop drone.
So after maybe about eight of the officers entered the station's fare gates, they started getting people off the train, the passengers came down the escalator with their hands up. One guy recently released said, "All I was trying to do was get home."
What was puzzling was a couple outside, one woman and a man with a black baclava knitted mask, looking agitated. The man was making agitated obscene gestures at the cops, who ignored him.
Never heard “Little Geneva”
Who ever said that and what’s it supposed to mean?
I think maybe because it had so many banks.
Me and my high school buddies used to call Walnut Creek “Little Geneva” back in the late 70’s/early-mid 80’s. Northgate HS. Walnut Creek was a bucolic little burb in the midst of transitioning from a ‘50’s-era small town to the high end shopping nexus it is now. A GREAT place to grow up during the Regan era. Seemed like an endless Summer looking back on it. Life was easy. And FUN! So much fun!
Things change...mostly from external pressures in this case. Gang bangers from the east and west with easy freeway access, weak City leadership, wokeness....Concord and Pleasant Hill are victims, too. They just aren’t flashy towns so no one notices.
Never heard it.
Northgate is other side of town.
Not really Walnut Creek, but in the city limits.
Del Valle. Las Lomas. That’s Walnut Creek.
Northgate was weird and bizarre.
Northgate is not IN town, for sure, but me and the boys spent much of our time downtown. That’s where the action was....
Pinkos pizza?
Anyway, back to the question.
Why did you call it Little Geneva?
Because all the banks that started coming in?
Yeah, the banks, Nordstrom’s, the high-end boutiques, the fancy restaurants. We knew it was headed that way when they banned cruising on Main St and they tore down the El Rey Theatre..
“Little Geneva” may have been a term that we Northgate outlanders came up with...lol
You mean Pinky’s Pizza. One of my bands played there many moons ago.
“Walnut Creek sure isn’t the “Little Geneva” it used to be....”
Lived in Lafayette for a few years late 80s. Back then most crime came from Oakland. Car missing? They’d find it in an Oakland motel parking lot, stripped.
The Oakland and Richmond thugs have better cars now and don’t bother stealing them anymore. The do come by every so often and gang rape Nordstrom’s and Macy’s in downtown WC, though.
Yeah, Pinkos.
I remember when Lucky’s was where Nordstrom is. They tore it down, built Bullocks. Bullocks became Nordstroms.
Yep, I remember that. Now we are just being nostalgic.
I miss the Gemco on Main and Ygnacio Valley most.
No, scratch that. I miss Abernathy’s most...
What’s Abernathy’s?
A little bar on Locust St. Between Cyprus and Bonanza. Lot’s of great local bands played there.
See? Nostalgia.
Of course.
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