Shopping centers

[whirlcool]

The Dauphine was also known as the French joke to Americans who bought them in the 50's. They were known for breaking down and then parts always needed to be ordered from France via slowboat.

We had a neighbor who had a Renault R10. He always said it made a bunch of noise but had horrible acceleration. His was constantly overheating, year round. I was in it a few times and it was a very comfortable car to ride it. The foam on the seats was very soft.

I believe the R10 was the last Renault sold in the US with their own dealer network before they came back later with the R5(Le Car) and that AMC thing.

 

[rp2813]

The Mall of the Future?

That's debatable, but they do appear to be expanding on Steve Jobs' idea.  Virtually adjacent to Apple's massive Space Odyssey/Spaceship /Doughnut thing currently taking shape. 

 

A double whammy that will create gridlock of "Millennial" proportions IMO.

 

There are a few more pictures in the linked article.  Unless you're really interested, you can just read the captions.

 

 

Largest green roof in the world proposed for new Vallco Mall project in Cupertino

Largest green roof in the world proposed for new Vallco Mall project in Cupertino

www.mercurynews.com

 

[rp2813]

And One With an Uncertain Future

Just recently sold for the first time since it was built in the mid-'50s.   It took the death of the 90-something year-old owning family's matriarch for that to even happen.

 

In community meetings, the developer has stated that the carousel atop the sign will be retained, but didn't say how.  They are still exploring options that include a compatible expansion as opposed to an entire scrape job.  

 

This center was a frequent destination when we lived in Cambrian Park.  The only remaining small appliance repair shop in the area is located next to the bowling alley.

 

[twintubdexter]

Cambrian Park Plaza, very nice but different now

Ralph, I wish you would stop posting all these photos. You are making me homesick big time! That saying "you can never go home anymore" certainly applies to me. The house I sold in Willow Glen when I moved here is now worth between 2 and 3 million dollars. Let me know if you see any "deals" on single-wide mobiles, preferably with indoor toilet facilities.

 

Something like this, currently offered in Palm Springs for $24,000 + space rent, hundreds of thousands in the Bay Area. In the words of the late Jed Clampett..."pitee-full, p-i-t-ee full." Of course that's not really a mobile home but a covered, tow able travel trailer with flat tires.

[this post was last edited: 9/9/2015-15:31]

 

[rp2813]

About a year ago, I briefly tried to find an affordable single-wide getaway in Santa Cruz and gave up.  Maybe I should be looking in PS, except I can't just bop over there on a whim . . .

 

Sadly for anyone wishing to find a starter home around here, the median price is nearly $1M.  Unless you want to tough it out in a high crime area, there is essentially no such thing as a starter home in Silicon Valley anymore.

 

Your comment about Cambrian Park Plaza being different now applies in a couple of ways.   I know it used to have a more wood(s)y style to it (as indicated by the jagged edges on the signage), but don't know when the clinker brick and white paint were applied.

 

I remember my uncle was in town for Xmas one year and I wanted the game of "Mousetrap" in the worst way.   He said he would buy it for me.  It was tough to find at that late point in the shopping season, and we had to drive clear across town (and past many active agricultural parcels) to get it at a toy store in Cambrian Park Plaza.  That was probably my first trip ever to that "far away" shopping center.

 

[twintubdexter]

What about upscale shopping centers like Hillsdale and Stanford and the lesser places like Valco. Are those going to pot too? As a department store buyer I had to visit many centers between Santa Rosa and Salinas/Monterey on a weekly basis. I'd play David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (Let's Branch) on my cassette player as my group left the Buyer's Building in SF. I worked for a brief period of time at the Stanford Plaza and can't believe that with it's big-money clientele and stores like Bloomingdale's and Nieman Marcus it could be anything less that it was...a beautiful open-air center continuously planted with blooming flowers. I know Valco in Cupertino, once a showplace with it's canvas-roof Bullock's, has gone through changes. I read where Macy's closed their store there, no loss in my book. 

 

Once my old alma mater, the Emporium at Stanford, the company's second suburban store built when the shopping center was brand new (1955 when I was 5 thank you very much)...now a Bloomingdale's. Fancy schmancy.

[this post was last edited: 9/9/2015-16:15]

 

[pulltostart]

Love the trailer!

That looks like one that was made back before they used the term "mobile home".  Just an 8-foot-wide trailer, with some zoomy shape features to give it the impression that it was somehow aerodynamic.

 

lawrence

 

[rp2813]

Why do I get the sense that the roof on that trailer leaks?

 

Joe, Stanford Shopping Center is alive and well.  It's what Valley Fair should have become.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

There was also the R12, 15, and 17.

 

[jamiel]

Not sure the trailer leaks--out in the desert it's not a bad thing to have a shade over your building--provide a little bit of insulation.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Two Horns!

That was the reason for the two different horn beeps in the old TV ads! I never knew until now. Thank you, Joe!

Our neighbor, the Magee Carpet distributor and all around car fanatic who insisted on pumping his own gas in the 1950s, bought a pretty turquoise one for his daughter. It was used, but he paid to have mats made and gave it a beautiful wax job. I remember him telling us that the first time she washed it she used a cup to Tide in a bucket of water and removed all of the wax. She had suds rolling down the street.

I was in a carpool during the oil crisis in the late 70s-early 80s and the driver replaced the little yellow Simca, which swallowed a piston one morning on 395, with a Le Car. I think it had 5 forward gears, but going down the highway at 55, the engine screamed like it needed at least one higher gear. It had air conditioning, but that did not work for long. He commuted from Fredricksburg to DC every day. It saved gas but seemed like riding in one of those narrow cans that almonds used to come in. The can had a key on the bottom.

 

[twintubdexter]

I promise no more off-topic posts...

I have destroyed Cole's original Shopping Center thread. Having watched this feel-good movie many times, I'm always reminded of my Aunt with this scene. This really could pass for a snapshot of Aunt Dorothy. She had that exact same "do." Even the fabulous frock from Mr. Pinky's "Hefty Hideaway" looks familiar. How she ever squeezed into a Renault Dauphine was beyond me. 

 

[whirlcool]

I once rented a R5 (Le Car) in Europe for about 10 days during a vacation there. At first I laughed at it, told the agent they couldn't be serious that was the car they are giving me, but it was. They told me to try it, if I didn't like it I could bring it back.

I drove it and I actually liked it. It was typically French, lots of strange positioning of controls, etc. The dashboard looked like something out of a toy, But it did have pretty good acceleration even up in the Alps. It handled very well. It would just zip around corners. But while it was small it did have good head room.
Another strange thing was that it carried the spare tire on top of the engine up front freeing up the trunk for storage.

But back in America you didn't see them here for long. They usually rusted out by the time they were five or six years old.

 

[wayupnorth]

Everyone I knew with a Le Car absolutely hated it and had more trouble than it was worth. Finally the local Renault dealer threw up his hands and closed the dealership after that slow boat from France with the probably wrong parts never made it and customers were very mad!