A few months before my wife and I got married, I bought her a bicycle for her birthday.  She was so happy, and we couldn’t wait to take it out for a spin.  We’re not hardcore bikers or fitness fanatics by any stretch of the imagination, but we definitely enjoy our leisurely rides around the neighborhood.

We rode through the big parking lot on what’s now the 49ers’ new stadium on Tasman Drive where it crosses San Tomas Aquino Creek, not half a mile away.  There’s a bike trail along the creek, and it’s easier to cut through the parking lot to get to the creek trail.  Anyone who bikes to work through this area knows it well as it’s a main bike route to many Silicon Valley companies like Intel, Nvidia, Cisco, TiVo, Brocade, Citrix, Yahoo, NetApp, and many others (holler at me if you want your company mentioned in thi$ post too!$!$).

I was born and raised in this neighborhood, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the 80’s. I moved away for college, came back, moved away on 2 more occassions for work and grad school, came back, and have been here every since. My immediate neighbors and I all know each other, and most of them have been here as long as we have. We remember hearing the roosters on the two farms across the railroad tracks. The old land owners sold them off in the mid-90’s for new single family homes. Nothing against the homes, just giving some historical context of the area’s growth.

The 49ers training camp and headquarters moved to Santa Clara in the mid-80’s, and at the time that was a pretty big deal.  I remember as a kid, carpooling with my neighbor, we would yell “Forty-Ninerrrrs!” at the top of our lungs out the car window as his dad drove over the bridge overlooking their training camp, hoping to get an acknowledgment from someone on the practice field. We got a couple waves now and then.

That same stretch of sidewalk along Tasman Drive is also where I run. Well, to a normal person, it might look like a very slow jog, but I’m running my butt off, trust me. When they broke ground for the new stadium, they closed off that sidewalk and eventually a small stretch of the pedestrian/bike path. I’d have to cross the street to the other side or find another route, which was just slightly annoying.

Now, I LOVE the 49ers, and I love Santa Clara, but I’m really not in love with the new stadium. Times change, economic growth, etc. I get it.  Really, I do. Please spend your money here! 🙂

But if you’ve called the same place home for a good stretch of time– and I’m trying not to be an old geezer here– you naturally develop just a little bit of a connection with the place and space around you: the roosters crowing, the air being a little cleaner, less traffic, fewer buildings blocking the view of the open sky and sun peaking over the mountains on an early morning run, uh, I mean jog.

I was chatting with my neighbors the other day about the stadium, and one of them said, “I can deal with the traffic. Just don’t bring any trouble into the neighborhood.”

And I think that’s the perfect persepective. No matter if a building comes up or goes down, whether business is booming or busting, as long as people don’t bring trouble to your home, I can deal with the added traffic and extra noise.

The next chapter in our neighborhood’s story begins in a few short weeks with the first pre-season football game in less than a month and the first event in a couple of weeks (soccer, meh).  We’ll see how it all goes, growing pains and all.  I’m not much of a game attender, but I will watch all the games on Sunday afternoons (and Monday nights and Thursday nights).

And when we eventually attend our first game in the new stadium, an imaginary tear may fall from my imaginary hurt feelings, longing for a bygone era and an empty plot of dirt. And nobody will care! 😛

Then I’ll turn to my wife and say, remember when we used to ride our bikes here?