Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Lost Oaks of California Ave

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 120 posts

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#61

Post by johnnybgoode »

petercooper wrote: post #59
lionhearted wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think this comment shows a slight lack of... something... hmm... This is a bit disorganized, but I'll try to lay out how the gears are turning in my head: When you implicitly call out a community or someone very admired in that community (whose also running things for free for a lot of people's enjoyment), it's courageous but it burns some of your future ability-to-speak-out-a…

I was one of those disagreeable kids who used to argue with teachers when they got their math or chemistry wrong, and eventually I stopped doing that That's depressing. That's what education is supposed to be about (rather than blindly accepting incorrect facts).

Yes. lionhearted's example illustrates quite well the reason today's schools are generally incompatible with good education.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#62

Post by TriinT »

mr_luc wrote: post #60
TriinT wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stand by my comment. My opinion is based on evidence: some high-karma members can get away with stuff other members can't get away with. If a newbie posted about oaks getting hacked, the post would be flagged right away. Of course, since PG runs HN, the community should indeed cut him some slack as a token of gratitude. My comment was an attack on the herd phenomenon, not on PG. It was not meant to offend anyone. I…

I agree that the comments shouldn't offend anyone. I disagree with your reasoning, though. This neighborhood is (apparently) pretty well known in Ye Olde Silicone Valley(e). That being the case, I'll bet any number of nerd bloggers or private individuals could have written it up and gotten upvotes; perhaps not as many, but that's not a problem unless you dislike the idea of reputations in general. The other factor to…

Please note that my initial comment was a reply to a comment on herd behavior, not a statement that oak tree hacking in non-kosher. In any case, I would much rather read about oak trees than yet another retarded TechCrunch article...

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#63

Post by nvoorhies »

cpr wrote: post #57

Is the old Kirk's hamburger joint still there? Wonderful place. (This is dating me--haven't been back there for 20 years.)

There's no longer a Kirk's on California. The Palo Alto location moved over to Town & Country village a couple miles away. Kirk's has a few other locations in nearby towns too, though, so I suspect it was more because the California Ave. location was getting old and run down than financial troubles.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#64

Post by NathanKP »

callmeed wrote: post #2

Interesting. Where I grew up (San Luis Obispo county in CA), you'd need an act of congress to touch a mature oak tree–even on your own property. Our church actually had to build around one when they did a building project. I bet if an entrepreneur or real estate developer wanted to cut down oak trees for a building project, they wouldn't get past the first step in the permit process ... but I guess when city wants th…

They probably took advantage of some neighborhood association clause. You would at least think that they would have asked the residents first, though.

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#65

Post by NathanKP »

fjabre wrote: post #45
lionhearted wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think this comment shows a slight lack of... something... hmm... This is a bit disorganized, but I'll try to lay out how the gears are turning in my head: When you implicitly call out a community or someone very admired in that community (whose also running things for free for a lot of people's enjoyment), it's courageous but it burns some of your future ability-to-speak-out-a…

Are users of HN free agents or does good karma imply they must never disagree with anything coming from one particular source..?

Good karma implies that they must never disagree. ;)

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#66

Post by shykes »

randallsquared wrote: post #48
shykes wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Private owners respect and conserve their resources Except when they don't. Blanket statements like that aren't very helpful. > politicians [...] use up resources in a rush > to accomplish short term, idiotic goals. Except when they don't. Or when the goals are decided by the private owners who bought them lunch.

Or when the goals are decided by the private owners who bought them lunch. I think you missed the point. If the property in question were privately owned, then the goals concerning the property would be the owners' goals, not the politicians' goals. To the extent that the politicians' goals control property, the property isn't privately owned (except for the corner case of property the politicians privately own).

Allow me to reformulate my point for clarity:

1. Politicians don't always mismanage publicly owned resources

2. When they do, it is often on behalf of a private interest, e.g. a real estate developer contributing to their next campaign

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#67

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

natrius wrote: post #50
ardit33 wrote: post #36

It is sad though, that Cal. Ave, is considered on the most nicer areas of Sillicon Valley. There is nothing really special in it that you can't find in any dinky town in the us, minus the charm that small towns have. Compare to any nice areas to Cambridge, or W. D.C. or NYC, or Boulder. With the money flowing in the area, that that's what they can achieve? At least during the gilded age, the rich folks built memorial…

California Ave. is notably nice because that pattern of building is now illegal in most parts of the Bay Area and the United States as a whole. People like visiting walkable cities and the walkable enclaves of their own suburbs, but if someone actually proposes building something like that, people raise hell. "Mixed-use is not appropriate for this site," Palmer said. "It impinges on the little residential neighborhoo…

Reminds me of the parochial mindset that caused me to leave Connecticut: residents on tiny twisty roads in wealthy old towns that didn't want a yellow centerline or white edge markers painted on the road because it "would lose its character." Forget all the automotive deaths attributed to people coming around blind corners too close to the middle of the road. Forget drivers in the rain or fog who can't tell where the road ends and the ditch begins. "It spoils the character" of the roadway, and that's more important than safety.

Idiots!

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#68

Post by bootload »

pg wrote: post #7
callmeed wrote: post #2

Interesting. Where I grew up (San Luis Obispo county in CA), you'd need an act of congress to touch a mature oak tree–even on your own property. Our church actually had to build around one when they did a building project. I bet if an entrepreneur or real estate developer wanted to cut down oak trees for a building project, they wouldn't get past the first step in the permit process ... but I guess when city wants th…

You can't cut down a mature tree on your own property in Palo Alto either. But apparently the city can.

Pity the issue of cutting down the trees wasn't seen before it happened. Browsing through the local news it appears PA doesn't see much value in parks, trees "Guest Opinion: A glimpse back at the history of Palo Alto parks-dedication battles", Enid Pearson ("Initiator of the 1965 citizens' initiative that resulted in the City Charter provision on dedicating city parkland") ~ http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=1157...

Re: The Lost Oaks of California Ave

#70

Post by ellyagg »

TriinT wrote: post #56
ellyagg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silly. First of all, pg virtually never writes anything pointless. Even if he does, a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. At any rate, pg is a recursive input to the hn community. Part of this community is pg. Part of this community is you and me, too, but a bigger part is him. A large part of why I came here in the first place is pg's essays, which span the gamut. I came to think of him as a…

Please note that "virtually never" is weaker than "never". In any case, thanks for your input. Your misguided fanboyism greatly amuses me...

No one (yes, this includes you) can apprehend what's true and make decisions only by reason and observation. We use heuristics, such as giving extra weight to the opinions of other smart people. In the olden days, they called it respect.

All the people I respect this way can unashamedly and unreservedly admit to respecting other people themselves. When it's mutual, it's called friendship. Sometimes it's called love.

:)

Post reply on HN