Sunrise 6:28: Streets of youth

With no bicoastal blush today(the male Dawn Jogger reported that 'Optio [the other digital] had melted down'... wondering if the Big Apple was just too stimulating), the female DJ decided to jog around the streets of her youth, taking stock of what houses still stood. While the housing market is supposedly cooling across the nation, it doesn't appear to be cooling much in Menlo Park.

Many of the houses in west Menlo were ranch houses built in the early 50s, most of which have "good bones." The house (top) where her parents lived for 50 years, 1100 Hillview Drive, is a typical example. The new owners have done some modernizing (and it needed it) but some things, like the planter box on the front porch that her father built, remain.

Such a liveable ranch house often doesn't suit the tastes of today's "three is the new two" families. On her route this mornng, she passed another somewhat more modest rancher that sat on 1/2 acre that was clearly being sold as a tear down (Build Your DreamHouse!) for a mere $3 million. What often emerges after new construction is some flavor of mini-mansion, some of which at least take advantage of the area's heritage oaks.