Bay Area "Crystal Cove" 2006

Right. The two points just seem fairly close to each other

 

Baasha - you have PM.

 

I agree. I'm perfectly happy with both locales, but for practical purposes they are equivalent to me since one is 15 minutes and the other is 25 minutes from me. See Nizam's map in this post, for a very useful visualization.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135840068&postcount=25

While the Stanford location is a bit more accessible to SF and North Bay folks than Santana Row, it probably doesn't make a huge difference. Under this plan, SF and North Bay folks will almost always have a 45-60 minute drive, while South Bay will always have a 15-30 minute drive. The only useful reason to alternate locations would be if alternate populations get a short drive one week and a long drive the next week. This does save 15 minutes in alternate weeks for North Bay folks, but they always have the longer drive.

So to me, if we have one locale, Stanford seems most centralized, whereas if we have two locales, then Santana Row could be one while something further north than Stanford for the other would make more sense. At the same time, if providing a close and far locale means that people always go to the close one and not the far one, then they might as well be on their own schedules and we're back to whether there is a good reason to have alternate locales. However, if someone wants to coordinate a locale in the North Bay as part of this plan they need to speak up and say something.

 

Since my car is for sale, and I will be out of town a lot starting next month, I would be more than happy to help start something closer to the north while I'm here.

Based on Yin's post, and looking at Nizam's map, I think Treasure Island, Crissy Fields, or Fort Funston (off Skyline) would be the places to consider. It is still accessible to people from the south, and the drive time would be the other way around. Between 15 to 25 minutes for people from Marin, SF, Burlingame and 45-60 minutes from the Southbay.

I think it would be a good compromise for the Bay Area in general.

We can even do the huge parking lot by Red's Java House (for coffee, food, etc.) or the Ferry Building for some variety.

What do you guys think???

 

I was just looking at Nizam's map and noticed the Northbay was not included in the 1 hour radius.

There are so many collectors and enthusiasts that live in the Marin area, and I am sure they will come out if it was 15-25 minutes away.

 

I like Nizam's other criteria too - i.e. no coffee, no chance! So forget Treasure Island. I thought Red's was fun though, and it has the all important coffee .

 

I would think so, but I've noticed none on the Fchat drives. Why not?

 

Treasure Island is out then. I do agree that coffee and all are important. I guess Fort Funston is a no go too since there is nothing there but a huge lot and scenery.

I guess the Ferry Building or Crissy Fields would work better. Red's Java House is cool. We can do doughnuts in the parking lot

 

I think it's because most of the drives happen down south and they are probably lazy to drive down.

There are so many fun roads up here and are not as "popular" as the routes we take down there. Hence less traffic and "obstacles" on the road. I usually go on solo drives up here and always run into exotics driving around.

 

It's just unfortunate that owners do not like driving his/her car for more than an hour! Down in southern california, crystal cove is just in one spot. People flock from all over to get there since it is around newport beach. Not only is it in a secluded area, but in LA, everything takes more than 30min to get to. I drive an hour to get there, as do others from san diego. I'm sure those coming from the northern/eastern parts of LA drive the same..

Point being, if you build it, they will come. I think its a matter of MAKING IT _THE_ spot. With that, takes time, and the time will bring the people (hopefully). Pick a spot, stick with it, and just have fun. Whether it be in the south bay, mid, peninsula, or whatever, anywhere in the bay is ~hour drive or so max (kind of). I know if it were in the north bay (whereas i may be located in the south bay), i would still make the trek to see a good gathering.

 

Count me in at Stanford...two blocks from my house...I think I'll take the long way.
Chris.

 

If you guys want to meet in SF, the Presidio might be a possibility. There are huge parking lots, very empty on Sat mornings, and couple of coffee / breakfast places close by. If interested, I can find more info.

 

This really sums it all up...

 

I agree with a lot of your points. The only difference here is norcal people are different from socal folks. They keep a low profile here and are more private. That's why we need to "adapt" to the culture here.

So making it more convenient, especially in the beginning, will help get this going.

Then once the whole thing gets bigger, and people get comfortable going to these meets, we can slowly evolve the concept and choose the place that is more popular that will be the "Crystal Cove" of the Bay Area.

We need to bring the circus to the people and show them how much fun it is. Once they have a taste, and get used to the idea, they will want more and drive an hour if they have to to see the friends they've made and the cars they would like to see.

There have been so many posts in the past about the Bay Area "Crystal Cove" idea, but it never came to fruition. Like I said, we need to approach it differently to make it work.

Past attempts were done the "socal" way and here we are still trying to build our own Crystal Cove.

Peace out!

 

I'd like to start by not calling it Crystal Cove.

I liked the last meet, and look forward to the next Santana Row

 

So how about those Giants?

 

FWIW

Santana Row is easy to get to and no hassle, right off the freeway.

Stanford is time consuming, bothersome, and not very easy to access, lots of neighborhood/city streets.

IMHO

 

Good point!

 

Correction, the next one is Stanford Meet on 06/10/06.

 

Good point. When Stanford has been discussed in the past, that was brought up also - i.e. getting to it takes 10-15 minutes on city streets depending on whether you're coming from 280 or 101. Santana Row is 2 minutes off 280 and close to the 880/17/101 interconnections.

 

What about an east bay location instead of Stanford. This way it would encourage some of the Sacramento people to come too.

Already have 4 people intersted in an east bay location with the lotus folks at elisetalk.com

http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23967&page=2

 

I did not make it to Santana Row until 1:00p.m. Coming from Napa is way too
far for me, and 8:00a.m. is way too early for people coming from the north bay.

John.

 

So what/when/where is it going to be ? I am glad to drop by and say hello, even though I am driving an evil flat-6 around here.