The Iron Horse Trail Pedestrian Crossing on Hacienda. Is it good for pedestrians and cyclists, or is outweighed by the nuisance it creates for the passing traffic?
It’s a good idea to make it easy to cross this prominent Trail. But the reality is that there are Oracle and Kaiser offices on one side and bunch of apartments on the other side. That makes a large number of people cross the Hacienda Dr. at that point (more than the people who would use the trail as a trail, as the planners may have thought). The red light for vehicular traffic stays red for a long time. So there are times during the day when the traffic has to stop for long periods because there is some pedestrian or another, and of course, no one is shy of pressing that button!
Perhaps the Pleasanton traffic planners need to study this better and come up with a better solution.

This new Taco Bell location opened on Saturday, May the 13th. The idea of a brand new Taco Bell in a newly ‘minted’ store/construction can be more appealing in reality when you enter there than one would imagine otherwise. It’s fresh, clean, and new (try recall any other Taco Bell, and you would know what I mean).  Hopefully, it will stay like that for a couple of years. The furniture –  the chairs and tables, are definitely a couple of notches up as well. Think Chipotle or Mod Pizza. It may be standard now, but this one does have the TV screens for presenting the menu at the register.
Customer service was great. Got to know it’s opened by one Sandy Singh of Jingle Bells. Read up that it’s one of the fastest growing YUM brand Franchisee in the East bay area. Good job.

Just came back from San Francisco Outlet Mall because couldn’t find a spot to park. Sunday afternoon – a good two weeks before a long weekend, and it’s almost impossible to find parking.
It’s quite crazy – like, it’s quite unbelievable for quite some time now that the mall operators can actually afford to turn away customers who are willing to open their purse strings. If someone drives to this area from afar, I am sure they would have no choice but wait for hours, but certainly not if you live local.
This, when other retailers like Macys, Nordstrom, JC Penny’s of the world can’t get customers to shop. Hope the city of Livermore (for its tax revenues) and the mall operator Simon can find a solution sometime soon.