McMansions in Paradise

I live in what is called the only authentic beach town in Northern California, certainly the only one with an old-fashioned amusement park that my sister calls the poor-man's disneyland. My neighborhood, the yacht harbor, has been called a secret paradise by locals and visitors because it's sheltered from the wind and fog by the Monterey Bay Marine sanctuary. This banana belt has been my home since 1989 when my husband and I bought a house right before the big earthquake. Our house survived the quake and since then we have only grown more attached to our former hippie town. Unfortunately while progress has improved the downtown, replacing smoke shops with boutiques, it has also encouraged a new breed of folks to move in...those who are building McMansions in this town that used to be proud of it's beach dwellings. Tiny little lots are being overrun with overdone, gingerbread houses. The unique charm of Santa Cruz is fading away so it's becoming like any other town in any other city in the world. For some reason the recession has not hit the Santa Cruz real estate market like it has the rest of the state and country. Now we're thinking of moving to try and get a better view and more light and some of the authentic feel we moved to Santa Cruz to experence...unfortunately Perth Australia seems to be the closest place in spirit.

No such thing as originality

My friend Beth and I thought we were being so cool-combining our mother's names (my nom's maiden name Kuhl) and her mom's name Bella into a blog: KuhlBella. Guess what? I just saw a clothing line by that name. Is it even possible to come up with an original idea in 2009?
It seems like history is repeating itself with the "great recession" and people returning to basic values (ie; poverty). I remember reading about the depression when I was little and asking my dad about this terrible time and he assured me it could never happen again. Part of me didn't believe him even as a kid...didn't we always learn that history repeats itself?
I guess those Silicon Valley types keep coming up with new ideas: green collar jobs and technology, new ways to communicate, twitter, and new ways to make and lose money (skype).
But are they new ideas or just spiffed up versions of the age old way of communicating--talking? After all blogging is just a diary-gone public.
This curmudgeon clearly needs a nap--if I wasn't so addicted to facebook I might take one.