Authentic Mainstreet Remenant

Penngrove, CA

Part 2 in a 4 part series on Cool Mainstreets

What is in the picture is pretty much it.

Within a block there is also a market, school and a new post office. The mainstreet is just a few blocks, then low density ag lots. The mainstreet was once was the center of daily commerce for the rural area. The hub is situated at a crossroads and rail line (uh oh).

As built, the infrastructure has worked as a real mainstreet. It wasn't built as a restaurant row or a street designed to catch discretionary spenders with the attempted facade allure of a street that services the general needs of a rural small town. 

People like small towns and cool mainstreets remind them of a small town atmosphere. Everyone knows each other in a small town and each individual has a bigger footprint on the town's demeanor. Anonymity is related to the size of a town's population, not the walkability of its mainstreet. 

Now in Penngrove, there are a few restaurants and bars. There are malls just outside of town and a freeway to Santa Rosa if you want to go to Home Depot  or Target.

I doubt few people ever elected walking to Penngrove's mainstreet back before people had cars. Walking to mainstreet from where we stayed in Penngrove is pleasant but takes a chunk of the day. That's no good when you have a working farm to tend. People had horses for mobility.

Along the walk you can encounter a local flavor of coastal Nor Cal. One restaurant was serving blackberry pies.

Does Leucadia have a local flavor and where can you go to enjoy it?

The authenticity of Penngroove's mainstreet  is framed by the "neighborhoods" surrounding it.

See also: Pleasanton