Flying over Bay Area Suburbia

One of my favorite parts of flying is getting a true birds-eye view of the pattern of a large metro area. I found Northern California’s land use to be absolutely fascinating.

The City of San Francisco is famously dense. But I was taken aback by how Sunbelt-level suburban the Bay Area is. I was also surprised at how un-buildable so much land appears to be. It truly is a situation where all the buildable land was filled up by the 1970s…and then stopped? No wonder house prices are so insane. There’s no building up or within…and those are the only options.

It’s also incredibly beautiful and so unique. I could not believe the microclimates just a few miles apart. Even outside of the incredible prosperity, Northern California seems like just a beautifully perfect place to live.