re: Cities that are close geographically but very distant culturally

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yep. i lived in Mountain View and worked in Palo Alto. The "EPA" people I met were ROUGH. Having just finished a 3-year stint in New Orleans, I wasn't fazed, but still sketchy as hell.

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When I was a kid we lived in Palo Alto and my dad's grandma came to visit from Alabama. She was probably 70 or so at the time. I don't know how she managed this but she called us from a payphone to tell us she was lost. My dad asked her where she was and she said "I'm on a corner in somewhere called East Palo Alto and (she said this very loudly) THERE'S BLACK PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!".

I vividly remember him dropping the phone on the floor and squealing tires out of the driveway.