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The 101 and 85 junction is literally 21 miles from Gilroy and 11 miles from downtown San Jose. And the part immediately around the junction is built up, the empty land starts a few more miles down 101, near the electrical substation.
It's really not that close to downtown SJ, certainly not six miles. Downtown Los gatos is about the same distance to downtown SJ as the junction. Cupertino and mountain view are further away, but those places are really far, so I don't know if that's saying much. I lived in Sunnyvale for five years and I went to San Jose just a few times a year (it doesn't help that there's not much reason to do so).
The center of silicon valley is arguable, though IMO Cupertino is probably too far south for that and I'd put it in mountain view. IBM is headquartered in New York. The bay area is certainly not centered on Cupertino, though.
Come on, the quarry is 16 miles away from Palo alto. Right now without traffic it's a 30 minute drive and 15-20 minutes just to get to 280. You're easily looking at an hour plus during rush hour before you put a bunch of housing on the mountain with one road leading in and out.
Yeah, it's closer than San Francisco, and it's also closer than Seattle and Toronto. I don't know why you are repeatedly exaggerating the geography to such an extent but it really undermines your point. The quarry is marginal land and would be a shitty commute for any points further than, like, Cupertino. Which is not nothing, but it's not a panacea.
You'd have better luck talking about the yuuge Grumman facility that is literally, certifiably, 100% in the middle of Sunnyvale right next to Caltrain than pretending that a quarry in the mountains or a field on the way to Gilroy are in the heart of silicon valley.
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