A personal perspective . . .
I had the good fortune of attending a birthday party last night for a dear man in our yacht club who has struggled with cancer for years. We all love him so much. If anyone can beat Stage 4 cancer, it’s John. He’s the most upbeat, optimistic, amazing person I know. And his wife, Cheryl, has also battled cancer. Wow.
People were talking at the event and I was chatting with Jean (Jean and John are boating friends of ours). They still work (bummer, says the retired person). They live in Silicon Valley during the week and come to their Delta home Friday night until either Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on work schedules.
We talked about how it feels arriving in Discovery Bay on the weekends. It’s like all the stress falls away. It’s an “Ahhhh” moment.
I don’t know why exactly, why this place is so special.
I was reminiscing with Jean about when Mike & I commuted on weekends. We’d sold our Sunnyvale house earlier than planned and we were both still working. So we thought we could just stay in a Mountain View apartment during the week.
Well, apartment living when you’ve had your own house for years just isn’t fun. We could hear the closet doors closing in the unit next to ours. And people coming down the stairs. Lucy, our yellow lab, hated it. She destroyed all the blinds the first day we left her. Anyway, after six months we gave up and moved full time to the Delta and commuted back to our jobs. That’s tough.
But every Friday, when we drove the 2-3 hours to Discovery Bay and turned off Highway 4 onto Discovery Bay Blvd., there’s like a feeling. All the tension drains out and you go, “Ahhh.” We ended up moving full time to DB before we retired and just commuting back and forth. That was better.
What is it out here in the Delta, that makes us go “Ahhhh?”
When we first moved to our new home, we had an Open House event. One of my friends from work, Chanan, drove out from Sunnyvale with his family. He was on our back deck and we started chatting. He said that when driving out he couldn’t figure out why we’d moved so far away (knowing I was still commuting in/out every day). As they drove over Vasco Road, past the windmills, then dropped down and there were cows and farms and he said he wondered again what we were doing way out here. Then he got to the house and was sitting on the back deck and there was the water, the Delta, and the “Ahhhh,” and he said, “I get it now.”
That’s what so many people say.
Before we built our house, we were snow skiing one weekend with my daughter and her fiancee and talking about the lot we’d bought in Discovery Bay and hoped to build on one day.
“Where’s Discovery Bay?” Shane, our son-in-law asked.
We can drop by there and show you on our way home,” we offered.
So we took the route from skiing to Silicon Valley via Hwy 4 and pulled into Discovery Bay. The sun had set. We pulled into Drakes Drive and stopped at our vacant lot. Everyone got out and we walked through the dirt/weed lot to the back, to the water. We all stood there a moment, looking at the calm water, the Stockton lights in the distance, the peace, the quiet. And Shane said “Ahhhh. I get it now.”
What is it worth, saving the Delta? It’s worth everything.
Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA) 
This project is of litlte to no benefit to we the citizens of N Ca. All of the stated benefits are for farmers and LA. This is a very costly project with constant
changes and reviews because it has no benefit NOR NEED. The only real benefit should be increased water for all but this does not provide one drop of new water.
Not to mention the damage to the ecology of the Delta and the economy of large water recreational and commercial areas.
Our taxes are already to high and companies and people are leaving in large numbers. Our state now has the highest number of people living in poverty in the United States. Federal subsidies may dry up due to the sanctuary status. In short the policies of the Brown administration are failing. The Delta tunnel project is a example of a future financial boondoggle. All the legislators and Governor will be long gone and we will be left holding the financial bag!