El Paseo de Saratoga once operated as a two-level, open-air shopping center with trees, fountains, courtyards and water features. The center hosted a diverse mix of businesses including music stores, a radio station, a bookstore, an arcade, jewelry shops, music clubs, and cafés serving unconventional coffee creations. Retailers and restaurants focused on healthy living and natural products well before trends favored them. Personal memories include buying European thrash metal LPs at Fantasy Records and visits to Red Planet Comics and Monk's Retreat. A corner at Quito Road has been demolished, illustrating the transitory nature of shopping malls and urban change.
At the time, El Paseo was a rustic open-air paradise with shady trees, fountains, courtyard spaces and walkways meandering over the water. I recall a radio station, a bookstore, a video game arcade, jewelry shops, a few music clubs, plus outré coffee concoctions at Perfect Blend. Even if I didn't patronize every one of those places, I still remember them. Many of the retailers and restaurants emphasized healthy living or natural products, long before it became fashionable.
I am not suffering over this. If one becomes attached to a shopping mall, suffering will emerge because all shopping malls, especially in San Jose, are transitory. They all age. They all change. If the columnist fails to understand this, then he remains caught in a trap, grasping at impermanent phenomena. Why am I telling you these things? Because right now, the Quito Road corner of El Paseo-today's El Paseo-is gone. Flattened.
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