The Altamont Line and the Planning Dilemma

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Altamont Pass, home of one of the largest wind farms in the world. The Altamont is also a gateway between the valley and the Bay Area, a 741-foot-high pass through the grassy hills that separates two regions and unifies a megaregion simultaneously. The Altamont Pass is not just a line between the traditional, formal Bay Area and the Central Valley, but a key marker of a more troubling frontier—the line between Democrat and Republican, between red and blue. Party affiliation predicts little in terms of whether your city embraced exclusion or unhealthy growth. But the stark political divide between the two sides of the pass is just another barrier working against a more equal fusion of two proud regions. There is also little to report in terms of concerted efforts at making the megaregion work politically or infrastructurally.