The first post-vaccine trip and a Double-Double

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Good afternoon,

I’m leaving northern California today after a family visit.

I spent time in  Concord, a  city of about 130,000  in the East Bay area on the first trip outside Delaware and Maryland in more than a year.

The temporary home of Delaware Business Now came with a view of Mount Diablo, a 3,800-foot high peak that dominates the landscape and once supplied coal to the bay area.

A few things reminded me of home. 

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Concord has Capriotti’s and Wayback Burger locations. Wayback may still be better known to some in Delaware as Jake’s. 

Wayback has a formidable competitor, In-N-Out, the family-owned West Coast burger chain with drive-up lines that would make Chick-fil-A jealous. The calorie-laden Double-Double seen above is worth the wait.

The family is divided on In-N-Out, with the majority still favoring Shake Shack, which has only a few locations in the sprawling Bay area.

Ten miles up the interstate on the way to Napa wine country,  Delaware City refinery owner PBF  snapped up a former Shell complex in a cluster of refineries near the bay. In  a sign of the times, a nearby Marathon refinery is being converted to renewable diesel in a process that uses animal fats, cooking oils, etc. 

Houses typically cost $700,000 or more, one reason for California’s population decline. As was the case in Delaware, home  prices accelerated during the pandemic,  due to a lack of  listings. 

Coronavirus took its toll in Concord, with a sizable number of vacant store spaces made worse by California’s stop and start closing mandates. Even its more affluent neighbor Walnut Creek has vacancies.

Still, Contra Costa County, population 1.5 million, reported about half the number of Covid-19 deaths as Delaware, a state with slightly less than one million residents.

Granted, the virus was first detected on the West Coast, with the East Coast ill-prepared to deal with the early onslaught.

Contra Costa takes the virus seriously, despite a  case per 100,000 rate below Delaware’s number.

On my first visit to a nearby Safeway, I witnessed a  brief argument with a  woman apparently berating a man with a mask not covering his nose.

Despite its low case numbers, California will not end mask restrictions until mid-June. Philadelphia will also wait until next month.

Some may  disagree, but in case of Contra Costa County,  it’s hard to argue against the wisdom of having  800 people getting more time on our planet. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.

 

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