"Nearly ten years ago, on this very page, the columnist explored the older portions of Park Avenue, inspired by William Dalrymple's travel book, City of Djinns. In Dalrymple's telling, the djinns, the old ghosts, emerged everywhere in Delhi, his home town, an ancient metropolis sacked over and over again throughout millennia, often leaving a beautifully incongruous clutter of structures along a single stretch of road. The ruins were precisely what fascinated him."
"No matter how often planners colluded to create new colonies of gleaming concrete, Dalrymple wrote, no matter how hard they tried, crumbling towers, old mosques or abandoned ruins suddenly appeared, intruding on the city blocks. Even though much of the old city from centuries or even decades earlier had been destroyed by violence, the old buildings, just like spirits, often came out of nowhere, even after they were pushed out for shiny new constructions."
San Jose's Park Avenue presents a ramshackle, layered streetscape where remnants of former businesses like Leather Masters and the Radiator Doctor linger among newer development. A concept of urban 'djinns' suggests old structures and ruins reappear amid redevelopment, creating an incongruous collage of epochs. Planners' attempts at uniform, modern housing repeatedly erase blocks but leave behind leftover fragments that convey historical texture. A walk along Park Avenue from Highway 87 past Race Street and back reveals a route that passes through vestiges of multiple eras and evokes a sense of time folding together in the city's built environment.
Read at Metro Silicon Valley | Silicon Valley's Leading Weekly
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