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This gets me to thinking -- maybe the future will be like the past after all. Once upon a time, in my fair city, San Jose, which only recently eclipsed Detroit as America's 10th largest, farms (orchards mostly) were everywhere.... that's why Orchard Supply Hardware, a regional chain now owned by Sears, got its start here as a farming cooperative. For decades, San Jose was a collection of communities like Alum Rock, Almaden, Berryessa, Robertsville, and Willow Glen, separated by cherry, plum, peach, and apricot orchards. Some of these neighborhoods were annexed into San Jose proper in the 1940s and '50s; others like Alum Rock and Burbank, remain mostly unincorporated but in the city's crosshairs (and more importantly, plans) for annexation. San Jose did not really grow past Detroit in population; Detroit passed San Jose on the way down to number 11, as San Jose clocked only modest increases in population in the late 1990s... the heavy growth was in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s as the computer industry exploded. Apart from Coyote Valley and the Almaden Reserve, today San Jose is out of land.

Source: LeyBlog