*Warning* Serious Rant Follows, Proceed With Caution

So I know this rant is the sum of beating a dead horse but I abhor the abysmal selection of places to nosh within the 15 or so mile radius of Castro Valley which includes all of Hayward and San Leandro. The population in this area has learned to settle due to a lack of exposure to what really good, high quality food should taste like.

I'm a loyal member of the Yelp community and take the reviews of my fellow Yelpers very seriously. However, I am beginning to see a trend that exists within the community of Yelpers in the East Bay, specifially Hayward, San Leandro and Castro Valley that does not exist with Yelpers that either live in or regularly journey to such cities as Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland to eat at and Yelp about restaurants. Because of this and many other observations, I draw the conclusion that the standards have been substantially and woefully lowered by my fellow neighborhood Yelpers due to the approximate 15 mile in radius, culinary black hole which surrounds us.

I suppose the average C.V., S.L. or HAY person could scale the walls of this nightmarish, foul food prison to run unfettered through endless pastures of culinary enlightenment merely minutes away. But for some reason, be it gas prices, fatigue or complacency I must deal with the tragedy of seeing my friends, neighbors and yes, even family memebers happily settling for the relatively expensive swill that passes for food in our back yard. Can they not see that just over yonder fence awaits freedom? Can they not unshackle themselves, for just a moment, from the likes of Rigatoni's, Buffalo Bill's and Banchero's?

I grimace as I drive in to Castro Village and see the parking lot brimming to full with the eager patron's of Rigatoni's and Don Jose's. Just the other day a good friend of mine excitedly told me that a new Rigatoni's was opening up close to her house in Hayward. She clasped her hands with glee as she told me that she and her family would no longer NEED to travel to the one in Castro Valley!? If felt like shaking her... I felt like asking her "Why not spend that gas money more wisely and travel just a mile or two further, past the bad lands to one of the bone fide culinary jack pots surrounding us?" Sigh, and sigh again, it would have been to no avail.

Alas... I find myself a character in the midst of a bad B grade movie surrounded by people who's minds have been imprisoned and taste buds swiped by insidious aliens who covet them. For this I grieve.