Excerpt:

There's a freedom here, standing on this cracked, weed-besieged runway on the edge of an airfield past.

It's banked by boulders and cattails and breathtaking Bay views. And backed by a quirky collection of businesses and breweries, a haunted Hornet and hollow hangars, dry docks and a skate park, kids playing soccer, artists welding metal and someone learning to drive. It's a no-man's land of contrasts and cool stuff that you should totally check out before it all gets suburbanized and Starbucked.

This is Alameda Point, the retired Naval Air Station where grand plans for progress have come and gone in the nearly two decades since the Navy left. Things are starting to change, though. There's already a shiny new Target (with a Starbucks inside) encroaching on the fringe and more retail and housing going up nearby.