[krschultz]

This shocked me the first time I went out to SV. I thought the bay would be a deep body of water with a shoreline, and it's basically a mud flat / salt factory. Really disappointing. Many cities built along rivers have better water views & access.

[rconti]

As a Seattle refugee, I still don't understand why there are so few boats on the bay.

I get that the Bay is not Lake Washington.. but seriously, lakes vary in height too, and still have docks.

Somehow the bay has almost no docks, no boating (except some sailboats way up north in SF), no recreation at all. Is it water quality? Chop? Regulation?

[aoki]

http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/sediment/southsfbay/depth_maps.html

there is a marina in redwood city, but notice how shallow the bay is south of SFO (aside from the channel) - much of that is mudflats (lakes don't have tides), marine preserves, etc.

[rconti]

Damn. DAMN. I didn't realize it was that shallow. (I'm familiar with the RWC Marina as I bike by there on my commute, and in college I rowed out of Seaport). Thanks. Obviously it goes without saying that if the water is only (say) 5m deep, there's a hell of a lot of crap between 0m and the 5m floor. The changing height is not as much of an issue; plenty of lakes vary in height by 5-10ft and docks accommodate it just fine.

[cfallin]

The muddy marsh/salt ponds surprised me too! But there are a few spots where the actual Bay (open water) is visible... e.g. Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto. Also nearby hills have views -- I used to take walks to the top of the hill behind Google's Crittenden buildings, from where you can see a good bit of the southern Bay and up the peninsula northward. (Those hills also used to be MTV's garbage dump, so it could be worse!)

[karma_vaccum123]

The Bay in the area in question is bounded by landfills and water reclamation ponds (meaning sewage treatment).

[compiler-guy]

Before that it was more-or-less swamps and wetlands. Not beaches or real shorelines.