Day 11 in San Francisco
For those of you who are eagerly waiting to hear about this, I can now confirm that yes, Heather and Derek (see previous post) are really nice people. It wasn’t just a blog illusion. I’m glad I ran into them again. All dogs behaved properly and didn’t even sniff each other in the wrong places. I tell you, this place is civilized.
But this place has changed a lot in the last 3 years, which was the last time I was here, when the dot com thing was about to go down one of those San Francisco hills. Just about all of my friends and the people I meet here are either 1. out of work, or 2. have re-oriented their careers away from high tech or 3. are raising babies and/or dogs. There’s a weird vibe in the city, lots of « for rent signs » (now THAT’s weird) and an overall sense of disorientation. Last night I met a friend around the South Park area of the city, where all the computer magazines were (including PC World, where I used to work, and Wired) and where the cd-rom thing had originally started. The bars and restaurants were empty, there was *gasp* parking available everywhere and nobody was walking around that area which always had people working at all hours of the day. We had dinner in a wonderful French cafe right on South Park (The Butler and the Chef) and I talked with the owner who told me how tough the last two years have been for all the businesses around. His restaurant used to be only open for lunch but they now have to try a different strategy and open at night to attract a new clientele. « C’est ma derniere chance », he told me. « If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to shut down the place ».
I said goodbye to my friend and drove back home taking my old « scooter » route. For the first time since I got here, I felt sadness and a heavy sense of nostalgia. As we were talking about « the good old times », the restaurant owner noted that it was funny to talk about such a recent period as if it was « history ». There are numerous newspaper articles talking about the fast rate at which San Francisco is losing its resident. Welcome to Loserville, U.S.A., even says one of the local papers, The Examiner. As my friend Jackie’s two year-old daughter would say: « No way ». Not San Francisco. But what’s next and when is it going to happen?
Note: Blork has posted a fun version of his week in San Francisco with some cool pictures.