The Unintentional Tourist

[mishalak]

I wrote this on Sunday, but didn't get around to putting it in the computer until today.

I walked to the beach today. When returning from seeing a rice room in Richmond neighborhood (which I did not get into) I decided to walk through Gold Gate Park rather than just returning on the same bus I used to get out there. Somehow south of Strawberry Hill I got turned around and ended up reversing course without realizing it. About the time I started thinking "Boy it does not look this far across on the map," I saw the ocean and realized what I had done. Rather than just heading south to the J Line I decided to finish what I had started and walked all the way to the Pacific Ocean And that is how I managed to unintentionally complete my goal of visiting a BART or MUNI underground stop every day. And I totally blame overcast skies for getting turned around without realizing it.

Among other things I've been reflecting a lot on the nature of San Francisco. How bad is it that the city looks so shabby with the gum on the sidewalks, the graffiti in every commercial district and a bit around, and generally the way that so many people seem not to care about it. Marble floors with dirty puddles on them, human shit and dog shit just laying in the street, and the mentally ill and strung out trying to scam passers by for change. I thought about this particularly as I saw the homeless congregating about the UN Plaza in front of the baroque dome of the City Hall. High minded ideals about al nations coming together for peace being celebrated by monuments defaced by people who are protected by the city's high minded tolerance.

On the one hand it is just a look and a man can be king in an ermine robe or faded tee shirt. On the other there is a respect for self that comes with being dressed in a good suit, or even just a clean shirt, and I cannot help but wonder if San Francisco might be headed from being unloved because it becomes an expensive, ugly, and unpleasant town. Every time the comfort of the people, and I don't just mean taxpayers, is compromised in the name of security or because we cannot solve the problems we tolerate this becomes a less attractive place to live. From the bus "benches" no one can comfortable sit on put in to keep the homeless from sleeping there to the closed bathrooms because of a heightened state of security this place is not everything it can be. And I suspect part of the reason things like BART has not been extended through certain communities is precisely because it is unlovely and they see what this city looks like.

But in the end I do not know anything and my observations have no basis in systematic study and are thus hot air.

Comments

[qingting.livejournal.com]

so shabby with the gum on the sidewalks, the graffiti in every commercial district and a bit around, and generally the way that so many people seem not to care about it. Marble floors with dirty puddles on them, human shit and dog shit just laying in the street, and the mentally ill and strung out trying to scam passers by for change.

Sounds just like Denver...

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason I'm seeing all this again is that it is worse than Denver. Much worse. Possibly just a scale thing, but I suspect culture has something to do with it.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

It's a climate thing; it's easier to be a "street person" in San Francisco than in Denver or Chicago. It's much more difficult to survive on the streets when highs for the day are still below freezing. I noticed more people living on the streets when I moved to San Jose from Milwaukee.

It is also a freewheeling San Francisco cultural thing, though "tolerance" isn't really tolerance.

As for BART, San Mateo County stopped it from going through initially; they didn't want the riff-raff from the South Bay (back when San Jose was small) riding transit through their county, so instead they got clogged freeways going through their county.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I doubt the street people are doing the majority of the tagging. And not all of the number of homeless on the streets is climate. There is also the other localities dumping problems in SF and the city having been previously a lot more open handed. I've noticed a change between now and the last time I was here in 2002.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

the tagging isn't a street people thing, agreed.

To be a San Franciscan is to be conflicted. There is the beauty of the city and its architecture, the fact that it's Gay Mecca, the nice neighborhoods, but then there's the squalor and the fact that so many people can't afford to live there. There are times when I think that San Francisco is uglier than New York, but the "clean-up" options and plans aren't palatable to many, and could impact the folks who can barely afford to live there now.

SF, after all, is talking about "low income housing subsidies" for folks who are making more money than I do...

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Dang, I'll have to see if I can get in on those housing subsidies. I'm almost positive you must make more money than I do.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

San Francisco has always had a slightly shabby charm (despite the obvious problems) that hasn't changed for as long as I've been going there, about three or four times a year since 1989. I still say even now if I had to live in a US city it's the only place I could imagine myself doing that.

OT: I have a new fanzine for you if you'd like it. What's your current address?

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I don't really have a new address yet. I'll post it when I do.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

And I suspect part of the reason things like BART has not been extended through certain communities is precisely because it is unlovely and they see what this city looks like.

Well, based on lengthy observation, the real reason will be that the "certain communities" don't want undesirables (of social class mostly; but also race, ethnicity or gender preference) polluting the cleanliness of their segregated mini-homelands.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Although they'll bleat about non-standard railroad gagues to you face. I happen to agree with you, having lived 18 months in San Mateo County.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Too bad there wasn't a governor who would have gone through over the objections of the local government.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. But though slower CalTrain was a pleasure to ride in comparison with BART. Clean, quiet, and with comfy chairs. And I was surprised to find it was less expensive than BART over the same distance, must be those federal subsidies to Amtrak. I would guess that some percentage don't want BART because of things like that and a larger percentage don't want poor commuters.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was a function of the fact that it was nearly ten years ago, or maybe it was because I spent most of my time in the tourist areas, but I don't remember SF being that nasty when I was there.

I guess things change, though.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

The tourist areas that I've seen a little of are a lot cleaner. Civic Center in particular is rather dirty. Not intollerable, but it does rather remind me of the New York of They Might Be Giants.