Going downhill faster than a snowball headed towar
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11/5/2013
I was born in San Francisco. It wasn't that long ago, the 1950's. The City was a great place to live while growing-up-many places to see and do--all free, or inexpensive. There were many areas of the City, and Bay Area, that were just large lots, filled with bushes, meadows and trees(these were the most imagination filled areas of all). You could walk thru the neighboorhoods at Xmas, look at all the displays in the homes, leave your doors unlocked, knew your policeman by his first name. It stayed this way-more or less-until the late 1980's, I'd say. Development became the Word of the Day. And with it, hoards of people, newly hatched from some high-tech incubator. They do not seem to be raised as we were, they are self-absorbed, in-sincere, do not know the value of a dollar. And, then, others that came here seemed to bubble-up from the slime--these are the ones that make the streets filthy(as noted in previous reports). These two general groups are pushing out what is left of the "middle-class" is San Francisco. Also, the rational, middle-of-the-road political citizen is endangered. (Example of current City Hall logic: If the streets have urine, feces and garbage on them, don't sweep it up and remove it--get SF Water trucks to spray water all over the streets for a 3-4 block area, and as the streets are on hills, the rancid fluids collect at the base of the hill, where driver's and pedestrians can wallow-thru the vile puddles. Ex: when repaving potholes(not often) they put the cheapest asphalt on, then don't tamp it down, they throw gravel on top and expect the cars driving over it to tamp it down---cars become chipped and gooey as a result. Then the asphalt pops-out during the first rain---then, they do it again.) I could write a daily column on this City. The sad fact is, people like myself are going to have to leave, soon, as development prices us out of the area; as poor planning leaves the City too difficult and congested to live in. It will be a new chapter for me, but it is a sad epitaph for a once satisfying City-one that held the promise of Development for it's citizens, over the demand of Development for the priveledged few. Development for the few, Regulation for the rest. Have you noticed? There are no more empty lots, filled with bushes, meadows and trees anymore.
Donald | San Francisco, CA