What Really Is Up With San Francisco?

Is it as bad as the media says it is?

r/sanfrancisco 

I left my heart in San Francisco… Oh Tony Bennett, we miss you so much…

But, what does this song actually mean?

It’s either someone pining for their love that lives in the city or perhaps longing for the city itself.

And… I get it.

BUT… the interwebs would say otherwise and the backlash of what I’ve been hearing about San Francisco, the needles and the human excrement, I decided to be my own judge.

Frankly, I have always LOVED San Francisco. Goose bumps driving up the 280 seeing the skyline coming from my hometown of San Jose. Turning the corner on 80 from my forever home, Lake Tahoe, to start over the Bay Bridge kind-of-love.

Golden Gate Bridge 

There is just this feeling of I don’t know if it’s because it’s oh-so-cool, or the best in all that they do, or the water… I can’t put my finger on it, it’s just Special, capital S. I just need to be in the proximity of the fog ensconced city to feel the magic which San Francisco exudes. 

So yes, we have heard the hub-bub on the news, and fielded the questions of “You are going where?” prior to going to see P!NK on October 14th and I don’t honestly see what the problem is? 

Maybe that is a jerk-tourist-ok, we were staying in a nice area, eating at nice places- going to see a concert with great seats- kind of attitude but… 

The media has been literally smearing San Francisco all over as a “Fing sh*hole” and I just don’t see what the deal is. 

. . .

Unfortunately, there are homeless. This is for the very real reason that this climate is (relatively) temperate and there are very real services for these folks. San Francisco takes the homeless problem very seriously.

Hell, we have homeless in Tahoe and I just don’t see how they survive, with the climate alone. This is a very real fact of every community, unfortunately, and as much as I hate it, it is reality. 

And don’t get me wrong… I abhor the suffering, and the feeling of utter helplessness in what to do about it. 

The thing is, since growing up in the “Bay Area” I’ve visited San Francisco regularly as a little tyke. As a teen in my sheltered suburban life, I was shuttled down to the Tenderloin to volunteer at Glide Memorial Church that awoken my outlook on how so many, live so differently. This was over 30 years ago. 

Glide Memorial Church

As awful as processing this very different reality, the services for the homeless are incredible, and I was very proud to have served meals to so many, from Glide’s soup kitchen. 

From what I have surmised since pondering this media splatter, it’s a combination of things. Let’s get real here people: It’s never just-that-simple. 

With the pandemic, it’s like it happened and we have never spoken about the ramifications. We were thrown back into “normal” life that was anything but, after Covid.

Kinda like going back to your family’s house in the 1950’s when you just brushed so-and-so’s mental breakdown under the rug. “They were on sabbatical.” Ok… and how do we go about things now? 

 Photo by Sam Murray, Clipper Cards 

So, a bustling downtown, was sent home to work on laptops.

The drug problem has never subsided. Whether it be opiods or fentanyl or what have you.

Neither has homelessness.

Or crime.

Understaffing of the police force.

And… A city known as being so progressive, fight amongst who can be the greater liberal:

Joel Engardio, supervisor for the Sunset District states “Now, a San Francisco moderate would be considered liberal anywhere else, and a San Francisco progressive would be considered super far left anywhere else. In San Francisco, they’re both Democrats. But they spar as if they were opposing political parties.”

In addition, the five story Westfield mall closed in the hub of Market Street across from the Powell/Market Street cable car pickup. But, with the ease and convenience of online shopping, retail stores have been closing nearly by three-quarters all across the country for years with or without the pandemic. 

October 14, 2023 the streets were packed, the Embarcadero was bustling with artisans selling their wares, there was a Pro-Israel rally about to begin, wait times of an hour plus for the Ferry Building’s restaurants, Farmers Market with lines (in true SF fashion) down the street for fan favorites. It was a gorgeous fall day, the best time to be in San Francisco, and I was clearly not the only one who thought so.

  Clock tower at the Ferry Building 

By many measures, San Francisco is the safest it has ever been. Violent crime is a third of what it was in 1985, and currently twenty per cent below the average of twenty-one major American cities.

And, when I lived there over 15 years ago, I would walk the streets and take public transportation after I got off of late shifts at Hawthorne Lane (may you live in infamy!)

But, I wouldn’t have done this if I did not feel safe. 

Even though it is a bustling metropolis, neighborhoods are still quaint, and beautiful, safe and litter free. We visited my old neighborhood in the Dolores Park area and it continues to exude a cool, children playing in the park, dogs able to run off leash, expertly painted murals & Bi-Rite market packed as usual, vibe. 

Delfina that has been around since 1998 and took advantage of the pandemic forced close, and completely remodeled. It was fully staffed, service top notch, and quality of product unique and stellar with every bite. And… a whole other blog must go into the review of this divine meal, but… dear heavens above, the bread… What.

Is it Hetch Hetchy's finest we can attribute it to?

Lyft was easy to navigate, public transportation was easily accessible, clean and everyone behaving. A Philz properly staffed both mornings, cheerful, glorious and tasty. 

The dire imagery that is being blasted all over the media is of a few choice areas. It is not a plague that has seeped into every orifice of San Francisco’s beauty and charm. Because… That?

…Well, THAT still reigns supreme. 

San Francisco reigns Supreme

Is it just because San Francisco is small at only 7 square miles that it is so much more in our faces?

The thing about San Francisco, it’s like each few blocks are its own town entirely. Just as we had a few choice streets our parents didn’t let us ride our bikes down growing up in shelterville suburbia.

Presidio, courtesy of the Knot 

These areas are unfortunate and I wish the whole world to be unicorns and rainbows, but this just isn’t fact and I get it: this-is-sad-to-face.  

I mean, some places are all unicorns and rainbows, like Miller & Lux, located on the backside of Chase center and is worth every calorie, & every penny (bring a few!)

They house their oysters that are sent in fresh daily in an estuary on site, that mimics the same brine and humidity as their natural habitation! (Insert mind-blown emoji here.)

Butter lettuce individually grown and sheared right at the table. What. And let’s not forget, the dessert of a pear looking exactly as a pear sitting on your counter- Hand painted by the pastry chef- little blemishes, brown pores and shades of green…to look exactly like a pear, filled with a pear compote and made of white chocolate. I won’t tell you the secret of this place, but once you know, you will never experience Chase center the same ever again.

And.. P!NK was ridiculously amazing, read my last blog for more information about that unbelievable person and experience…

I think San Francisco is beautiful with its unpleasant but very real underbelly, just as everything else in life so bittersweet just, is.

We could squawk about crime, the closing of the mall, and the battles of politics and the problems… Of course we can. We can always find the ugly and we can always exploit the bad.

(BTW… I saw not one needle or even canine excrement.)

Or… we can talk about the culinary delights, the places that are litter free, clean, easy, perfectly timed public transportation, with children playing on modern playgrounds, art for sale, and freedom of speech abound… true beauty and magic that I have been attracted to my whole life…

Bottom line:

I know I left my heart in San Francisco.

San Francisco evokes just a bit more magic than anywhere else and it continues to march on, to the beat of its own fantastically brilliant drum…

Go see for yourself…  

. . .

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Fact check: I strive for accuracy and fairness… if something is off, please send a shout! Kp@kpcopy.com