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- SAN FRANCISCO -
San
Francisco is a quite small city, about 10 Km (~6 miles) square,
perched on the top end of the
southern peninsular
of San Francisco Bay. It has a population of around three
quarters of a million, of which about 400,000 are white (which includes
about
100,000 Latin-Americans), 250,000 Asian-Americans, 50,000 are
African-Americans,
and the rest diverse minorities. The region
around San Francisco, which includes Oakland & San Jose has a
population of seven
million. of which 4 million are white, (including 1,400,000 Latin-
American), and 1,500,000 Asians. The mix is quite different
to LA
Green Tortoise is an adventure company that operates a hostel south
of
Telegraph Hill (in Broadway, near Columbus) in San Francisco. A
bed is $19 and includes a couple of bagels and jam for breakfast. There
are about 6 internet access computers (using a flavour of linux, which
means at their tech level, no chat programs), but offering wireless
access for those
equipped to utilize it. It is filled with travellers, mostly from
Europe. (probably why they use linux rather than BSD).
San Francisco is a beautiful city. The harbour is nearly as
attractive as that in Sydney. It has variety &
character. Variety exists in LA, but in SF it is distilled.
For instance, starting at the intersection of
Columbus and Broadway,
going east along Broadway is the red light district, (Larry Flint &
Co). Travel north
along Columbus St and you are immediately in a streetful of good
Italian
coffee and Pizza places
with streetside tables. Travel west along Broadway and you will
find a selection of Chinese
produce shops. To the immediate south are display
advertisments for Tarot
card readings and other methods of divination (Handy to the stock
exchange, *snigger*). Visible about 600
yards
past that is a tall pointed pyramid building that marks the beginning
of the CBD. About five
minutes walk
through Chinatown in a south western direction is the beginning of the
main retail shopping district. The centre of the retail district
is a park,
called Union Square. On one side is Macys, (they were having a
mannequin fashion show as I walked past) on the opposite side is
Sachs and Tiffany's. Gucci and Chanel are nearby. I was
more interested in Borders bookshop which was on the NW
corner of Union Square.
From Union Square a few hundred yards walk south-west will bring you
to the intersection
of Market street and Golden Gate Avenue. Once again the ambiance
changes. This is an African American district. I passed a
pair walking the other way. One
ostentatiously spat to the side, and looked at me. Further on, I
came upon a collection of African-Americans who were homeless. It
looked as though, in this area, (just across from
the YMCA, within sight of the civic centre), the police did not give
too much
aggravation to the homeless. (I understand
that California has a budget crisis, and that the penal system, being
short of money, releases non violent criminals well before they have
served their sentence. So it makes sense that the police would
not adopt too hard a line).
To date I have mostly drunk Starbux coffee, because my
internet access is provided by T-Mobile wireless, and T-Mobile provides
"hotspots" in most Starbux and Borders coffee shops. In
the few forays into other coffee shops I have invariably been
disappointed. I was tempted by the coffee served by Italian
coffeeshops in Columbus, and found in Greco's (an Italian coffee shop
on Columbus, just south
of Stockton) the best (and most costly) soy flat white since
leaving Australia. In LA or SD I found nobody able to properly
prepare that vital ingredient of civilized life.
After seeing a few chase films set in San Francisco I thought I was
prepared for the SF topography. As I went down steps on the East
of
Telegraph Hill, an overheard remark by a climber "Geez, now I know why
all these San Franciscans are skinny". Many hills have a 30
degree slope, and some seem to
get to 40 degrees. Perhaps because of the dismal parking, the footpaths
of San Francisco are well populated, (well better than LA). Talk
about those chase films. The
marks of a sump hitting the level street after a steep slope were
scored
in the bitumen where
Kearney meets Broadway.
.
I have seen
such score marks elsewhere in San Francisco, usually where there are
traffic
lights at the bottom of a steep hill. I deduce that in the USA an
amber light
means "hurry up, I'm changing to red in 3 seconds".).
Looks as though it isn't only stuntmen who bounce their cars through
those
cross streets.
One of my walks took me to Haight Ashbury. (pronounced "hate"), the
suburb where the beatnik (a precursor of the hippy) generation
originated
with the writings of Jack Kerouac. It was full of flower
children and hustlers, a few beggars (they seem ubiquitous in LA &
SF). The district known as Haight Ashbury
probably gets it's name from the fact that Haight street meets Ashbury
street in the heart of the region. In Haight Ashbury a couple of
street entrepreneurs attempted to sell me a bamboo didgeridu. I
told them that I had a quite effective didgeridu back at my hostel,
made in
approved fashion of
whiteanted eucalyptus. Unfazed, they pointed out that theirs was
better because it was lighter.
There is a Starbux in a place called "Cow Hollow" in San
Francisco. There I struck up a conversation with an American
woman, who bewailed the beggars and homeless. Thinking to promote
my Libertarian ideals,
I entered proselytize mode. She was unimpressed with my idea of
collecting a
tribal "land tax" and giving the proceeds equally to all
citizens. My explanation that the present problems related to
the unreasonable (and unearned) escalation in the value of real estate
fell on the deaf ears of someone who had worked for and profited from
the ownership of real property. Before I could continue, a
desperate
soul interrupted us, and he dominated
the attention of my opponent. I packed up and left. I never
did learn what her solution entailed, but I did learn that it did not
entail giving money to the homeless.