A while ago I told someone who reads this blog that I would write something about what I see happening in San Francisco. As I remember, the reader used to live here but had to move to Florida and was curious to know what the city is like now.
I first came to San Francisco in late 1973 and, except for a year in exile in Oakland, I’ve been here ever since. In that time, the city has gone through a lot of changes. Few of the changes have been for the good. We have a reputation for being a city filled with radical leftwing kooks who are anti-business. I wish it were true. The reality is that San Francisco is a money town now, and the interesting people—who seldom have the goal of getting rich—can’t afford to live here anymore.
One thing I see happening is that Silicon Valley has filled the town with technophiles who are so enchanted by their gadgets and virtual realities that they have very little concern with the world they actually inhabit. San Francisco has been a beautiful place, but that beauty is quickly being destroyed by mindless development. More and more, the people who live here don’t care. They want a job, an apartment, and good cell phone reception. Everything else is of little importance. So business has a free hand to “create jobs.” Doing meaningful work seems a meaningless goal to most people. All they want is a paycheck. A lot of these same people have the goal of turning San Francisco into a “world class city,” which means “high-powered,” big, bright, and crowded; taller and taller buildings that look exactly like the buildings in every other town you go to; big sports events.
One of the biggest job creators here is tourism. Tourists started coming to San Francisco in large numbers because it was different from other American cities. It had soul. But tourism kills the soul of every place it infects. I’ve seen it happen in many other places. No one can tell me it’s not true. San Francisco is losing its soul. For a lot of people, the trade-off is worth it, and I find that immensely disheartening.
The reason all this bugs me so much is that when I first arrived, there were a lot of people here working to create something that met real human needs and concerns. It was a rare endeavor within American life. These kinds of movements are hard enough to start, let alone pull off. We Americans like to think of ourselves as practical and utilitarian. I think we’re merely mundane. The powers that be—the Chamber of Commerce, certain newspaper columnists—have mocked and vilified those movements to the point that they have very little support anymore. They are worthy endeavors. Sometimes they get a little unreal, but that’s because being creative and real are so foreign to us as a people.
I live in a garden on Telegraph Hill. It’s one of the most unique neighborhoods in the United States. Because the neighborhood is officially designated an historic district, it often feels removed from developments going on in the rest of the city. But money having the free hand that it does now at City hall, this feeling seems more and more like an illusion. I’m going to be writing more about this in the near future.
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Tags: Beauty, Silicon Valley, Tourism, World Class City
February 26, 2012 at 12:21 pm |
Hi Mark,
I know exactly what you mean. This mindless progress you write about has already happened in Denver, where I live. Our mayors, many years ago, set out to make Denver a “world-class city.” We now have 5 professional sports teams and 3 new huge arenas in the past 15 years built for them to play in (football, baseball, hockey, soccer, and basketball). Since tearing down Mile High Stadium in 2001, the new stadium has been renamed twice by giant corporations who bought the name (first it was Invesco Field, after the defunct investment funds company, and now it is Sports Authority Field, after the giant sporting goods retailer). Last July, a gigantic IKEA store opened with much fanfare (imagine the glee over the sales tax revenues on that one). “Progress” is a very strange word–I bet no two people would agree on exactly what it means. Except for the beautiful mountains nearby, Denver is, in my opinion, one of the more boring large cities in America. One of the biggest attractions every year is the “National Western Stock Show,” which is a livestock show/rodeo event that I’ve never attended, but which draws over 600,000 visitors a year along with suspicions/allegations of animal cruelty. For those of us who live in the realm of spiritual pursuits rather than seeking financial or material gain, this city, and this country, is a very weird place to try to live in.
February 26, 2012 at 12:38 pm |
((slight correction: Invesco isn’t defunct but….”After signing the deal in early 2001, Invesco was hit with losses in the stock market, merged with a mutual fund group in Houston, and moved to Atlanta.” )) Not that it matters much……
February 26, 2012 at 1:37 pm |
This is a great and unfortunate depiction of beautiful San Francisco. I’ve got a dream to live there one day, hopefully it’s not too much of a dream.
February 26, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Another great depression might save the city. It’s our last hope, I think.
I visited your site. I liked your sensibility.
February 26, 2012 at 2:09 pm
thank you
sensibility is a great compliment!
but a great depression, is not of the best interest of anyone is it? your blog is very intriguing, i’m having a blast going through it. religion and politics, always interesting.
February 29, 2012 at 3:41 pm |
thank goodness for historic districts…they have to be left alone don’t they?
February 29, 2012 at 3:55 pm
For the most part, yes. But there is wiggle room. I’ll probably have more to say about this soon.
April 22, 2012 at 11:00 am |
Hi Mark,
Nice post, much of which I agree with. But as a young person who is, at least ostensibly, beginning to be associated more with the “business” side of things than with the “hippie” side of things, I feel compelled to try to defend my generation a bit. From what I’ve experienced, many young people are after personal happiness today, but a different definition of happiness than money and property. I mean true personal satisfaction. My goal is to find this not only in my personal life, but also in work, by changing things at my work place, or changing workplaces, until I find a comfortable sense of balance. I think San Francisco still leads the rest of the country in trying new things and finding new solutions – even if it is within the rubric of iPhones and tall buildings. I agree that I don’t want San Francisco to look the same as every other city, but I’d like to think that it can be the one to evolve a new form of creativity and aesthetics to make it look like its own city. Sure it may look different from before, but hopefully it also looks different from everything else.
John
April 22, 2012 at 11:33 am
What is your definition of a “hippie?” It’s probably quite different from mine. What I’m talking about is “spiritual.” Not New Age spiritual, but the true, ancient and eternal spirit. It is essential that every human being get in touch with it, that it be more important than anything else. We have to get really serious. Most people don’t really believe it, but we do all have to die someday. Some people think Jesus has them covered. The modern way of living has most of us believing that we can deal with it at the last minute or that it doesn’t make any difference whether or not we are prepared. But the strength of one’s spirit is very important at the time of death. We build frivolous cities from our frivolous way of life, a way of life that says, “Hey. Enjoy yourself, have fun.” It’s a big mistake. But it’s hard to get anybody to see that. We have to get our spiritual life together—that is, our minds and our hearts—and then whatever we do grows out of that. We’re not doing it. And so death becomes terrifying.
April 22, 2012 at 5:46 pm |
I just saw your film for the first time. I found it bittersweet and beautiful, and I marveled at the beauty of the Telegraph Hill neighborhood. It’s sad to hear that some of the beauty may just be an illusion — a fact that I suppose was hinted at by the “Whatever” guy at the beginning of the film. The great Silicon Valley companies have brought so much money to California, but it seems like a little bit may have been lost in the transition.