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Feature
Fogged In
San Francisco, back when it was beautiful and not the world capital of political correctness, didn’t have to go out of its way to attract attention.
MAYBE it helps to have grown up in unassuming Oakland—gritty, middle-class, unpretentious Oakland—to see San Francisco a bit more clearly than its dewy-eyed citizenry, who tend to view themselves as America’s chosen people. After leaving Oakland, and grinding away 10 years in New York, I’ve been a San Franciscan 30 years and love it for all the usual reasons, but increasingly the place can make even a grateful transplant groan. As a friend from France likes to say, “Get over your fine self.”
This notoriously eccentric city almost revels in being the nation’s fruitcake capital, but harder to digest is its self-appointed position as center of the universe. Naval-gazing San Franciscans reside in a pretty bubble, seemingly unconcerned with what outsiders think of them, bursting with a self-importance rivaled only by New Yorkers and Parisians. Maybe it’s unfair to target San Francisco, for Berkeley and Marin County are equally self-adoring and self-righteous, but S.F. is California’s Ditsyland corporate headquarters.
New Yorkers and Parisians, for all their parochialism, are at least self-critical, but San Franciscans look at you funny if you voice anything but the city’s party line — Frisco: love it or leave it. Much of the population exists in an uncritical, blissed-out state, a Panglossian sense that all is for the best in this best of all possible cities. Seldom is heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day — foggy, yes, but the sun usually breaks through by noon; S.F. is where I first heard people chirping, “Have a nice day!”
San Francisco has its own belief system, a moral certainty about all things social, political, and cultural — a feeling that the city not only has the best weather, food, views, and cultural sensibility, but that its enlightened socio-eco-political attitudes are as God intended, although God is not an especially popular guy in town. Former mayor Willie Brown, who writes a Sunday column, is as close to a deity as you’re likely to find here.
The late revered and irreverent local San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen once fulfilled that role and, during 60 years as the city’s ex-officio publicist, he created the picture postcard city people think of when they think of San Francisco. But even Caen poked holes in the city’s bloated self-image, which he had a huge hand in inflating.
SAN FRANCISCANS LOOK ASKANCE at Republicans, children (the city has more dogs than kids) and even its major industry — tourists. Toddlers and sightseers are tolerated—but then everything here is tolerated (except conservatives), no matter how daffy. Indeed, the more bizarre the better, an opportunity for residents to parade their tolerance.
Parades are a very big deal in the city, especially preening gay pride parades, the determinedly loopy, semi-naked Bay to Breakers marathon, and disease-of-the-month walks and runs that allow the city to pat itself on the back for its altruism and all-embracing acceptance. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As local columnist Leah Garchik notes, the city is so liberal that even billionaires here are lefties and care about world issues, hunger, and the environment, unlike past local tycoons.
I was once lunching at the chic Zuni Café on Market Street when a group of 50 totally nude bicyclers peddled past the window. Blasé San Franciscans glanced out and quickly went back to their ahi tuna. At a Peet’s coffee house in the gay Castro district, two of the store regulars are a pair of stark naked guys who come in and buy lattes to go. Nobody bats an eyelash, so as not to appear un-cool, a hanging offense here. The city is in thrall with anything wild and crazy, and has a special fondness for kinky sex, drag shows, and transgender tales, all much celebrated; sex advisors are a cottage industry.
The city is 15 percent gay and lesbian, but heterosexuals may well feel they’re in the minority. The gay mafia, as it’s been called (in hushed tones), has bullied mayors and gulled supervisors and gets pretty much what it pleases, as does the 12,000-strong bicycle mafia — the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which commands bike lanes on narrow streets and decrees “Bike to Work Days.” A “Sunday Streets” program blocks off areas so bikers can pedal unimpeded by (ugh) cars, forced to make way for precious cyclists.
Motorists are confronted the last Friday of every month when “Critical Mass” cyclists gleefully tie up downtown rush hour traffic — with City Hall’s blessing; San Francisco is militantly anti-auto. “Dikes on Bikes,” the most popular contingent in the Gay Pride Parade, is the ideal metaphor for two of the city’s most powerful pressure groups.
Indeed, claims one longtime resident, “The gays get a free ride here.” Gay state legislator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has authored a bill that California history books must include contributions by gays— though not yet deaf mutes, albinos, or Latvians. A local newsman rants, “The Chronicle reads like a house organ for the gay community.” Even mild criticism of gays, he claims, is sharply slapped down as homophobic. A musical version of Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin’s droll ode to pre-AIDS local gay life of the 1970s, got lukewarm reviews, but media hype here led one to think it was a gigantic hit before it even opened. Playgoers didn’t seem to care much if it was any good (Garchik found the show “flat”); it was about their fabulous city, all about them — what could be more wonderful?
MEANWHILE, THE CITY ADDS to its crackpot reputation for rampant silliness daily: PETA petitioned City Hall last spring to change the name of the Tenderloin to something less, well, fleshy (the Tofu district?). There’s an anti-circumcision measure on the November ballot. The Animal Control and Welfare Commission went after pet shops earlier this year for selling pets (i.e., dogs and cats) to pet owners—sorry, “animal guardians” — and has proposed a ban on sales of tropical fish. Even sharks are coddled in the city, which wants to outlaw shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy, angering usually docile Asians.
Garchik, who writes the Chronicle’s widely read abouttown column, says, “Like all stereotypical things there’s some truth in it [S.F.’s wacko image] but it’s not the only thing that defines us. I’m from Brooklyn and when people would say they’re from Brooklyn on radio or TV, the audience would just laugh — for no reason. So San Francisco has its little place in the constellation. Who wants to live in Nowheresville?”
Despite lax local lunacy standards, a page one story on “ecosex” had even natives gagging. Founded by sex activist Annie Sprinkle and her partner, “ecosexualists” hope to “change the metaphor from Earth as mother to Earth as lover.” (The city clings passionately to its exhausted beatnik/hippy past.) Sprinkle and spouse have “married” the moon, sky, ocean, and mountains; coal is next to be wed. An Eco-Sex Symposium photo showed Sprinkle spread-eagled, flowers planted between her legs, being watered.
This certifiably crazy event was sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission and dutifully reported at length in the Chronicle with a shot of Sprinkle and her lover hugging under the trees. No wonder Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum claims San Francisco “is filled with insufferable, sanctimonious do-gooders” — to which Garchik responds, “They’re just jealous!”
About the Author
Gerald Nachman is a writer in San Francisco and most recently the author of Right Here on Our Stage Tonight!: Ed Sullivan’s America (University of California Press).
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Kitty| 10.21.11 @ 6:35AM
I visited the city back in March of 1990. I loved its architecture and the bay. I loved all the seals camping out on the docks. But I much prefer living in Nowheresville.
donserge| 10.21.11 @ 8:00AM
My question would be: Is San Francisco self-sufficient or do they receive state and federal $$ to support this nonsense?
Nunya| 10.21.11 @ 8:26AM
I love the city of San Francisco, been there many times. The people of San Francisco, that's a different matter entirely... For me it's the epitome of the saying "It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there." I've felt that way for many years.
Dave| 10.21.11 @ 8:39AM
My sentiments exactly. I couldn't have said it better.
Buck Ofama| 10.21.11 @ 12:36PM
New motto:
"San Fran SICKO: A Good Place to Leave"
oldfart| 10.21.11 @ 8:38AM
I have been to SF twice in my life. The physical SF is a wonderful place. But I don't care to subject myself to their self-indulgent lifestyle.
Moe Blotz| 10.21.11 @ 9:12AM
Did smiley face begin its existence in the Gay Bay as well? San Francisco was also at the fore front of the microbrew resurgence in the late 70s via Fritz Maytag and Anchor Brewing Co.
AngloSaxon| 10.21.11 @ 9:37AM
If we ever have a another civil war in this country, San Francisco should suffer the same fate as Dresden. Only San Francisco deserves it whereas Dresden didn't.
Anthony| 10.21.11 @ 10:12AM
I think it's more a question of when rather than if. It will be fun watching VTWIN and his loopy gang of bikers ride to the defense of San Fran.
Since Obozo and the American left are suddenly in love with the use of predator drones to kill Americans overseas, I can't imagine why anybody would have any complaints if several dozen landed in San Fran.
Besides, the imagery of big phallus' falling upon SF is fitting.
Buck Ofama| 10.21.11 @ 12:35PM
>the imagery of big phallus' falling upon SF is fitting.
"Fitting" LOL
How about stealth drones shaped like the B1 bomber... Hairpie in the sky, for all the dykes.
cowgirl| 10.21.11 @ 9:38AM
My family has owned one of the most famous bars in SF since 1945. I was born in East Oakland Hospital and raised in what used to be a small city south of Oakland. Growing up in the Bay Area, I knew SF like I knew the back of my hand and loved going to the "City". Especially at Christmas Time in Union Square. My favorite was the top floor of Capwells on Market Street (long gone) where there was a Santa Claus Winter Wonderland with rides and displays of the White House, The Washington Monument and various other national and international historical sites done up in Legos. My memories of SF and Oakland for that matter are bittersweet. Both cities have been ruined beyond recognition by LIBERAL polices and politicians. Both cities are truly disgusting and I do my best to stay away from both.
The author stated that SF is hostile to conservatives - yes this is true. However there is one conservative that even the gays are unable to get out of the city and that is radio talk show host Michael Savage. He holds multiple PhD's in scientific discplines and he is an expert in history with an emphasis on Middle East History. He wrote a book some years back called "Liberalism is a Mental Illness". One can only believe that all Dr. Savage had to do was look out of his window at work in San Francisco everyday to get all the facts, stories and diagnosis that he wrote about in his book. He would have to look no further .....
Moe Blotz| 10.21.11 @ 2:29PM
Dyiz think the Gay Bay may suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorra? Around Phluffya I can not find a broadcast of Savage Nation unless I tune in to 990 between 03.00-05.00 in the morning or 790 from Allentown just before midnight. Pity Dr. Weiner canna' find a broadcast venue with the cojones he has.
Bob Grant| 10.21.11 @ 7:04PM
There's a thing called the internet. Perhaps your answer lies there?
BTW. Wasn't Moe Blotz a character in the God Father?
Jeamar37| 10.22.11 @ 7:23PM
Amen cowgirl. You can say the same about Berkeley. When I went to school there eons ago it was a wonderful place to live. The last time I visited there Telegraph Ave. looked like a third-world market place. We "can't go home again."
Sam Vaughn| 10.21.11 @ 9:44AM
Timely. San Francisco has ceased to be. It's thriving trade/mercantile heritage might as well not have existed. Ultimately, it is sad, demented, no morals whatsoever, and I would sooner raise my children in Toledo, OH than SF. As a visitor I stumbled upon the Up your Alley festival and was appalled. The place is truly a sick disgusting hell hole with a very thin veneer. I won't ever go back.
JimH| 10.21.11 @ 9:44AM
I guess we can look forward to the future when it regains it's glory and becomes the headquarters for the Federation's Star Fleet.
POST American| 10.21.11 @ 9:56AM
----San Franciso -----de FUKISHIMA . . .
STILL no spotlight on GE's Jeff I-Melt-down.
--That's right ----NONE.
cowgirl| 10.21.11 @ 10:28AM
Are you trying to prove Savage's point about liberals?
Dan Mathewson| 10.22.11 @ 1:04AM
Not only Savage's but Paul Johnson's comment about conspiracy theory being an American intellectual disease.
Melvin| 10.21.11 @ 10:23AM
This is the same city that prides itself on being a Sanctuary City, all the while quietly shipping illegal entrant minors who were caught selling drugs to San Bernardino to let the local populace there deal with this little law breakers. I guess it was OK to soil San Bernardino streets but not the bay area.
Citizen Jerry| 10.21.11 @ 10:29AM
I suppose the food is really good, but I have no desire to visit the "bay area." I don't want to be caught there when the sky falls.
Who Knows?| 10.21.11 @ 10:39AM
Here's a quote from a book published in 1957---
"Believe it or not, there is actually a politician in San Francisco who so detests the political Left Wing that he will not make a left turn with his car."
Ah, how things have changed---what HOPE?
Brian B| 10.21.11 @ 11:36AM
There's nothing wrong with the beautiful city of San Francisco that a neutron bomb wouldn't fix.
blackwatch| 10.21.11 @ 9:08PM
I live 100 east of SF. It is not architecturally coheasive or beautiful.
I would rather smash my thumb with a mallet than visit that dump! Row after row of ugly attached homes littering the hillsides. It is not a pretty sight. Ok they have a few nice bridges and a triangular shaped building. whoppee fucking doo.
nuke it...please, somebuddy...
Buck Ofama| 10.21.11 @ 12:32PM
San Fran SICKO
>50 totally nude bicyclers peddled past the window.
I wonder how many of the bicycle seats had sludge on them- and how many of the riders wanted to sniff or lick them clean.
PM| 10.21.11 @ 1:29PM
As a visitor, I once made the faux pas of asking for Cheese Whiz, a Midwestern recipe staple, at a SF grocery store. You would have thought I was asking to vote Republican, or take my purchase out in a plastic bag! It's a wonder I wasn't asked to leave the store.
Mac Jehoff| 10.21.11 @ 2:32PM
You should have asked for duck butter, then the Cheez Whiz and the fruitcake at the grocery store would have thought you had a kinky recipe.
Eduardo| 10.21.11 @ 2:59PM
I hope the closest I ever come to San Fran will be eating Rice-a-Roni.
Derek O'Connor| 10.21.11 @ 3:41PM
Gerald,
The word is `navel', not `naval'. Given all the nudity you talk about in SF, it must be hard not to be a navel gazer. Also, given that SF is a major port, there must be quite a few naval navel gazers.
CalMark| 10.21.11 @ 3:50PM
For someone new to the Bay Area, San Francisco used to be a wonderful destination.
But recently, I've realized it's a dirty (in every way) city with peopled dirty, intolerant narcissists. And the people...their rhapsodies about SF would be comical, if they weren't so tedious; transplants are the worst about this.
If SF ceased to exist, only people who like to parade around publicly in their underwear (or less than that) would miss it.
Infantryman| 10.21.11 @ 4:58PM
It was a wonderful city in 1950 when we were off to the Korean War. We came from all directions of the United State like a swarm of young locusts and the good people of San Francisco took care of us for the two or three days we had before we flew to the Far East. The ciy and its environs were beathtakingly beautiful. We ate delicious food, chased the lovely girls and couldn't pay for a drink---a proper soldier's town. I shan't forget her as she was.
AngloSaxon| 10.21.11 @ 5:43PM
Wasn't San Francisco the place where Gen. MacArthur returned to the US after being fired by Truman? I know the people gave him a fantastic welcome home parade. It's amazing how the city had changed when it erupted in the "summer of love" sixteen years later.
Vern Crisler | 10.21.11 @ 5:02PM
I visited SF a couple years ago on business. It reminded me of a college town, especially the Fisherman's Wharf area. SF can afford to live as a permanent adolescent city as long as there are plenty of grown-up cities around the country.
My colleague and I drove through the gay Castro district. It was a sick place, but it also provoked a lot of mirth as we looked at all the bizarre places. Its also altogether too cold in some of the suburbs as the sea-wind blows all the time. A nice place to visit if you want culture shock, but given its "self adoration and self righteousness," and its crazy leftwing politics, only gays and liberals would want to live there permanently.
Redstateboy| 10.21.11 @ 5:10PM
SF falling in to the Pacific would be very little missed by the rest of America but Washington, D.C. being vaporized?? America would prosper again.
FrankM| 10.21.11 @ 5:14PM
One thing that I thought was overlooked is the dangerous side of the place. Murders and violent attacks are a frequent occurrence, and the lackadaisical attitude toward law enforcement and justice is very disheartening for victims and those of us with a moral compass.
CalMark| 10.21.11 @ 6:34PM
...and the cops are creeps.
I got hit-and-runned, and a cop ran me out of the station house. My complaint led to a "mediation session": a city-sponsored "get-even" for the cop, no doubt prepped by Union lawyers, who verbally bashed me for two hours with the assistance of city "facilitators."
Law enforcement tax dollars at work in the self-styled "World's Most Beautiful City."
Bookworm | 10.21.11 @ 5:17PM
As does Mr. Nachman, I remember the City when it was eccentric, not crazy. Just as we love our eccentric aunt, but hide ourselves behind locked doors when the crazy uncle shows up, I find that the less I have to do with today's San Francisco, the better. It's still a geographic gem, balanced exquisitely between Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, and the Marin headlands, but being in the City is emotionally exhausting and, when you have kids, often embarrassing. The City that Once Knew How is now a doddering imbecile.
Stephanie| 10.21.11 @ 7:26PM
I grew up here and it breaks my heart to visit now. It was a wonderful place until the 60s and then it attracted people from New York and other places during the Haight Ashbury era. The change was very fast and brutal, to tell the truth. Too many people came all at once, along with hordes of illegals. Rents skyrocketed due to demand. I consider SF to be a very intolerant city. The author fails to mention that many odious movements started here or at least grew out of control. Jim Jones, SLA, Zebra Killings, Zodiak. There is no parking now. Except for a few, the public schools are terrible. As for food, who cares. I still can't find anyone that really condemns Jim Jones that lives there. The downhill rapidly progressed under Moscone and it's been sinking ever since.
notasicko| 10.21.11 @ 7:38PM
I went there for a wedding once. All I remember is getting sick on the Golden Gate Bridge, then throwing up. From what I read these days, it was entirely appropriate. Too bad, I love seeing SF in old Alfred Hitchcock movies.
Occam's Tool| 10.21.11 @ 9:36PM
Had a lovely symphony orchestra and great chocolate. Now it's all about vermin.
RCV| 10.22.11 @ 9:37AM
No, it still has a wonderful symphony orchestra, great opera, good museums, great restaurants ... And good chocolate, seafood and chowder. Still one of America's great cities.
John Navratil| 10.22.11 @ 4:24PM
RCV,
Come the Houston! A fabulous Opera, good symphony, repertory theatre as well as a great ballet. Unlike our rival city to the north beginning with 'D' there are numerous locally owned restaurants with wonderful chefs!
The weather..... better visit between September and May.
Chris C| 10.24.11 @ 4:25PM
"Unlike our rival city to the north beginning with 'D' there are numerous locally owned restaurants with wonderful chefs!"
I agree. Decatur, TX has almost no locally owned restaurants with wonderful chefs. Still, I'm surprised that Houston considers Decatur a rival. Or did you mean Denton?
Dr. Benway| 10.21.11 @ 10:42PM
If the author is such an expert on San Francisco he should know that "Dikes on Bikes" ride Harleys not ten-speeds.
Paul McGrath| 10.21.11 @ 10:55PM
None of you know what you're talking about. The Marina, Cow Hollow, Russian Hill, North Beach, Pier 39 and Fishermans' Wharf, Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, Downtown, Union Square, Union St., the Richmond District, Ocean Beach, the Sunset, the inner Sunset, 24th St., South of Market, the Giant's ballpark, the walk under the Bay Bridge from there, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Cliff House, the Buena Vista (overrated, but still great), and a trillion bars, restaurants, good looking people from everywhere on earth, and a ton of good-looking women dressed like fashion models, Asian babes, South American babes, European babes . . . not to mention all the wierd stuff, which is, wow, occasionally FUN! Like walking back to the hotel after a great dinner and the theatre and finding the USC marching band playing their fight song at midnight in Union Square! (Yeah, yeah, that's a tame one. The Folsom St. fair is another story, but you know what? You don't have to go there on that day.)
AS to the gays? Well, first of all, there are really not that many of them--any more than most American cities like New York or Chicago--and secondly, not one gay person has ever bothered me in my life. They mind their business, and I mind mine. And a few I've known were pretty great guys.
If you don't want to visit the city, well, don't. Dayton, Toledo, Ft. Wayne, Des Moines, Omaha, Little Rock and Waco are, I'm sure, wonderful cities. Drink your Bud light, enjoy your fat-ass wife, have a wonderful dinner at the local Olive Garden, and smugly contemplate how superior you are to those godless San Franciscans.
You really are so much better than them.
The Clintidote| 10.22.11 @ 12:35AM
"You really are so much better than them."
That was a lot of meandering verbiage, but you finally made it to the truth, so congratulations.
Buck Ofama| 10.22.11 @ 1:21AM
LOL, someone has a thin skin.
CalMark| 10.22.11 @ 4:07PM
"Drink your Bud light, enjoy your fat-ass wife, have a wonderful dinner at the local Olive Garden, and smugly contemplate how superior you are to those godless San Franciscans."
Good night. Snobbery for me, and as for thee--you're really NOT entitled to an opinion, peasants.
Paul McGrath| 10.22.11 @ 11:52PM
Works both ways, Calmark. That's the point I was trying to make. Disparage San Franciscans all you want, but mind the beam in your own eye first.
CalMark| 10.24.11 @ 2:49AM
People here are pointing out (with some asperity, it's true) factual things they don't like about SF, most of it having to do with its filth (on all levels), its ultra-liberal slant, and "anything goes" atmosphere. You may disagree, but those are specific criticisms levied at specific conditions--most of which SF'ers are PROUD of.
You don't like people ridiculing the perverse and perverted things you celebrate. So you haul out your tired, nasty elitist slurs. They show more about you than us.
You see, most mainstream Americans LIKE the stuff you insult so nastily. And regard someone like you as they would a sneaky, dangerous venomous reptile at the zoo.
In short, your cattiness demonstrates your utter ignorance about the rest of America--the real USA. It proves that you are completely out of touch with the mainstream of the country in which you live. Even more worrisome, you celebrate it because you think of yourself as superior.
John Navratil| 10.22.11 @ 4:34PM
Dang, y'all. I think we dun put a burr under the boy's saddle blanket. Pass me some more of them beans, cookie... and the bottle!
I working this here Noo Yawk Time crossword puzzle and need a nine-letter word for parish schools beginnin' with 'P'.
Paul McGrath| 10.23.11 @ 12:22AM
Might be "parochial," dimwit. Your cleverness astounds. A much more difficult task might be to try to determine what point it is you're trying to make.
John Navratil| 10.23.11 @ 10:32AM
I'm so sorry that it was unclear. The point was that you have a very parochial view (but, clever boy, you were just ahead of me)! I wasn't trying to be too abstruse - I really thought you'd get it. Perhaps I misjudged. It won't happen again!
Paul J| 10.22.11 @ 10:04AM
I visit the city every few years, at times it's like a fantasy in which everyone can watch the world in their own glass bubble and turn innocence into self indulgence....reality is never their strong point...
Petronius| 10.22.11 @ 10:57AM
There has been no mention of late about Occupy San Francisco; as if anybody would notice. The place has been ground zero for miscreants for so long one should wonder why all the "occupiers" of all other cities don't just gravitate to their own kind and move there.
CalMark| 10.22.11 @ 4:08PM
Oh, they're there, all right. In front of the Fed. (Oh, the ironies abound.) Angry, unbalanced, screaming up a storm.
And looking as though they haven't had contact with clean water in far too long.
Paul McGrath| 10.22.11 @ 11:56PM
Interestingly, the S. F. has handled it pretty well. Protest all you want, but no camping, no tents, no sleeping overnight. Every night, the bums have to take a hike.
In Oakland it's a different story. The bums have seized control, and the end result will not be pretty.
Paul McGrath| 10.23.11 @ 12:06AM
Meant to say S. F. P. D.
presidioJoe| 10.22.11 @ 12:12PM
I live 20 minutes away but visit enough to worry about an unsettling trend that been showing up in the local news the past couple years...shootings and gang shootouts outside the usual violent neighborhoods during the waking hours.
Pablocruize| 10.23.11 @ 1:01AM
In the second half of the 50's my folks would drive over the Donner Pass from Reno. Drop down into the San Juaquin valley to stop by Galt's Chicken Kitchen and drive out to frisco over the Bay Bridge to visit my Mom's sister up in Burlingam. I thought SF was the coolest place in the world, Mack the Knife cool. Oh well, now it stink's, I'd never go back.
POST American| 10.23.11 @ 10:53PM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
ALAS
FORD/ Carn--EGG--Hee/ Rockefeller
and Stanford Research's MOST successful
and lasting disaster from the EUGENICS promoting
'Sexual Liberation' OP of the 60's
ALAS
San Francisco, in its final throes
--------SAN FRANCISCO de FUKISHIMA
Can we hear the HAARP through the
CHEM-trails and fallout overhead?
--------------------LISTEN!-----------------------
-----------------------ALAS. . . . .
Todd Powers| 10.23.11 @ 11:44PM
I visited my aunt out there 30 years ago. It was a crazy place then. She lived right around the corner from the Haight.
Could someone tell me if we'll be talking about San Francisco in 30 years like me talk about Detroit now?
Little Miss Spellcheck| 10.24.11 @ 12:39PM
Two minor quibbles: It's Dykes (not Dikes) on Bikes. And the members of that group ride ostentatiously powerful motorcycles, not pedaled bicycles.
Ron| 10.24.11 @ 1:19PM
Ah, "Gay Bay"...I visited it once...That was enough for this poor, old country boy...
"I should have beat you with your Birkenstock when you set my house on fire..." Bowling For Soup from the song "Friends Like You." Very appropriate...