Cities that work
This is my last day out here in San Francisco, and on my walk to work this morning I found myself reflecting on what a great town this is. This is a city that works. If functions well, especially for a city of this size. With such a diverse population, it's hard to think of San Francisco as a true "American" city, since we're really not all that diverse. San Francisco feels more like the hybrid of a major financial center and a mid-size European city.
The tip of the SF peninsula is a collection of micro-neighborhoods that often overlap. There's Chinatown, hippietown, yuppietown, old money on Nob Hill, the Castro and the Mission... a place for everyone. You can walk around town or take public transit - no real need for a car. Sure, the homeless people smell awful and they annoy you, but that's a small price to pay.
The locals eat well here and live healthy lifestyles. Real estate prices and salaries are ridiculously high. The city council just passed a resolution requiring taxi cab companies to buy hybrid vehicles as they replace their fleets.
I guess what I'm getting at is that this is a city that has some faults, but the positives significantly outweigh the negatives. There's just something captivating about the pulse of a properly functioning city - the way it wakes up in the morning, the way it functions throughout the day and evening, the way it quiets down at night, the pulse of life on the weekends. Good cities have a tangible energy about them, and I'm not just saying that because I've spent all these months in hippie San Francisco.
So many cities have become sprawling megalopolis cities. The patterns of white flight and gentrification are ones that no mayor wants attached to his or her city, because they both have negative implications. San Francisco got spared much of this simply because it is land locked. There was nowhere to sprawl. Poor people and rich people have always lived downtown. You can live outside of town and commute in, but again there are as many rich people doing that as poor people. The result is one of the most balanced places I've ever seen.
Sure, California is full of fruits and nuts, but I'd take San Francisco over Los Angeles any day of the week. Broken cities like Detroit, New Orleans, and Atlanta could learn a lot from this town.
The tip of the SF peninsula is a collection of micro-neighborhoods that often overlap. There's Chinatown, hippietown, yuppietown, old money on Nob Hill, the Castro and the Mission... a place for everyone. You can walk around town or take public transit - no real need for a car. Sure, the homeless people smell awful and they annoy you, but that's a small price to pay.
The locals eat well here and live healthy lifestyles. Real estate prices and salaries are ridiculously high. The city council just passed a resolution requiring taxi cab companies to buy hybrid vehicles as they replace their fleets.
I guess what I'm getting at is that this is a city that has some faults, but the positives significantly outweigh the negatives. There's just something captivating about the pulse of a properly functioning city - the way it wakes up in the morning, the way it functions throughout the day and evening, the way it quiets down at night, the pulse of life on the weekends. Good cities have a tangible energy about them, and I'm not just saying that because I've spent all these months in hippie San Francisco.
So many cities have become sprawling megalopolis cities. The patterns of white flight and gentrification are ones that no mayor wants attached to his or her city, because they both have negative implications. San Francisco got spared much of this simply because it is land locked. There was nowhere to sprawl. Poor people and rich people have always lived downtown. You can live outside of town and commute in, but again there are as many rich people doing that as poor people. The result is one of the most balanced places I've ever seen.
Sure, California is full of fruits and nuts, but I'd take San Francisco over Los Angeles any day of the week. Broken cities like Detroit, New Orleans, and Atlanta could learn a lot from this town.
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