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A note from San Francisco

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SubscribeSign inShare this postA note from San Franciscomathonan.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailMar 3, 2021Share this postA note from San Franciscomathonan.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailHello,I hope this finds you well. Or as well as can be during this difficult time. It’s been a crazy year, hasn’t it? Half a million people died unnecessarily and a mob of bozos stormed the Capitol looking to kill, all because a bunch of baby boomers and genxers sat in their suburban homes for too many years smelling their own farts and watching FoxNews.Cura PersonalisLike I said. Things are changing.&nbsp;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Or it was for some people. But clearly not everyone. I wish I’d done more to help back then. I wish I hadn’t just let things go. But, so what if San Francisco isn’t friendly to the tech industry? So what. Who cares. Sayonara, Salesforce. Ohana’s over. Etc., etc. It’s not that I’m anti-tech. I just care more about other things. I want the restaurants to open and the music to go all night and for my kids to be able to be in a classroom with other kids. I want to go inside a stranger’s house during open studios and buy some fucking art. I want to tip my bartender. I want to dance all night long to familiar music with my closest friends. I want this to be a place where weird new people fuck each other in weird new ways that no one had ever before imagined possible in all of human history. Preferably in the streets at the Folsom Street Fair.&nbsp;San Francisco has always been an oddball hotspot and may well be again. But it’s not like an influx of artists are going to move here unless we solve the housing crisis by, I don’t know, turning all that empty office space downtown into apartments or fast-tracking multi-unit construction all over the city.&nbsp;Something’s got to give. On Sunday morning I was standing in the street again, hosing the grime off my car, when my neighbor approached me. “Hey,” he said, “you should really start parking your car in the driveway.” Someone had stolen the catalytic converters from both of his family’s cars. Two cars! Sawed them off in the night! I said Chesa’s name and spat on the asphalt. Fuck that guy.And fuck the guys on Clubhouse, too. I mean the ones ranting about Chesa because he’s on the wrong team, the wrong tribe. The ones talking shit about the city and the media and trying to dominate the rap, jack. The ones who come and go. All those self-styled grey tribe motherfuckers who haven’t realized they’re just as guilty of groupthink as your average below-average Berkeley sophomore. The problem is bigger and deeper and worse than Chesa or the New York Times, my dudes. Go storm the capitol if you want a revolution. Run for office. But: Stand for something. Just take a stand, talk radio.&nbsp;Anyway. I love Clubhouse.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So: Can we all just vibe for a bit? No matter what you think right now? I’m still alive and you’re still alive. Life is hard but it’s the only thing we have. That and each other. Tech’s a fact and it’s not going away. It made our lives better and this last year bearable in any way at all. It kept untold millions employed and connected, when we couldn’t be there in person. Tech’s a vital and humanistic part of the world, and a vital and humanistic part of the city. Being against it is like being against money. Which... fine. I feel you. But it’s not going anywhere.&nbsp;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Years ago, yet years later, my wife and I were going out for dinner on our tenth anniversary. We called this new thing called UberCab and the guy who came and picked us up that night (in a black car) was one of the enormous brothers who had let us into Chance’s after closing time, when we were so scared and so freaked out, long ago. He still lived above the bar, but now he drove for UberCab. I asked if he remembered me, if he remembered us. He did. It was a real moment. You had to be there. (Maybe you were there after all? Maybe you just forgot after being locked down and shut up for a year?)&nbsp;But now, San Francisco is opening again. You can eat inside soon enough, if it doesn’t scare the shit out of you. Schools can open again, if the fascists on the school board ever decide to make it happen. You can go to the gym or the museum or a movie. You could take a long walk in Golden Gate Park, all the way to the beach. Maybe you could already do that. But this time, you’ll be able to ride the ferris wheel. Things are changing.&nbsp;&nbsp;Can we be optimistic about its future? Can we rebuild the city so that it’s just as free and freaky and weird as it ever has been, but also actually takes care of the people suffering in the streets? Can we make it a place where we build the things we need when we need them? Can we take advantage of its massive store of financial and human capital to help the people who have been left behind in San Francisco’s previous booms? Can we feed the hungry and house the homeless? Can we recognize that there is no dogma, and live up to the potential and ideals of this weird place at the edge of America? At the edge of the world?Everything seems up for grabs. We can break open whatever we want, including and especially the traditional power structures of the city. We can unfuck the machine. We can start again. andAnyway. That’s what’s up here. Also I’m germinating some zucchini, which did really well for me last year. How are things with you?Like this postShare this postA note from San Franciscomathonan.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmail18 CommentsFor your security, we need to re-authenticate you.Click the link we sent to , or .Expand full commentExpand full commentNo posts© 2022 Mat Honan ∙ ∙ &nbsp;is the home for great writingThis site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please or unblock scripts

SubscribeSign inShare this postA note from San Franciscomathonan.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailMar 3, 2021Share this postA note from San Franciscomathonan.substack.comCopy linkTwitterFacebookEmailHello,I hope this finds you well. Or as well as can be during this difficult time. It’s been a crazy year, hasn’t it? Half a million people died unnecessarily and a mob of bozos stormed the Capitol looking to kill, all because a bunch of baby boomers and genxers sat in their suburban homes for too many years smelling their own farts and watching FoxNews.Cura PersonalisLike I said. Things...

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A note from San Francisco

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