Northern California?
It's been a minute for good reason. I completed a final draft of a new novel and am currently going through the arduous tasks of both editing it and finding someone to publish it, rather than self-publish. I am doing this as an experiment to see what if any difference there is between the two, minus the obvious. Both tasks take time.
In addition to that, I finished one freelance job at home and jumped straight into another one which will require my being away from home five days a week. While this isn't ideal, the duration (and resume-building quality) of the gig is. Not to mention the streams of writing fodder I am already getting from being displaced, and forced to observe new surroundings.
San Francisco is at once not as bad as everyone would have you believe, and much, much worse on another level. The homeless epidemic is literally unavoidable. The fact so many people are accustomed to it that it no longer registers with them is something I will never understand.
The way Silicon Valley has irrevocably changed this city is also a strange sight to see. I first visited this city in the early 90's when the internet was still in its nascent stages, relatively speaking. The homeless problem was still there; in some ways worse as I seem to remember the ones I encountered being much more aggressive. But the city wasn't insanely expensive and it was still somewhat family friendly.
As dinner last night, as person my friend introduced me to summed San Francisco up thusly: "The city has an arrogant elitism about it that is completely undeserving. It so desperately wants to be New York but it isn't and never will be. It is a smaller-town city."
While I'm not sure I'd describe it that way, it does feel like there's a noticeable pong of ego that is anathema to the so-called hippy culture the city still pretends to have. I have seen no hippies here. Grown men on scooters and skateboards, yes. People bumping into each other because they are staring at their smart phones? Yes. To juxtapose the haves and have nots even further, with the news of the new Apple 11 has come a recent spate of cell phone muggings, particularly around where I work since it is ground zero for Silicon Valley-like start ups.
The other thing that strikes me is how unhappy people are. They don't even do a good job of hiding it. It's as if before going out in the morning, they put on a persona of a happy non-playable character who behaves like all the rest. There's a huge sadness to this area. I don't know what the cause is. But it's different from L.A. which hides a desperation underneath the skin. San Francisco is just sad.
Los Angeles has the air of someone frantically trying to Be Somebody™ no matter what. San Francisco is the hopelessness of failed dreams, a once idealist outlook worn first at the outer edges, and then the innermost parts as well. Sagging stuffed dolls left with only fading painted smiles as a reminder of how they used to be.
Perhaps that's not fair. But writers aren’t supposed to be fair. They’re supposed to be accurate.
For a town that is so progressive, I'm amazed at how many people smoke cigarettes, and how much junk food is around, too. I figured I could close my eyes, throw a rock and hit a Whole Foods or organic spot, but that has not turned out to be the case. (I guess that's more Berkeley.) At least I'm getting my 11-15,000 steps in. And with these slanted streets every step counts.
All that notwithstanding, the thing that bothers me the most? Strangely? Is that everyone I talk to at work? Or even when I'm outside of work, like at a restaurant or something? Like, everyone? All of them seem completely unable to finish a sentence? Unless it ends in a question?
But hey, you can't beat the view.