Reflections on San Francisco
I’ve been in San Francisco for a day and a half now and I’m already vividly remembering all of the reasons I’ve never been a big fan of the place. The omnipresent homeless population, the constant pleas for money, the smells, the grunge, the sheer cheesiness of Fisherman’s Wharf, the prevailing “do your own thing, even if it inconveniences others” attitude, the self-righteously liberal politics. I feel like standing in front of the mirror in my hotel room and performing something similar to Edward Norton’s “Fuck You, New York” monologue from 25th Hour!
Like Norton’s character, though, I would most likely realize by the end of my tirade that there are, in fact, a lot of things I like about the city. This evening I walked—and I do mean walked—from my hotel near Union Square clear over Nob Hill all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf (which I was visiting, despite my aversion to it, because it is home to San Francisco’s only In-N-Out Burger, and it just wouldn’t be a trip to California without a visit to my favorite indigenous fast food chain!). While the trip was arduous, it was also rewarding, in that it gave me feel for the city that I never quite got on my previous trip.
As Tom Coates pointed out during his last visit, SimCity seems to owe a lot of its aesthetic to San Francisco, and I think there’s a reason for that: if you were to build a city from scratch, the Bay Area is definitely one of the most interesting and naturally beautiful canvases you could ask for. Unlike, say, Denver (which is built on a huge, almost completely waterless plane and is therefore eminently uninteresting in terms of layout), San Francisco’s peninsular location, it’s hilly terrain, and surrounding bay (or estuary if you want to get technical) creates an incredible amount of geographical drama and necessitates awe-inspiring engineering achievements like the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. Even looking at the apartment buildings clinging the precipitous hillside on Taylor Street this evening inspired in me something akin to vertigo!
It’s just too bad that, as James Duncan Davidson has said, the stunning natural setting of San Francisco Bay has to be ruined by “all the bad things that have layered on top of the city.” If only real life was more like SimCity—I’d love to put in one of those unlimited money cheat codes and give this place what it really deserves!