San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
City’s pulse has vanished, but worrying doesn’t help
We were driving out by Ocean Beach the other day when I noticed a sign: “Warning! Tsunami Zone.” Wow, I thought, this must be the Blue Tidal Wave we’ve been hearing so much about. I rolled up the car window. We all know how the election turned out. Mass confusion.
I remember back in the day, when we in the media couldn’t figure out what was going on, we’d send reporters out to talk to the person in the street. “Get out there, kid, and take the pulse of the city,” the gimleteyed editor would say. We called that shoeleather journalism.
I took that advice on the day after the election. I roamed around what we used to think was the heart of the city. And you know what? San Francisco didn’t have any pulse. The city looked dead.
I headed for a restaurant popular with politicos. Always good for a quote and sometimes a free drink. It was not only closed but boarded up. So was nearly every establishment on Powell Street, Post Street, Sutter Street. The sidewalks were empty. The windows of the flagship Macy’s on Union Square didn’t appear to be boarded over, but they were covered. A sign on some of them explained what was going on: “Our elves are hard at work to create a holiday season that helps you.” A likely story. I walked down Market Street, the city’s main stem. You remember Market Street, don’t you? It had a mad vitality, crowds, noise, the rattle of streetcars, sirens. Not that day. I saw only one beggar in four blocks. That’s how different it was.
I walked up Montgomery Street. It was just after lunchtime. I remembered all the crowds, people in a hurry, impatient, couldn’t wait for the light to turn green. No more.
At Montgomery and Clay, I took a look at a historical marker. At this spot, in July 1846, a party of sailors and Marines landed from a U. S. Navy ship in the bay and marched up the street to raise the American flag over the plaza a block away. It was the beginning of the city we know now. The windows on the building with the plaque were boarded up.
Maybe the city was boarded up for fear of election disturbances. That day could have been the calm before the storm. But maybe it is the calm before the calm. Maybe the center of the city — the downtown, Union Square, the traditional Financial District — won’t survive the coronavirus slowdown. It’s been eight months, and when I took the patient’s pulse, the results were alarming.
I looked up from the historical marker at Clay and Montgomery right at the Transamerica Pyramid, bold against a clear blue sky. It has just been sold — for $ 650 million, $ 70 million less than the original asking price. Was that a good deal in an era when people are working from home?
If a recommendation by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission comes to pass, within 10 years 60% of the workforce in the region’s cities will work from home. If that happens, who needs places like the Transamerica Pyramid or the venerable Russ Building — or the lunchtime crowds on Montgomery Street? Who needs BART to get the workers there? Or the Muni Metro subway? Who needs retail when Amazon delivers to your door? If that happens, Macy’s will have to fire the holiday elves, and downtown shopping will become only a memory. And what happens when our version of winter comes, with rain and that damp San Francisco chill, and the customers desert all those sidewalk restaurants?
We have a lot of things to worry about. No wonder the city’s pulse is so low. If I were an urban doctor, I’d prescribe a couple of things. First, stop worrying about things you and I can’t control. The election is over. Forget battleground states, lawsuits and blue waves.
Tune it out. Go for a walk. Take a ride on the bay. Tour boats are running, and it would be fun to play tourist.
Or you could go to Golden Gate Park and take a ride on that nifty Ferris wheel. The other night, just at dusk, was perfect. Going around in a circle, 150 feet in the air, has no social significance. A Ferris wheel has no politics and no message. It’s just fun. It makes you forget what it was you were worried about. Live for the day. The future will be here soon enough.