With reverence for the shared community
Walking to the Haight Street Market for the Saturday, Sept. 23, candlelight vigil for Gus Vardakastanis, who founded the market and was killed by a hit-and-run driver early Friday morning, I made my way past families of tourists, looking curious and bright-eyed, and clots of street people, looking haggard and used up.
But a block and a half west, in front of the market, a gathering of another kind was growing. First the mini-park in front of the market filled up. Then the sidewalk overflowed, and the crowd surged onto Haight Street. Mourners arrived with boxes of candles they distributed. There were piles of flowers at the front entrance to the store, and Post-it notes affixed to a wall near the entrance. “You will be missed, Gus. Your smile was infectious! Love, SFFD Station 12,” one read.
The market was open, so there were people inside shopping. Emerging from the store carrying bags brimming with food, shoppers had to navigate through the crowd gathered to remember Gus. His wife, Georgia, was surrounded by neighbors hugging her and offering condolences.
Two large fire trucks pulled up on Haight Street and rang their bells solemnly. Candles went out, and neighbors leaned close to share their flames and relight them. A sign was unfurled outside the store: “Fly High, Gus, We Love You.”
A microphone was set up on the sidewalk, but I was on my way to another gathering and couldn’t stay through all the speeches. “Gus embraced our neighborhood,” said Calvin Welch of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, “and helped make it a community.” Men and women pressed close, many with tears streaming down their cheeks.
A half-hour later, on a viewing platform overlooking the site of what will someday be the Presidio Tunnel Tops Park Lands and Trails, homage was being paid to nature. The occasion was the 15th annual Trails Forever dinner, a fundraiser for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. As though to say thanks for the Conservancy’s favor — of building trails and overlooks and sites from which our natural treasures can be savored — nature was putting on a gloriously pink, purple and peach sunset for its supporters.
Dinner was in a tent nearby, and as always, it had been designated an informal affair, at which participants could wear jeans and Western wear. But make no mistake, this casual wear had nothing to do with the tattered casual wear of the Haight Street gang. Supporters of the Conservancy unlock its treasures — they have created 185 miles of paths in 15 years — and invite all to share, free of charge; but that takes money. The attendees are well heeled, and also open pocketed. By the end of the evening, $1.67 million had been raised.
The Tunnel Tops project will take $90 million; $55 million of it had already been donated. Mark Buell, who was the auctioneer, predicted at dinner that the project will be the biggest for 40 years (going back 20 and ahead another 20) in a U.S.national park. We joked about whether someone with a big enough contribution could manage to replace the jaunty “Tunnel Tops” designation with a person’s name.
“It’s about community,” said the Conservancy’s Greg Moore from the podium, addressing donors sitting at banquet tables bearing floral centerpieces. Gus had helped “make it a community,” Welch had said earlier in the evening.
It was a night when the city seemed like a village.
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Woman No. 1: “I think I want to get a dog.” Woman No. 2: “What kind would you get?” Woman No. 1: “I’m not sure. Something not in earth tones.” Conversation outside Ritual coffee on Valencia, overheard by William Salit
As to the word “dotard” (“an old person, especially one who has become weak or senile,” says my dictionary, and why should that be an insult?) flung by Kim Jong Un at President Trump last week after Trump called the North Korean leader “rocket man,” perhaps it’s time to lower the level of threats and raise the level of discourse.
If there’s an impulse to trade insults, perhaps the world leaders can turn to a diplomatic version of Mad Libs, which would include the sentence: “And furthermore, because that guy with the strange hair is a (nasty noun), I will (retaliatory act).”
Suggestions for nasty noun: Meanie, bully, bad dresser/dancer, crackpot, sicko, knave, ruffian, rascal, bozo.
Suggestions for retaliatory act: Give him a noogie, seize him by the back of the collar, tickle him until he cries “uncle,” cuff him about the head, cane him, give him a wedgie, throw a pie in his face. Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik