Between jet lag and a bit of an allergy I am still struggling through after returning from the west coast. All in all a good visit, if less frenetic than earlier trips. In both Seattle and San Francisco, I saw the primary people I was there to see and had one other meeting, a coffee and a lunch. On the one hand, I learned less than I have on previous trips. On the other, I rested more. For now, the latter made sense.
I took long walks in each city. In Seattle, Mark had been telling me what a clusterfuck of a place it had devolved into after the establishment of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone back after the George Floyd protests. I thought he was exaggerating, but he pretty much wasn't. Homeless people and substance abusers are very much in evidence all throughout the downtown area and the cops are exerting little control. Downtown is still underoccupied and tagged up. My friend from Chapel Hill characterized the whole city as traumatized.
San Francisco didn't seem as out of control, but then I didn't go into the part of the city where things are the worst. Out where I was on the edge of the Mission things were pretty much as they always are -- a little rugged despite the all-pervading wealth existing cheek to jowl with legacy lower-wealth populations -- and when Natalie and I walked through a bunch of neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Park -- all the way out to the ocean -- the most striking thing was how distinctly residential so many neighborhoods were, how little commercial activity there is.
Then we took the tram and a bus back home -- Natalie having fully mastered the public transit system in a few short weeks. As we passed through the Haight or somewhere thereabouts, a young Asian woman got on, having been escorted to the tram by a few friends. After she got on they came up close to the window and waved goodbye, smiling, while she waved back. It was almost unbearably Old World, so sweet.
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