Downtown SF, quiet and subdued. I had to make a drive into the city. Looked and sounded surreal. Almost too quiet and lonely. Mid-Market especially near the Twitter building. People-less, even up near the Embarcadero except for the unfortunate souls who call the streets their home.
The crowds will gather later at the baseball park, a sold-out fireworks game with the Giants as hosts. So, for once, 3rd and King will be buzzing but that's a rarity these days.
The media gulch, the area near KPIX and KGO, also a sea of humanity in the old, pre-Covid days, is also earily quiet and desolute. The TV News vans on Battery are missing. Circle7's maze of trucks are MIA with only a shot of the ABC building, 900 Front, in full glory.
It's 4th of July weekend, the day before, but it's still an empty feeling, granted it's a Monday but that's no excuse because most people took the day off and made it a four-day weekend. Where is everyone?
Downtown SF, empty and sullen. The Monday mundane in full visual evidence with accompanying silence and mystery. Dark and dreary it is and the only thing missing is a few Summer tumbleweeds on Market Street.
The coffee tastes good though, hot and bold. But sound is needed.
Bring on the firecrackers and humanity.
“Downtown SF, quiet and subdued. I had to make a drive into the city.”
ReplyDeleteGlad you survived!
Sad Situation! I'm not sure "The City" will ever be the same as it once was.
ReplyDeleteI work in one of those office highrises near the Hyatt Regency. Our firm has about 100 employees, generally have 6-9 in the office now on any given day-everyone else working from home. The two other firms on our floor are similar, and have heard the same thing from people a floor above and below us - maybe 15-25 people per day per floor versus 250 per floor pre-pandemic. That means our favorite lunch spots have shorter lines, IF they are still in business.
Deletefireworks cause fires, hideous injuries, kill dogs, cats, horses who run terrified into cars, roads, barns. etc.. and are a living nightmare for vets suffering from PTSD who have seen the real thing..They are nothing to celebrate
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteThey are also as American as hot dogs and baseball. Just use them responsibly.
Deletehmmm ... Wondering if maybe SF Gov't officials need to make some adjustments to their policies? The first step is for them to publish their list of new policy objectives by priority, and their reasoning . Should the residents ever expect to see this list?
ReplyDeleteIts probably all quiet at the KRON studios on Front Street as of now DirecTV pulled the "plug" from its lineup while they negotiate with Nexstar. Ahh what a way to start a Happy 4th of July!
ReplyDeleteI know a thing or two about the Media Gulch. Sorely missed.
ReplyDeletePeter Felch
KCBS
This is what happens when BART and Caltrain and the bridges raise their fares and tolls. People get tired of having their pockets picked by the bureaucrats and find something else to do.
ReplyDeleteI ride BART and the higher fares don't bother me. I jump the gates like most others.
Delete@12:56 Don't worry, with our sorry politicians they will make "gate jumping" a non - crime like in NYC, going to be like Muni where they estimate only 40% pay their fares, I'm one of the suckers that pay and watch 40% not, see how Muni is crying about deficits? Gee, I wonder why
DeleteOpps! I meant 60% non paying from @6:04
DeleteIt will take a long time, if ever, to recover. Trying to convert some of those buildings to resident housing will be expensive. Maybe they just tear down some of those buildings and turn it into a large park, like GG Park of the East Side.
ReplyDelete“Sometimes dead is better”.
ReplyDeleteWill SF return to its vibrant self? Not any time soon. The City isn't safe. The police are handcuffed. Homeless run downtown. London Bitch talks about making the city better. If you don't clean things up, how can you even make that promise? Who wants to ride BART? That's another mess. SF government officials are major league morons. Until the likes of people like the mayor, State Senator Scott the Weiner and that morass known as the Board of Supervisors gets the boot and is replaced by people who govern with common sense, it's going to be business as usual. Live with yourselves.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this got published.
DeleteGreat post, exactly. Dems, nothing more to say.
Delete@7:23 Why? Are you part of the problem and can't take the truth? @3:01 is speaking nothing but honest truth; oooohhh, is @7:23 are you prof chesha boudin?
DeleteI agree 100%.
Delete@723 -- You are so in denial. You must be working for the SF Chamber of Commerce. Get real.
DeleteJust got back from Portland. Same situation. Very depressing. Grim.
ReplyDeletePortland is another blue city.
DeleteSo KRON is officially gone from At&t Uverse/DirectTv as of this morning. Money dispute.
ReplyDeleteAll Nexstar stations nationwide are off AT&T U-Verse & Directv. Money issues!
DeleteKRON still works with rabbit ears.
DeleteFor how long that "free" tv lasts is anyones guess.
Won't be missed. Lower everyones bill for the amount being saved.
Delete@3:31 Had Comcast eons ago, they kept raising rates every years and service wasn't good, jumped to Direct TV, a little better but due to economics dropped Direct and went "Free TV" using several good antennas, try using off the air for kron 4
DeleteChanneling Gary Radnich, what's really sad about KRON's sudden MIA status: "Nobody cares."
ReplyDeleteHi Rich: Worked & 4th & King from 2004 to 2012; 1st year had my car window broken because I left my lunch cooler in the back seat; had homeless but 99% were poor souls as you put it but gentle; made some friends and gave some food and what little money I can afford to give them; nowadays I wouldn't dare go south of geary st downtown, that part of town is very unsafe, shame how this once vibrant and beautiful city has gone down
ReplyDeleteNo it's not. I'm in the area everyday. San Francisco just as safe as it ever was. Bunch of whiners on Broadway and Battery.
DeleteDowntown is so scary now. I’ve been harassed for just walking on the street. London Greed doesn’t care one bit. Completely disgusting.
Delete@10:08 Pinenuts, Broadway & Battery isn't downtown meaning you aren't in downtown or ignorant on what'as going on
Delete@10:08 Hey, fukface, I was robbed at knifepoint on Mason and O' Farrell and your telling me downtown sf is safe?
DeleteBeen to the ballpark a couple of times this year for day games. SF is dead in the Embarcadero, due to hubris of every tech company that set up shop there and built outrageous eyesores along the skyline (looking at you, Salesforce) while raising the cost of everything. You reap what you sow.
ReplyDeleteNailed it, 6:49.
DeleteThe old politicians used to be born and raised San Franciscans that ran for office and controlled the City. The current majority are outsiders who moved here and pushed the liberal ideas. Well look what San Francisco is now. A once great City is now known for the poop on your shoe. Yes you graduated from an Ivy League school and brought new ideas here. Well what a great job you are doing.
ReplyDeleteDog poop? Maybe I don’t want to know!
DeleteNow its rare to even see an American flag hanging in honor. Sad city. Sad residents of this state now.
DeleteIndeed where are the Russ Coughlin types
DeleteOr Diane Feinstein for goodness sakes
George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein, Frank Jordan, Gavin
DeleteNewsom, Mark Farrell, and London Breed are all native San Franciscans.
There in lies the problem 9:41.
Delete@10:58 Agreed
DeleteKRON? Didn't that go off the air about twenty-two years ago?
ReplyDeleteThere are folks strung out on drugs and booze, there are folks screaming at the Wind, - these folks need our help - and then there are folks who have little or no income. Finally there are some folks who want everything free: food shelter medical dental. (Who wouldn’t want that?🤷🏼♂️)And of course there are those folks who prey on these poor bastards, who sell them drugs, and figure out a way to monetize the suffering of others.
ReplyDeleteAs a resident who worked hard at jobs I was not enamored of, scrimped and saved to buy a home, and now pay exorbitant taxes, I have sympathy for many, yet despise the takers. I volunteer in our community to try to make it better for all, but rarely, if ever, do I see the takers - those not junkies, alcoholics, insane - do something for our community.
Only when the powers that be recognize the massive contributions made by the taxpayers, the employers, the volunteers, will we begin to see a light at the end of this sad tunnel.
It is time to clear out those who cannot take care of themselves - we used to have mental hospitals for them. They weren’t perfect, but they are better than being left for dead on the streets.
For those folks who can but will not contribute - will not pull their load - we can give them “3 hots and a cot” at a place of our choosing. Again, this beats living on the streets.
Every time a person defecates in a doorway, every time a car window gets broken, every time a drug addict dies on the street - the mayor and the supervisors lose a dollar’s pay. This blight - and that is exactly what it is - would be fixed by Labor Day.
Homeless pretty much run SF. They get free phones, food, healthcare. The city gov makes sure they’re taken care of. Working people struggle to buy groceries.
ReplyDeleteThe City is no longer worth the hassle of going to dinner, shopping or even a Giants game. The Mayor and Board of Supervisors are driving away tourists and locals from spending time or money there.
ReplyDeleteNope. Haven't been to SF in years. I won't pass through it to get someplace else either. Am making plans to leave. When I was out house shopping in Nevada last week, literally everyone I told of my plans was from or knew people from here who had left for the very same reasons. It's not just "a few disgruntled people." It's the taxpaying base that can most afford to move—ie, the people you want to keep!
DeleteI live in the North Bay and used to attend 12-15 Giants games annually, plus have lunch or dinner in the City. Watching the Giants lose, cost of stadium food and the parking is not worth the expenditure. Union Square, Embarcadero, North Beach, etc. have great restaurants, however, the car burglaries now keep me away. I suspect hundreds if not thousands are doing the same.
Delete@7:31 City just had 2 big convention cancellations for 2024, I believe due to question of safety, I won't traverse anywhere near downtown
DeleteMany people made this a 4 day weekend. Granted the Financial District will never be the bustling area like it was pre-pandemic. Should people in the Bay Area have to commute 1-2 hours each way to be tethered to a desk in SF they can easily do from home? Not in my book.
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco is no longer a great city...
ReplyDeleteYup
DeleteWhen I worked at KPIX in the mid-seventies, we were on Van Ness and the parking was on the street. My funky old VW bug was broken numerous times. I had drugs in my golf compartment, which they stole. Imagine their surprise when they found cat pills for urinary tract infections.
ReplyDeleteHarry Callahan needs to return to the city and take a few dozen liberals out to start.
ReplyDelete@1:51 Thank would be a pipe dream, the board of stupidvisors would instill policies that wouldn't let Callahan out of the station
DeleteI recently went traveling to some other cities and when I returned to SF I was astonished by how much it felt like a post-apocalytpic city by comparison. "It's because of the pandeeeemic," progressive whiners and London Broil claim. Yeah, the pandemic hit everywhere. Most other places have bounced back. I feel like 50 years from now, the latest progressive, chosen-for-cosmetic-reasons mayor and DA will still be saying, "It's because of the pandeeeemic."
ReplyDeleteBut don't worry. SF may be a hell on earth, and Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Vacaville, Richmond and San Leandro aren't far behind, but reparations are coming!
You're not here to discuss media, are you?
DeleteVacaville? It is good city.
DeleteVisit Fresno. It is a megalopolis where hope goes to die. And it is Deven Nunes country, about as red as it gets. And the welfare capitol of big agri-business. Yes, the far right gets their cut of the welfare pie too.
DeleteOlivia Horton, a name we know,
ReplyDeleteBut when she speaks, there's a twist in the flow.
She stumbles upon a word so small,
"Fag" instead of "fog," her voice does call.
KSFO once had a wonderful bumper called the "Sounds of the City" which every now and then I listen to on You Tube. As a native San Franciscan, 1946 to 1993, it makes me proud then I plunge into sadness knowing nobody is on board with enough of a spine to rectify the problem of this once beautiful city.
ReplyDeleteEveryone was at, "the lake."
ReplyDelete