Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco

[Phillip Greenlief]

yes, we be skankin'.

sent from phillip's iPhone

On Mar 3, 2013, at 6:55 AM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:

> Oakland does, indeed have abundant character and culture. It has been the Bay Area slum for decades, where the arts and ideas fester like lilies on the shore, are borne over the bay by rumor to be claimed by the elder sister, while the younger, more impetuous one languishes in skankified infamy. I like Oakland.
> 
> On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 3:16 AM, Bled Welder <bledwelder at gmail.com> wrote:
> But you're....Oakland.  What is that water that lays between. the
> peninsula and Oakland?  Isn't there a large bridge?  Been over it many
> times myself.
> 
> Not as in, walking, by byself.  Driving.  I think occasionally one has
> the misfortune of landing somewhere called Oakland....
> 
> 
> On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 8:32 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n03/rebecca-solnit/diary
> >
> > good piece on the effects of Google and its ilk on the culture of San
> > Francisco. interesting contrast with Gold Rush in the 19th century and
> > the mining rush in Wyoming, North Dakota and other places today. lots
> > of Pynchonian echoes
> >
> > Rich
> >
> > 'All this is changing the character of what was once a great city of
> > refuge for dissidents, queers, pacifists and experimentalists. Like so
> > many cities that flourished in the post-industrial era, it has become
> > increasingly unaffordable over the past quarter-century, but still has
> > a host of writers, artists, activists, environmentalists, eccentrics
> > and others who don’t work sixty-hour weeks for corporations– though we
> > may be a relic population. Boomtowns also drive out people who perform
> > essential services for relatively modest salaries, the teachers,
> > firefighters, mechanics and carpenters, along with people who might
> > have time for civic engagement. I look in wonder at the store clerks
> > and dishwashers, wondering how they hang on or how long their commute
> > is. Sometimes the tech workers on their buses seem like bees who
> > belong to a great hive, but the hive isn’t civil society or a city;
> > it’s a corporation.'
> >
> > Last summer, I went to look at a house for sale whose listing hadn’t
> > mentioned that the house was inhabited. I looked in dismay at the
> > pretty old house where a family’s possessions had settled like silt
> > over the decades: drum set, Bibles, faded framed portraits, furniture
> > grimed with the years, cookware, toys. It was a display of what was
> > about to be lost. The estate agent was on the front steps telling
> > potential clients that they wouldn’t even have to evict: just raise
> > the rent far beyond what the residents can afford. Ye who seek homes,
> > come destroy the homes of others more frail.
> 
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