Musings, pontifications and ramblings - The final installment |
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Musings, pontifications and ramblings - The final installment |
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So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye ...Verily 'tis the time for rejoicing, for here endeth the man in san fran sermons. Yes folks, we've come to the end of the road and you can breath a big sigh of relief - no more tedious misf reports clogging up your inbox. Just think about it for a moment. No more pointless pontifications on the beauty of American Football. No more soporific musings on the sheer god awfulness of American television. No more random recommendations for books no one is ever going to read (www.houseofleaves.com). And no more holiday snaps of me gooning about in front of the Statue Of Liberty. Yes, it's safe once again to come out from behind your computer, for the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting and the man in san fran has left the building... ...But before I let you off the hook (you didn't think it was going to be *that* easy, did you?) I suppose I should try to wrap things up. Tie up all those loose ends. Try to make some sense out of it all. But to be honest, that's a hard thing to do, trying to make sense of a year of your life, let alone a year spent in a country as mad, bad, dangerous, wacky, superficial, awe-inspiring and unfathomable as America. It's a country full of a million contradictions, making life here both so joyful and infuriating. Not only that, California is for all intents and purposes a separate country to the rest of the States. And as for San Francisco itself? Forget it, pal. The city by the bay might as well be on Mars, for all that the inbreds in Ohio, Idaho and the rest of Middle America think... ...So rather than conjure up some witty one-liner or soundbite to sum up my time here, I thought I'd indulge in a little bit of wholesale self-plagiarism (and hey, my plane leave in three hours so I need to hurry). I don't know how many of you saw the BBC News report on San Francisco the other day. It examined how people are protesting about the dotcom boom which is forcing up rents and people from their homes. Protestors daub political grafitti on the walls of dotcom offices, invade premises in well-publicised attacks, and are targeting voters in the upcoming ballots. Meanwhile, regular San Franciscans are departing the city in their droves for the less-expensive climes of Oakland and the community vibe it affords. Well, this story is nothing new - here's a piece I did for Time Out back in October 1998: Time Out - Dispatch - San Francisco - October 1998 In San Francisco, the Pacific gateway to the land of milk and honey, there's
a rumble going on that has nothing to do with plate tectonics.
A socio-economic earthquake of such seismic proportions that
people are being left homeless in their thousands, businesses are
crumbling at breakneck speed and citizens are leaving the city in their
droves. The city's undergoing an unprecedented period of 'economic cleansing',
says the SF Bay Guardian, the region's weekly liberal mouthpiece.
Statistics from the past three years read like a disaster report
from the 1989 Loma Prieta quake: 8,000 residents losing their
homes, 2,000 public housing units demolished, dozens of buinesses
gone to the wall, and over 10,000 homeless persons eeking out
a living on the streets. According to their figures, it's all a direct
result of stratospheric rent increases, and the resultant influx
of big shopping chains and monied yuppies working in nearby Silicon
Valley. Thus we're seeing a transformation from a diverse metropolis
welcoming immigrants and refugees from around the world to a
homogenous, wealthy enclave. Forecasts reckon that San Francisco may
soon become the first fully gentrified city in America, the 'urban
equivalent of a gated bedroom community'. Even Haight Street,
the epicentre of the first Summer of Love in 1967, is facing
the pressures of yuppification. A decrepit old theatre, which
locals want converted into a community centre, has been bought
out by developers for regeneration into 19 upper class condos,
each priced at upwards of a quarter of a million dollars. Opponents
say the development will destroy the character of the area, until
now a haven for ethnic diversity, low rents and all-round bohemian
culture. The city's first poet laureate, Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
has added his two cents worth to the debate that has gripped
the city, lamenting the loss of the very spirit that made San
Francisco a 'frontier for free poetic life'. Ferlinghetti, literary
friend of Allen Ginsberg and co-founder of the infamous City
Lights bookshop, also bemoans the 'theme park' nature of his
North Beach neighbourhood. He wants civic pride restored by sweeping pedestrianisation
of the inner city and painting the Golden Gate Bridge golden. Of
course, San Francisco hasn't totally lost its frontier charm just
yet. A walk on the wild side, into the city's oldest and liveliest
neighbourhood, the Mission, confirms that. There, gangs of teenagers
hang out who proudly declare they've never seen the Golden Gate
Bridge because it's 'not on our turf'. Hustlers, chancers, users
and abusers line the streets, panhandling for money or offering to
sell you girls and drugs. Vigilantes even stalk the streets at night,
defiling Range Rovers, fancy bistros and other signs of yuppie encroachment. Whether
those who have been the lifeblood of the city for decades - musicians,
artists, students, writers, people on welfare - will let San
Francisco become, in the words of Richard Walker, chair of Geography
at UC Berkeley, 'just another American city, a corporate city',
is unclear. But it seems doubtful they'll give up without a fight.
After all, it's a fate San Francisco has resisted for generations.
Kieran Wyatt ...So as I look back, I'm thinking about all that's gone down in this beautiful city in the last few years. And I got thinking that maybe I arrived here a few years too late (although given what's happening with the protestors and everything, maybe the reality is that I'm leaving just as things are getting interesting...). But then I realised that's the pessimist's "half-empty" approach. People always say that cities/clubs/music/films were better "back in the day". A DJ friend of mine, who arrived in San Fran in 1994, felt even then that he had "missed the boat", that the city was one in transition and had lost its original vibe. The fact is that there's never a perfect moment to move anywhere. You've just got to make the most of wherever you are, whenever you're there, by whatever means necessary. And - as I like to think the misf reports demonstrate - I know that the twelve months I've spent out here have afforded me a lifetime of memories... Thank you San Francisco. It's all good. Namaste, Kieran http://www.diffdrum.demon.co.uk/maninsf/
PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: He was born with a gift of laughter Rafael Sabatini |
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