W83

Funny, I didn’t remember it being this warm out here.

It’s three in the morning. I still have two hours before work.

What a great city.

I’m on Chestnut Street. If I keep walking this way, I’ll get to Columbus. Or maybe I’ll walk up to Coit Tower and sit there for a while. I’ve never bothered to walk up there before. Or maybe I’ll just walk around Chinatown for two hours. But the souvenir stores selling training chopsticks and giant swords won’t be open.

There is a reason they call New York the city that never sleeps. San Francisco sleeps. There is nobody else on the sidewalk. Everyone is doing blow or in bed.

I moved here because of the architecture. I did. I moved here because this place just looks really cool, because the houses were pink and yellow and green. Where I come from everything is brick. I’m not sure why people have such a fascination with brick, even rich people. Their houses are also made of brick. But now that I’ve lived here for a couple of years, I’ve noticed that this is a dirty city. There is dirt on the pink and yellow and green. In many ways, this place is disgusting. But I don’t care. It’s like they’re at least trying here. Like, they’re recycling.

So I first came here as a teenager. I’m not even sure why. I think my Dad dragged us out here. He was going to a conference or something. So my brother and I, we had some time to kill. We walked all over the city. Russian Hill was my favorite neighborhood. And I liked Telegraph Hill, too. My Dad told me that he had a friend that lived in Telegraph Hill. Big rich guy with his wife, Professor of Accounting somewhere. She was Scottish. She had the greatest accent I ever heard, her talking was like singing. She had black rust for hair, in a bun, and cat-eye glasses. I thought that was great, living in Telegraph Hill with a Scottish wife. How awesome is your life?

There are ups and downs to this place. The politics are dysfunctional. Because of that, there are a lot of homeless people. There are a lot of homeless people because the city government gives them free stuff. It’s not that hard to figure out, but the city government can’t seem to figure it out. There was an article in the Chronicle recently. Some Mexicans were homeless and they were giving them free stuff. But it wasn’t enough for them. They interviewed a Mexican for the article. He said: “We could really use some towels. We don’t have enough towels.” Like free towels just fall from the sky or something. I paid for my own towels. So it has been decades and the city government really cannot unscrew this. People say you can go in newspapers from 100 years ago and politicians were saying back then that they were going to clean up the Tenderloin, and it still hasn’t happened. They are still dicking around with it. They give out free towels, what do they think is going to happen? So you get off the BART at Civic Center and the air is filled with the smell of homeless. And they’re pretty aggressive. But if you can deal with that, then you love this place. It’s the freest place in the world. This city is full of freaks and nobody cares. Back East, there is pressure to conform.