WHAT IS OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Groups of crows circling the city looking for a place to roost
  by Bill Slavin

A block and a half away from us sits South Park, a small park lined with two and three story buildings. It's a surprise to find the park among what was once the industrial side of San Francisco.  Built in 1855, the park was in the middle of a block of mansions and townhouses for the wealthy. It later became the hub of the Japanese American community. After the 1906 earthquake and fire when much of the housing in the area was destroyed, small commercial buildings replaced much of the housing except for the Madrid Hotel, which remains today. Immigrants from other places moved in. In the late 20th century, small tech start-ups, including Twitter, occupied the block-long space. The park's buildings occupancy followed the boom and bust era of tech start-ups and COVID.

While we were looking for a good cup of coffee near our new home in South Beach, we discovered Blue Bottle cafe, a local coffee brand start-up since acquired by Nestle, housed in an old brick building at one end of the park. With our coffees in hand, we wandered down the park, savoring the greenery and tall trees that shaded the block. Many of the windows of the buildings displayed For Lease signs, the result of the COVID pandemic that decimated so many small businesses in San Francisco and elsewhere.

The park is a quiet, peaceful place against the noise of the city. At the other end of the park, children climb the undulating rope structure and hop onto swings. We sat in the park and watched a few people come out of the buildings at lunch to sit together around one of the round metal tables that dot the park. We thought back to our own work life working full time. Bill rarely had time for lunch and worked long hours, and I ate lunch within a crowded, stuffy staff room and played Hearts with other teachers, but spent most of my time in my classroom. Company/school camaraderie came mostly from off-site events such as seminars, yearly picnics, or holiday parties.

Since we first arrived in the neighborhood last spring, we noticed that Blue Bottle now has a line out its solid wooden door and groups of young people emerge from more and more of the buildings, and fewer For Lease signs hang from windows. Trucks with construction equipment park at the curbs and the construction noises can be heard from inside the buildings. The park seems to be coming back to life again.

Knowledge is Golden
By Bill Slavin

We laugh a little when we see the groups of tech bros walking to lunch. They are young and eagerly talk in a tech language we no longer comprehend. They are mostly tech "bros" with maybe one or two women walking in the groups. We wonder about what has changed or not changed that there are so few women as part of these groups. We overheard one group recently complaining that their company is now requiring them to return full time to the office, giving up remote work for the need to develop a company culture and better idea exchange, concepts that were so important when we were working.

We've noticed that some neighborhoods in San Francisco such as the Marina, Chestnut Street, Potrero Hill, and Union Street are thriving. These busy districts are easily accessible by public transportation, have buildings that are one-to-three stories that don't dominate the streets. The streets are narrow enough that traffic doesn't speed through the district, and they are tree-lined. Other parts of the city haven't rebounded as quickly. I look at their empty places and think that we need to find new uses for those first floor rooms. 

Pier 70
by Bill Slavin

Walking along the SF Bay Trail, we are heartened to see the development occurring along the Bay. Around Crane Cove old industrial buildings that used to house shipbuilders have been turned into new work spaces and spaces for restaurants and physical fitness, keeping the inside structures intact. I think about how difficult it would be to plan housing, work spaces, transportation, and other activities in one area. It would be hard to get it right, but the people who built South Park came up with a good solution: a park, a few eateries, trees, and "people-sized" buildings that encourage people to find a place there.

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Something to think about this week:

Andrew Wyeth:

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape -- the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

What is your favorite season and why?

 Martin Luther King, Jr.: 

"People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other."

How hard is it to follow this idea?