EMPTY AMERICA: San Francisco

Finally. My last stop on this circular trip around the US. San Francisco.


I have friends here who have been warning me against visiting. Telling me that they’re ticketing people for even being outside, for not wearing face masks, sending people home, citing them $1000 if they’re breaking the rules. 


I was trepidatious about making my way into the city.


I’ll say this: Somebody should tell all of that to the people hanging out at Golden Gate Park. And at the Palace of the Performing Arts. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and the locals were enjoying it.


I didn’t see any cops. No martial law. Heck, I barely saw face masks and gloves!


I see people responsibly enjoying being outside. Social distancing. Keeping to themselves. Not touching things. 


Now I had arrived here after California was touted as having a great record at steadying the pace of the virus. Maybe this was just a reaction to that. Maybe it was an over-reaction and the numbers will rocket up again because everybody’s getting cocky. Hopefully not. Hopefully this is the light at the end of an ever-longer tunnel.


However, if you wanted to hang out with the locals, go to where the locals hang out and you’ll see plenty of them.


Which is not to say that there still isn’t sadness, emptiness, areas that are still in a vacuum. I headed to Fisherman’s Wharf (If you want pictures of a busy Golden Gate Park, Google ‘em!). I knew this area had to still be shut down and it was.


However, and this is true for all cities, if you ever thought construction was non-essential, apparently you would be wrong. There isn’t a shop or restaurant open on Fisherman’s Wharf, but man there’s a ton of construction.


This was true in every city I went to and on every highway. Apparently construction and home improvement stores are...essential?


If the virus remains relevant for much longer, I’d have to point one of my fingers towards this industry. Instead of shutting down operations, it seems that construction companies and road crews and do-it-yourselfers are taking this opportunity of low crowds and no traffic to finish their jobs. I would love to say that’s clever thinking if I didn’t think it was so damn greedy.


Why do they get to continue working when no one else does? Because it’s convenient? And how come I never saw one construction worker wearing a face mask? And they’re more than ok to be more than 5 or 10 to a group. Truthfully, I don’t know who to blame here.


I think it’s great there are people who are able to work at this time. I think that’s necessary and I’m happy for them. 


However, wouldn’t it be on the folks who run the construction companies to shut down their operations as well so they don’t put their employees at risk?


The new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will soon be the home to the Rams and the Chargers. They continued building throughout this crisis because, well, money (let’s not kid ourselves). 2 weeks ago, someone tested positive for coronavirus. They had to shut down the whole operation.


This isn’t a political rant, just an observation. Where’s the line drawn at “essential?”


Well, this is America, and money does talk. I just wish it all spoke the same language....


OK, I’m off my soap-box.


San Francisco was the last stop on my journey. I got a motel outside of the city to process my thoughts. (By the way, motels are now hovering around $40/night if anybody’s inclined).


I’ll wrap this up in another post I’m sure. Or maybe not. I did my journey. I hope you do yours. 


And I hope what I did is, at the very least, interesting. Because there’s nothing worse than being uninteresting.


Stay Safe.