I've been living in San Francisco since 1997. That Practically makes
me a native. Not really, I know. But you know what I mean. This city is
full of peole who have been here less than five years, but feel like
they are experts on The City. I was here for the first dot.com boom, and
I'll be here after the current tech bubble bursts, spraying hipster
parts all over valencia street like some kind of disaster movie.
My
friends and I talk a lot about San Francisco... what we love about
it... what we dislike about it... whats wrong with it, and how to fix
it. I find myself spending a lot of free time fantasizing about huge
complicated sollutions to the many ills that burdan our beloved Baghdad
By The Bay*.
Sometimes I may resort to facile rhetoric
here... but at best, I want a place where I can carefully formulate and
convey complex ideas. I've been using twitter for this purpose for a
couple years now, and its not a very good tool. If the only tool you
have is 140 characters, every problem has a 140 character sollution.
Seeing
people bitch and complain on twitter, without having put much thought
into the issues makes me believe that 140 character sollutions are part
of the problem.
Here's to solutions!
Hopefully, I can convince some of my friends to guest post here. We'll see.
*This name for The City far predates the first Iraq War, and the sneering insult that Republicans and conservatives mean it to be. Read some Herb Caen
and get to know the history of your city. As for me, I'm taking the
name back... I'm Re-appropriating** it. Screw the mouth breathers and
pols from flyover states who think this is some kind of insult. I live
in Baghdad by the Bay, and I'm proud of it!
**Re-appropriation
aside: I once had an upper middle class white woman tell me "there are
some words that shouldn't be re-appropriated.... Like the N-Word." To
which I responded "I don't think that's your decision to make"
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