Just back recently from 9 days in the San Francisco area. Had a very interesting trip.
Frisco is an amazing city of contrasts. It seems like every second car is a BMW, homes average more than $850,000 for a place with no yard and shared walls with your neighbours. Yet in the downtown area of that same city amidst all that capitalism you see the more homeless people than anywhere else in the free world.
Before going to suburban San Bruno on business, we spent three nights in downtown San Francisco half a block from Market Street, the downtown main artery. Loved pretty much all of it but it's tough to walk a block without 5 or 6 people asking for cash. Some used signs (my favourite: "Will accept verbal abuse for spare change.") to get their point across. Others held out a cup. Some sang and danced. Many let you pet their cat or dog for a bit of money (missing my Ginger, I gave a woman 50 cents to scratch her cat's forehead). Others would hold open a door to a store for you and expect a contribution. Many just lied there on the concrete, sleeping, with a cup by their side.
You get desensitized to it all after a day or two, but you have to realize that you cannot help everyone. And these people are genuinely homeless with not much of a future to look forward to. Many of them are not physically or emotionally able to be part of the workforce. They are much less irritating that the homeless teens and 20s in Victoria and Vancouver who hassle you on the street, too lazy to apply for any of the thousands of jobs unfilled. And Vancouver is where a 20-something man hassled me for change while smoking a joint. Oh yeah.
Why San Fran? "It's the climate," a local told me. "Summers aren't too hot and winters are mild enough to be reasonably comfortable living on the street. And San Francisco is a rather liberal city, tolerant of people with different outlooks and persuasions."
And the NorCal coastal climate is pretty much ideal for a Canadian who is not fond of extreme temperatures (so why do I live in Winnipeg???). The only ti
me the thermometer passed 70 degrees was the day we went on a bus trip to Napa and Sonoma. Oh, and three wineries.Head inland from San Francisco and the mercury rising keeps pace with the spinning odometer on the car. It's not unusual to see temps 30 degrees warmer than SF only 30 miles away. California's wine country presents a beautiful rolling landscape, not unlike that of Italy, or so I'm told. But you arrive out there and you soon discover the issue which divides urban and rural Californians - water.
The Golden State is facing somewhat of a water shortage which seems to be dividing the people, if you believe what to read in the paper. The Napa and Sonoma valleys are picturesque but this July (like most others) they are parched. Wineries and farms irrigate their crops but there is only so much water to go around. Authorities must try and balance the economic livelihoods of the rural folks with the needs of the urbanites.
Would San Franciscans pay $5 for a loaf of their beloved sourdough or a head of lettuce in order to have more water for themselves? How about $20 for a bottle of plonk?
All said and done, visit Northern California. The scenery is beautiful, the climate temperate, the wine unreal and the people are the friendliest I've ever met this side of the Maritime provinces.
