Concepts in the Paradox

While it is a tad cold out, today was a very beautiful day for a walk downtown. I saw an ad for a top floor apartment in lower Nob Hill on CL, and set out to check out the apartment, then wonder aimlessly around downtown: a favorite activity of mine.

The place is on Bush and Jones, not a bad area, and as I mentioned before it is on the top floor. It has a freight elevator, making moving in a breeze, huge lobby which actually looks like an inviting place to take my laptop, stare out at the side walk, and compute away as people come and go from their apartments. The view isn’t so great, it faces Jones Street, and it has no view of downtown; though it took me a second to realize that I am already downtown, so a view of downtown is redundant.

Apparently the top floor had been gutted about 3 years ago in a fire, so the place is immaculate after rebuilding. New hardwood, a modern bathroom and kitchen, and noise-proof windows. There’s even a fire escape, for if I want to sit outside and watch the action down below. Also a bonus: cats and dogs are allowed.

$1775. Not too shabby. The realtor, who has lived in the building for years, said that there would be a unit that faced Bush street opening soon, which would offer a bit more of a view and be on the corner. This is via CitiApartments, so if I apply and I’m accepted, I can reject the offer and opt for any place that CitiApartments offers instead, or just say no altogether.

After the apartment hunt, I stopped at the various thrift stores and computer stores looking for a wireless card for my Zaurus, since it is pretty much useless until I can track one down. I guess I could use the usb to connect it to my phone for dialup. Now there’s an idea.

On the way back home, I stopped by Union Square and bought a couple prints from the local artists selling there. William Gregg, a Mill Valley resident, had all these acrylic paintings of what he called “actual cats he had, but in human situations”. One I got was of a blue eyed siamese, which I’m going to send to my mom: she has a beautiful siamese named Missy. I also got one myself, of a black cat on top of a chimney, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Coit tower at night in the background.

Now to go do something productive, like grocery shopping and laundry. Hey, PopRoxx is tonight, maybe I should go again?

I’ve been on a Jane Jacobs kick lately. So far, I’ve made it about halfway through The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and I just switched to her newest book Dark Age Ahead. Both are excellent books on urbanism and the North American way of life (can’t forget Canada!). So far, both of these books expose what has gone wrong with American society in the last 70 years and why it is in a state of unstablity and decay. While her latest work is a tad ranty, it brings up some very good points as to why America will soon cease to exist as a culture. I don’t mean the American way of life will change, I mean it will simply no longer exist; much like Rome no longer exists, and we will venture into the dark age that followed the fall of Rome.

In this daily reading, I got really excited about all the ideas this woman was showing me. I was even hoping to make it to a book signing at some point. Alas, she died last night at the age of 90.

So a moment of silence for one of the few great minds on urbanism lost.

Today I decided to change my route to and from work, just to mix up the commute monotony. Up the somewhat steep hill on Geary to the Presidio, I waited for the 38BX, or as I like to call it, “The white collar bus”. This route goes into downtown from the Richmond, an area of houses big enough to have yards and cars, and a mostly car-centric area of town, or as some of my friends affectionately call it, “Fog City”.

The Fog City commuters are a different class than what I’m used to on the normal 38/38L I take. They all smell nice, for one. I didn’t see any drunks on the bus, and I didn’t fear for my life when sitting in the back. That’s another thing: the bus is full, but not packed and certainly not “crush capacity” as the 38/38L typically is. The driver was talkative, mainly because it was an older bus that didn’t have the digital stop announcements.

From the stop at the Presidio, the white collar bus’s only stop directly downtown and in front of Embarcadero Bart. On the short walk to the Bart station, I passed perhaps a dozen tempting breakfast eateries. I looked at my watch, and it was only 7:50! I had crossed town in only 19 minutes instead of the normal 30!

I was so shocked by the surreal speed of Muni, that I took the bus back home. While waiting for my coach to arrive, people lined up single file for the bus. No large mob of people waiting for the doors to open, but rather an orderly line of people whipped into shape by The Man. The next stop was back to Presideo Avenue. No people sneaking in the back door, no people refusing to move back, and no drunk passed out in the back.

So I think that instead of taking the poor and blue collar bus to and from Bart every week day, I’ll take the 5 minute walk up a steep hill to the Fog City bus. I could use the extra exercise, and it is sorta nice sitting next to people who bathed this morning.

Every Sunday, assuming the weather is clear, I take a bus ride to a random San Franscisco neighborhood and take a long walk around. Today I got on the 24 Divisadero and headed south toward Bayview, getting off at 24th street and Castro. From there I choose the steepest hill and went up, down, around, and even managed to slip down a steep hill and get myself covered in mud.

About halfway through my journey, I came across this gem:

Someone else seems to have problems with people urinating near their doorstep. If you click on the image, you can see some sort of green substance growing on the sidewalk. I don’t even want to think of what might cause that.

I think that my third place in the city will be in Noe Valley. It is really a nice area, with good transit too. The top of the hill had really breath-taking views, though the sound of the 101 echos all the way up to the hills, which is sort of upsetting. You can view the area I walked around in by visiting my Noe Valley photo stream.

I’m still looking for my Duboce Triangle or Valencia dream apartment at the moment, since I have only 115 more days left on my lease, and I’m itching to move closer to Bart as well as some sort of cultural center.