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a rant on geography
May. 18th, 2010 12:03 pmI'm really tired of people complaining about "the bridge and tunnel crowd." The line goes that all these people who don't actually live in San Francisco just come into the city on weekends and cause trouble.
I call bullshit.
The city is there for everyone. You want to make a city where the only people who do things in it also live there, go right ahead. I'd like to see how that would work. It's not going to be here, that's for sure.
San Francisco absolutely depends on people who don't live in it. We work in your offices. We spend money in your gas stations and restaurants and hotels. We take stupid tourist photographs that show the folks back home how awesome SF is, and encourage them to visit. We sweep your streets. We police your city. We write your software. We pay your bridge tolls. Yes, and we also commit crimes. People who don't live in San Francisco do the following things in San Francisco: work, eat, sleep, fuck, kill, dance, read, drive, photograph, spray graffiti, take the bus, watch strippers, fight crime, sell drugs, go to the dentist, consume drugs, drink, play with their kids, play with your kids, teach, learn, take their dogs to the park, party, make art, and so on. In short, people who don't live in San Francisco do everything in San Francisco that residents do themselves, except for staying home.
I'm really frustrated by the attitude of some San Francisco residents that just because someone doesn't live in SF, they have nothing invested in it. Get over it: this is a metro area. If SF goes to hell, I don't just stay home in Oakland thinking how lucky I am not to live there. SF is the cultural and geographical center of the Bay Area. Everything goes through there. SF touches everything here. We are an interdependent network of municipalities, and it would really do everyone some good to remember that.
In a lot of ways, the "bridge and tunnel crowd" complaints seem like thinly disguised racism. I don't see a lot of complaints about those white nerdy kids who crowd into the city every day on their way to software jobs where they rack up a lot of profit for their corporate masters, and contribute to SF employment and real estate taxes. I definitely don't see complaints about Marinites and their Lexii coming to executive jobs and to wine and dine CFOs.
San Francisco is here for everyone. That's the price of being the culture engine for the greater Internet world. That's the price of being the cultural center of the bay area. That's the price of all those restaurant patrons, Opera fans, baseball fans, and software engineers. Don't like it? Move.
(Now that said, I agree that it sucks that the criminal element goes into SF just to cause trouble they don't make at home. The solution to this is not to make SF boring, or to somehow magically keep people out of the city. The solution is to fight crime. The solution is to create a better bay area metro management system that might help put money where its needed. The solution is to maybe make Walnut Creek help pay for San Francisco's police presence at thuggery hotspots. The solution is to create more cheap, fun, late night activities in SF to keep people inside and having a good time rather than out on the street making trouble. The solution is to make more transit options available 24 hours a day, at least on weekends, to reduce drunk driving problems. The solution is to funnel the energy of the troublemakers into exciting and productive things rather than letting it sit and fester. Like San Francisco, the solution is one that everyone in the bay area needs to take ownership of.)
I call bullshit.
The city is there for everyone. You want to make a city where the only people who do things in it also live there, go right ahead. I'd like to see how that would work. It's not going to be here, that's for sure.
San Francisco absolutely depends on people who don't live in it. We work in your offices. We spend money in your gas stations and restaurants and hotels. We take stupid tourist photographs that show the folks back home how awesome SF is, and encourage them to visit. We sweep your streets. We police your city. We write your software. We pay your bridge tolls. Yes, and we also commit crimes. People who don't live in San Francisco do the following things in San Francisco: work, eat, sleep, fuck, kill, dance, read, drive, photograph, spray graffiti, take the bus, watch strippers, fight crime, sell drugs, go to the dentist, consume drugs, drink, play with their kids, play with your kids, teach, learn, take their dogs to the park, party, make art, and so on. In short, people who don't live in San Francisco do everything in San Francisco that residents do themselves, except for staying home.
I'm really frustrated by the attitude of some San Francisco residents that just because someone doesn't live in SF, they have nothing invested in it. Get over it: this is a metro area. If SF goes to hell, I don't just stay home in Oakland thinking how lucky I am not to live there. SF is the cultural and geographical center of the Bay Area. Everything goes through there. SF touches everything here. We are an interdependent network of municipalities, and it would really do everyone some good to remember that.
In a lot of ways, the "bridge and tunnel crowd" complaints seem like thinly disguised racism. I don't see a lot of complaints about those white nerdy kids who crowd into the city every day on their way to software jobs where they rack up a lot of profit for their corporate masters, and contribute to SF employment and real estate taxes. I definitely don't see complaints about Marinites and their Lexii coming to executive jobs and to wine and dine CFOs.
San Francisco is here for everyone. That's the price of being the culture engine for the greater Internet world. That's the price of being the cultural center of the bay area. That's the price of all those restaurant patrons, Opera fans, baseball fans, and software engineers. Don't like it? Move.
(Now that said, I agree that it sucks that the criminal element goes into SF just to cause trouble they don't make at home. The solution to this is not to make SF boring, or to somehow magically keep people out of the city. The solution is to fight crime. The solution is to create a better bay area metro management system that might help put money where its needed. The solution is to maybe make Walnut Creek help pay for San Francisco's police presence at thuggery hotspots. The solution is to create more cheap, fun, late night activities in SF to keep people inside and having a good time rather than out on the street making trouble. The solution is to make more transit options available 24 hours a day, at least on weekends, to reduce drunk driving problems. The solution is to funnel the energy of the troublemakers into exciting and productive things rather than letting it sit and fester. Like San Francisco, the solution is one that everyone in the bay area needs to take ownership of.)
