Posts Tagged ‘Presidio National Park’
MY COOL NEIGHBORHOOD
Recently, I learned I’m cool. Wait. Let me walk that back. Time Out magazine rated my San Francisco neighborhood—the Richmond District—one of the 40 coolest in the world. #27 to boot! Carolyn and I have lived in the Richmond for 50 years. The neighborhood—homes and two-flats abutting each other, small apartment buildings, mostly on corners—wasn’t always considered…
Read MoreCOMMMON SENSE PREVAILS 
Even in the face of global warming, inflation, American political divisions and Russia’s war on Ukraine, small local issues sometimes offer a ray of hope. San Francisco “slow streets” program limits through traffic on Lake Street north of my house. Some Lake residents love their slow street. But traffic must go elsewhere, so I see not a…
Read MoreSLOW STREET, DEAD-END THINKING
Early in San Francisco’s COVID lockdown, the Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) initiated a “Slow Streets” program to provide safe space for pedestrians, runners and bicyclists. This lofty idea has morphed into senseless ideology. At least two of my three daily walks take me across or along Lake, one of almost thirty streets technically limiting traffic…
Read MoreSLALOM WALKING
Pre-COVID-19, I took three walks a day to reach a minimum of four total miles. I still do. I’ve noticed some things. Home-sheltered, more people walk, run and bicycle weekdays. On the first day of shelter-in-place, sidewalks and streets were relatively crowded. The second day, walkers, runners and cyclists tapered off. People are still out…
Read MoreTHE SUITCASE
Retrieving the newspaper from my front steps last week—I’m a dinosaur—I saw a white suitcase on the sidewalk. My first reaction? As a native New Yorker and a Jew with family in Israel (I was last there in March/April), I’ll attest that the risk of confronting a bomb is real. But who would target my…
Read MoreLOUISIANA
Most Californians think about Louisiana—New Orleans aside—as God, guns and gumbo. Carolyn and I spent Thanksgiving week in Baton Rouge with our son Seth, a graduate student at Louisiana State. The visit demonstrated that there’s more. Our hotel room overlooked the Mississippi River. We were thrilled. Here flows one of the hearts of America—a highway…
Read MoreNATURE’S REVENGE
Carolyn and I recently took our son Aaron’s dog Saffy for a walk near our house. In front of the Presidio Landmark apartments (in the Presidio National Park), we spotted an interesting dog. Well, Carolyn thought it was a dog. I knew what it really was. Coyotes started popping up in San Francisco a decade…
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