Who wants to go on a walk with me? (Polk to Presidio, SF)

Everything, Writing the Present by The Paltry Sum: Detroit Richards
Polk Street is busier than it is trying to look here. I turned round and all the people appeared to be trying to hide…I see you partying like it’s 1999!
Different sides of the same street..Rich and poor.

A Cali-forn-i-a

Kinda Day…

Fort Mason National Park
Some Californian Scar Tissue….

California! Coming home! Palm trees always make me feel safe. California, baby. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

Somehow this end of town always feels like “California”, while the other is more “San Francischo

15 Comments

  1. nickreeves
    Reply

    Thanks! That was a cool walk, Paltry. There are some ace looking buildings in your area – the yellow, corner one and the sunlit walkway (with four eyes). I don’t know why the quiet streets caught me so off guard, it’s the same everywhere. No, it was the brilliant sunshine! Of course! Always good to see the sea/ocean
    .
    ps: i feel sorry for the people who have to live in the black and white part of the city, both rich and poor. the rich more so in some ways (you’d think they would move somewhere colourful like Polk?!)
    🙂

    1. The Paltry Sum
      Reply

      I am a fan of Polk…it is not quite Tenderloin terrorville, or Civic Center education in what happens when life goes wrong…but it is also not quite polished. I guess arty and hip, rather than plain old rich. You still have to be quite rich to live there – rents are not the cheapest at all – about $3000 a month. I would personally love to live in Filmore. Im going to drag myself up to Haight Ashbury soon. I live in one of the black and white areas of town. It was so so hot today! Brilliant sunshine and lots of happy party people. The rich are leaving SF in an exodus to places they feel give more bang for their buck – we are going through degentrification big time…the rents still aren’t coming down enough though.
      Glad you enjoyed the walk…that damn hill near took me out!

      1. nickreeves

        Yes, more bang for their buck. Good luck! Hey, so once they’ve quit town you could move out of the monochrome part and get that California Sun, like, 24/7?! Aces!
        ps: lol at ‘that damn hill’ – i can picture a whole fleet of 1970s cop cars bouncing over the hill tops giving chase to some dudes in a cream Sedan (in slow motion, naturally) 🙂

      2. The Paltry Sum

        The city is made up solely of hills that go upwards. No joke. If you ever come across one going down, it is so steep they have to cut stairs into it, and you risk breaking your neck. Cars actually hit air over the top of some of them. I might strap on an oxygen tank (joke…partially) and show you some hills! Cream sedan..a thunderbird or a mustang…I love old cars. It is actually colder in this part of town, greyer…and a heck of a lot more dangerous, but people know us now, and even the local pimps are polite.

      7. The Paltry Sum

        Yeah…Ive been here about 7 months now…I have been here before on and off…but it is starting to feel like home. Just got to get myself into housing..the shelter can be rough..

      9. The Paltry Sum

        Now THAT is funny! 😁…lovely, short of Rolling Stone deciding that I am an ace reporter $$$$ or winning the lottery….it is very much seat of pants flying out here!

  4. Ron Pavellas
    Reply

    Thanks for the tour. Thanks, also, for not showing more than a few tall buildings. My memories of San Francisco as a child do not include any of them, especially the Transamerica pyramid. Now, when one approaches the City from Oakland over the bridge which opened in the year I was born (as did also the GG Bridge), one’s eyes are drawn toward the mass of tall buildings, all uncoordinated in their design and placement, completely overpowering the gentle, female Twin Peaks on the horizon. There’s nothing wrong with a good ‘erection’, but a forest of them, all vying for attention is obscene,

    1. The Paltry Sum
      Reply

      That pyramid doesn’t fit, does it! It should never have been approved. I am headed out to the area you suggested next. I enjoy my walks….except today was too hot, and I ended up stuck halfway up a hill in a mask and feeling awful!
      I totally agree about the intensely masculine forest of architectural pricks. They are an eyesore. They add nothing to the city. Useless. We need housing not office space. It is a gorgeous city. I am so in love with it. I can go days without anyone commenting that I have an accent. That is so rare! It has been a bore my entire adult life “where are you from?” Now I just say SF, and that is good enough! It is a delight!

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