The Death of a Blue Collar Ethic: San Francisco
January 13th, 2010 by Myer Thompson, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
It starts all over again. I start the process and begin the re-treading of familiar themes. Yes, I lived in San Francisco. I frequented hotels in San Francisco until I ran out of funds. Then, I stayed with anyone and everyone I could hustle a couch from. Pride is the first thing out the window in old San Fran. And yes, I know locals would never call it that — the precious dears. But I call it that.
There was a time when San Francisco was tough as nails and replete with sails. It was a sailor’s delight. It was the Paris of the West, the new metropolis of Manifest Destiny. If you wanted or needed the sweet thrills of a proper city, you went to San Francisco. It was a modern, imperial city. It was the largest, most happening port on the United States Pacific Rim. There was New York, Chicago, then and San Francisco.
Time never stops and we keep trying to make sense of it all. Jogging down memory lane, hoping to jog loose a recollection long forgotten. A shipyard stalwart turned into some kind of smooth, dainty thing. From the tough-minded, no-nonsense expectations of the Forty Niners to a soft, consumer capital with nothing going for it but a vampiric need for tourists.
It’s a challenge to juxtapose WWII and San Fran, but the two did share time and space together. In fact, San Fran was one of three primary embarkation spots for lads shipping out to the Pacific. It was a rough-and-tumble town filled with fist-fighting sailors. But it was the end of the war that brought an end to its blue-collar underclass and rooted sensibilities.
Rot is an odd term to associate with a town that charges $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. But, as the GIs and sailors dashed off to college and industries shut down or relocated, San Fran started its grand, splendid rot. It seems to be some retrofitted juggernaut kept afloat so people can use it as a kind of capitalistic flotilla. Hey, that sounds a lot like a town in Northern California that I happened to spend a great deal of time in.
Before you head to the City by the Bay, be sure you scope out all the hotels in San Francisco. Don’t let the rot ruin your time in the City.
