One day last week that brought uncharacteristically rainy and slippery weather to San Francisco (and don't let anyone tell you otherwise or they must be from SoCal), we were commuting home-- me and the rest of the 50% of the city's workforce that works in SF (what a staunchly-located East Bay friend refers to as the "The West Bay") but calls somewhere in the East, North, or South Bay, home.
That was when, already coming down with a cold and feeling faint in physical and emotional endurance from the work week, I slipped, fell, and slid down several steps on the BART escalator until I managed to catch myself. Embarassed and actually in physical pain, I got up, shook it off, and to my shock, saw all of the heads that had turned to watch my noisy collapse immediately turn back to place. No one asked if I was okay.
It is tender moments like these when I typically rely on the civic fabric of relative strangers that we call our city, to help me back on my feet. Is it fair to judge a city in moments like these?
Lacking a degree in city planning and perpetually suffering from inferiority over it, I head to the place I always go to help inform civic discussions: SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research). Their policy papers have plenty to say about a city's transportation infrastructure, workforce, housing-- but how do all of these elements of city planning add up (or not) to the character of a city? Is it not a goal of a city planner for its citizens to be good to each other?
Well, get this: San Francisco ranks #1 in Travel and Leisure Magazine's overall ranking of people! But-- pieces disaggregated-- SF got that ranking more for being stylish, worldly, diverse, and intelligent, than for being friendly. Sounds like you can use Travel and Leisure to pick your city like you pick your friends!
But on the train home that night-- as if to pre-empt all the negative judgements I was prepared to formulate in the 15-minute ride back-- the man seated next to me did what I have not seen in a long time-- he offered his seat up to a woman (not elderly by any means) who was standing. She politely declined, he smiled, and then it was my turn to smile. It was such a small thing, yet so big (and so timely for my own benefit...) It seemed like San Francisco's way of reminding me, That's right, I'm the full package baby!
(Author's postscript: The "full package" demands a love of sports. San Francisco's complicated relationship with sports is going to require a different post. And now we're picking cities like we're picking men. That's going to require a different post as well).
That was when, already coming down with a cold and feeling faint in physical and emotional endurance from the work week, I slipped, fell, and slid down several steps on the BART escalator until I managed to catch myself. Embarassed and actually in physical pain, I got up, shook it off, and to my shock, saw all of the heads that had turned to watch my noisy collapse immediately turn back to place. No one asked if I was okay.
It is tender moments like these when I typically rely on the civic fabric of relative strangers that we call our city, to help me back on my feet. Is it fair to judge a city in moments like these?
Lacking a degree in city planning and perpetually suffering from inferiority over it, I head to the place I always go to help inform civic discussions: SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research). Their policy papers have plenty to say about a city's transportation infrastructure, workforce, housing-- but how do all of these elements of city planning add up (or not) to the character of a city? Is it not a goal of a city planner for its citizens to be good to each other?
Well, get this: San Francisco ranks #1 in Travel and Leisure Magazine's overall ranking of people! But-- pieces disaggregated-- SF got that ranking more for being stylish, worldly, diverse, and intelligent, than for being friendly. Sounds like you can use Travel and Leisure to pick your city like you pick your friends!
But on the train home that night-- as if to pre-empt all the negative judgements I was prepared to formulate in the 15-minute ride back-- the man seated next to me did what I have not seen in a long time-- he offered his seat up to a woman (not elderly by any means) who was standing. She politely declined, he smiled, and then it was my turn to smile. It was such a small thing, yet so big (and so timely for my own benefit...) It seemed like San Francisco's way of reminding me, That's right, I'm the full package baby!
(Author's postscript: The "full package" demands a love of sports. San Francisco's complicated relationship with sports is going to require a different post. And now we're picking cities like we're picking men. That's going to require a different post as well).
1 comment:
hey pinkie :-) nice to see you making the deep dive. More difficult is to keep it going. I twitter more now!!
Anyway as you might already know my digital identities are:
http://vinu.wordpress.com
http://flickr.com/photos/vinu
http://www.twitter.com/Vinu
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