What I love about San Francisco for Heather Knight, Who Asked

https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/For-all-its-flaws-there-s-something-special-13079812.php

In Heather Knight's column today, she asks:

What makes you remember why you love living in San Francisco, presuming you do still love it? From a favorite Muni line to a particular dish at your favorite restaurant to your favorite view or museum, I want to hear about it. Email your own tribute to the city for possible inclusion in a future column.

Like you, Heather Knight, I'm appalled by the homeless in this city you once wrote was more like Rwanda in the income disparity.  

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Income-inequality-on-par-with-developing-nations-5486434.php

Sharing the wealth according to the Gini Coefficient.

But here are some of the things I still love:

I can walk a half mile to West Portal, which still seems like a village to me.  (The Twin Peaks Tunnel is now under construction, but the ambassadors are doing a good job of directing us to shuttle busses.)

I got from there on MUNI to attend the demonstrations for Families Beyond Together, dedication of the plaque for SF's Sister Cities, to meet a friend at Ananda Fuara, see School of Rock, go to scene night at Playwrights Center of SF at the Shelton Theater or at the 42nd Street Moon place on Van Ness near Grove.  

I can walk the city, as I did with a friend in training for our  Camino de Santiago walk in 2016--from Stern Grove to Ocean Beach, from Castro and Market to the Sausalito side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  

I just cross the street to attend a concert at Stern Grove, and when the concerts aren't in session, it's a nice walking place.

I can attend a sing-along or a book discussion at Anza Public Library or another SF public library--celebrating the fact that the SF PUblic Library was just awarded the honor "Library of the Year" nationwide.  That's where I met the amazing women who make up OWL, Older Women's League, who were active in a presentation on "Reframing Aging:  What it means to grow old in America."

On Wednesday evening  for $15 I can get a delicious plant-based dinner at Wellness Central at the Opera Plaza and meet with kindred spirits concerned about being kind to the planet and alleviating animal suffering in factory farms.  

I can take a course at City College in Middle East studies and celebrate Frida Kahlo's 111th birthday along Frida Kahlo Way at the Ocean Campus, and picking up a cake at a bakery, I can meet graduates of CCSF's Culinary Arts Program and a graduate in cinema at a crosswalk on my way there.


I take out-of-towners  to the Tenderloin Museum as well as to Pianos in the Park, and I show them the Tenderloin National Forest as well as the community garden near the downtown Public Library.

City Hall is really beautiful in itself, and there's always something interesting going on as hearings, protests, and weddings mingle.

I can attend meetings of CARA (California Alliance for Retired Americans) at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, founded by Harry Bridges, which reminds me of San Francisco's labor history, so well described in Daniel Bacon's Frisco.

I can go to book readings all over town though my favorite spots are Bookshop West Portal--within walking distance--and Book Passage at the Ferry Building--just a short MUNI ride from West Portal.

When I get in my car, drivers on 19th Avenue will sometimes let me get out of my garage, and though I hate to drive, I love the view as I go down Clipper Street. Tea at Lovejoy's at the foot of Clipper is a treat, and so is tea at the Samovar at Yerba Buena Center--beautiful in itself.

Even Sutro Tower, so well-described by Steve Rubenstein (the Mark Twain of the San Francisco Chronicle) can be beautiful.  I'm attaching a photo of it caught in fog, when it looks much less like a huge pickle fork than like a ship sailing in the sky.

These are just my first thoughts I'm jotting down this morning.  There's a lot to be alarmed about, but there are still a lot of reasons to love living here in San Francisco.