human interaction: san francisco

This project is my love letter to this incredible city. The place I've called home for well over a decade now.

I'm starting a project interviewing local business owners across San Francisco. Spots that have been here forever, just getting started, expanding rapidly across town or operating as pop ups thinking about what's next. If you're a business owner in San Francisco, I'd love to find time to talk and hear your story.

My output for this series will be a consolidation of these interviews in a coffee table book. Participants will receive a free copy.

My personal SF story.

How I got here.

When it came time to think about what comes after high school (in my family that meant college or joining the military), I had only one criteria. Live in a real city.

New York sounded perfect on paper, but the reality was I spent my life in Southern California and the practicality of weather and seasons just never held a charm.

So where else was I to go other an San Francisco? She's still in California, so not major changes. She sometimes gets cold, but mostly in July. And she has the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. Not that I'm one to wake up and want to hike, but its comforting to know I have the option to should the mood take me there.

Moving here at 18 knowing next to nothing about myself or the world, the possibilities and potential around me, was everything. Just thinking back to where I was when I came makes my heart swell and brings water to my eyes.

How its been here.

Like any long term relationship, SF and I have had phases. These have typically been driven by which neighborhood I lived in or the reasons that we've had to get out on the streets and shout.

I moved here towards the tail end of peak start up life. My first holiday season here, you could find me on tinder looking for as many company holiday party dates I could get invited to. I was making no money working in non-profits, having a blast bopping around in the tenderloin and figuring out which tech companies had the best lunch, it was googles OG spear street cafe. Then there was that whole battle to ban tech cafe's because it hurts nearby local businesses, if only someone had asked when offering all those tax credits.

COVID was tough. We locked our doors, didn't go outside and sat waiting for the all clear. An overreaction? In retrospect, sure. But even now looking back, it made me proud to be apart of a collective that understood the assignment and was willing to sacrifice a few months inside for the potential life of many. There's not many places, especially in America, you can say that.

Coming out of her coma and getting her sparkle back has also been an era. Some things won't ever come back, but it was probably time they evolved anyways. Others its heartbreaking to watch fade away, but with no incoming youth and a general isolation of the individual its hard to find reasons.

I moved away from foggy Richmond (try explaining to someone anywhere else that the closer you are to the beach the cheaper the rent) and next to a train over in Cole Valley.

Like many, I mostly stopped going downtown and prioritized spending time in places walkable to me or just a few stops away. It seems a lot of those places are picking back up, empty store fronts starting to fill again.

Where its going here.

I want to help this city realize its potential and expand her soul. Some may say she has already, or that shes great the way she is. Don't get me wrong, she is pretty fucking amazing.

But wouldn't it be nice if you could find a 1 bedroom apartment for less than $4,000?

Or take the train to dinner at 10pm?

Or be out at 11 pm and not be the only one on the street besides crazy John shouting "YOU ARE UGLY!"?

San Francisco has always and will continue to be a place people flock to. Now its up to us to ensure that more than one type of income level has staying power.

I don't know what my role in that will be, but this summer I'm hoping to find out.

I love you san francisco.