San Francisco

One thing I wasn't expecting was the number of times I got checked out in San Francisco.  Now I'm not blowing my own trumpet here (although I am immediately regretting the use of that phrase) but it's TRUE.  

Guys were always looking me over.  Maybe women get checked out all the time too.  My word, now that I think of it, maybe I check women out - I don't know - all I can say is that once I was on the receiving end I noticed it A LOT.  Caro spotted it too.  

It was quite good for my ego really, although I don't know whether I was being checked out in a good way or in a someone-has-let-himself-go way.  

It may have been entirely due to my "I Fling Poo" t-shirt which was the object of great attention in San Francisco.  Small children pointed and laughed at me in the street.  More than usual.   One guy yelled across the street to me, "I FLING POO!  I FLING POOOOO!!!"
 
All I could think to say was, "Uh... thank you..."
 
The City looked great - but - and I say this with a heavy heart - San Francisco did not live up to my expectations.  I think it was because I had heard a great deal about the laid-back Californian charm of America's most liberal city and it just wasn't there.  

The vibe of San Francisco while I was there was tense, irritable and edgy.  This may have been due to the sheer number of panhandlers because they were everywhere.  I’ve never seen anything like it, and it is not like the UK does not have a homeless problem.

But San Francisco in the summer of 2001 seemed to be hosting a homeless convention.  There were about ten guys to a block, berating passers-by, waving empty cups at everyone and demanding spare change.  Caro came to grief from one guy who insisted that she should go and buy a sandwich for him.  When she told him where to get off, he told her she was a racist.

This is not something one says to a staunch Kiwi chick raised in a Maori neighbourhood.  He was Put Right, in no uncertain terms.  He may have learned one or two new sweary words, and if he ever did get that sandwich he probably could have stored it in that nice new arsehole Caro tore for him.

So despite our liberal credentials, and having sympathy for these guys, the out-of-control homelessness in San Francisco definitely put Caro and I on edge during our visit.  I don’t think we were the only ones to feel this way.  

My impression was of a whole city that was very ill-at-ease.  In nearly every shop, we encountered "attitude", by which I mean shitty service, not being served at all or being treated like a fucking idiot for not understanding that in THIS restaurant you go to the counter to be served before sitting down or vice bloody versa.