TravelTime
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- All Resale: MVC DPs, Marriott Ko Olina, Marriott Marbella, WKOVR-N, Four Seasons Aviara
If you’ve ever fallen in love with a place, you’ll know what style writer Karen Heller is talking about.
She grew up in Washington, D.C., but was captivated by San Francisco.
Heller, who went to college in Chicago (“a spectacular city”), once spent the summer as a paralegal at a law firm in San Francisco. And the city didn’t disappoint.
“Every person I talked to back then agreed that San Francisco was the most beautiful city in the country,” says Heller. “It was unanimous.”
But in the decades since her summer in San Francisco, technology startups have transformed the city. An influx of educated young people have ratcheted up property values to eye-watering levels and spread an expensive monoculture, Heller says. And it's lost its appeal.
“Everyone I spoke with came to loathe San Francisco,” says Heller. “Even people who could afford to live there were leaving, or complaining about what the city has become. It sort of dropped off everyone's list of favorite cities."
And as landlords raise the rents, businesses that make cities like San Francisco livable — places like shoe repair shops and hardware stores — are disappearing.
Shoe repair shops, or their absence, are ”sort of the new indicator to me if a city is in trouble,” says Heller.
One detail that didn't make it into Heller's story was an interview with a woman who said that she threw away an old pair of boots because she couldn’t find a single shoe repair shop. A Google search shows a few options, but Heller says the overall observation rings true: mom-and-pop businesses that offer the basics are closing shop.
Read article here”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...term=.93cc70669480&wpisrc=nl_mustreads&wpmm=1
Disclosure: I live in the SF Bay Area so be gentle with your comments!
She grew up in Washington, D.C., but was captivated by San Francisco.
Heller, who went to college in Chicago (“a spectacular city”), once spent the summer as a paralegal at a law firm in San Francisco. And the city didn’t disappoint.
“Every person I talked to back then agreed that San Francisco was the most beautiful city in the country,” says Heller. “It was unanimous.”
But in the decades since her summer in San Francisco, technology startups have transformed the city. An influx of educated young people have ratcheted up property values to eye-watering levels and spread an expensive monoculture, Heller says. And it's lost its appeal.
“Everyone I spoke with came to loathe San Francisco,” says Heller. “Even people who could afford to live there were leaving, or complaining about what the city has become. It sort of dropped off everyone's list of favorite cities."
And as landlords raise the rents, businesses that make cities like San Francisco livable — places like shoe repair shops and hardware stores — are disappearing.
Shoe repair shops, or their absence, are ”sort of the new indicator to me if a city is in trouble,” says Heller.
One detail that didn't make it into Heller's story was an interview with a woman who said that she threw away an old pair of boots because she couldn’t find a single shoe repair shop. A Google search shows a few options, but Heller says the overall observation rings true: mom-and-pop businesses that offer the basics are closing shop.
Read article here”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...term=.93cc70669480&wpisrc=nl_mustreads&wpmm=1
Disclosure: I live in the SF Bay Area so be gentle with your comments!