Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

To close or not to close

There was another Presidential debate this evening, and I could not care less. Between this one and the last debate, we’re no longer voting between two senile old men. That in it of itself is a win. Whatever happens in November is whatever. Besides, living in a California means the electoral votes will go to Vice President Harris, regardless of how I vote. It doesn’t materially matter.

Locally in San Francisco, I will have to vote on banning cars on the Great Highway. For those who don’t live here, the Great Highway is a long stretch of road running alongside the western beachhead. The road has been closed to traffic on the weekends already, but now people are petitioning for full time closure.

It seems wrong for me to vote on a thing where I have zero skin in the game. I hardly ever go to the beach (it’s not really a beach weather kind of town), and I don’t use the Great Highway to commute. I think the biggest opponent of banning cars are those who commute on the road. Make sense: I wouldn’t want to deviate from my normal routine either. Plus, it’s simply math: other arterial roads will see an uptick in vehicle traffic, and perhaps congestion.

Proponents of shutting down the Great Highway wants to turn it into a public park. I’m dubious of this one two fronts. One: who the heck is going to pay for the renovations? I thought San Francisco government is in a budget crisis. Second: there’s already a public park there. It’s called… the beach! For a region so much in need of more housing, if we’re going to shut down an entire road for good, let’s turn it residential.

I remain undecided.

What are we doing

It is absolutely embarrassing for the city of San Francisco to have your football team’s first round rookie get shot whilst shopping downtown. In what looks like an armed robbery gone sideways, the incident reinforces the image of a lawless hellhole of a city that Fox News would like its audience to believe. Giants legend Buster Posey was right: San Francisco’s seedy reputation (perceived, factual, or otherwise) might indeed be a deterrent for free agents to sign with local sports teams.

Because if I am going to be paying over half my salary in combined State and Federal taxes (thank you for your service, millionaires), I definitely would want to feel safe.

Ricky Pearsall getting shot will only serve further pause to future free agents. Pearsall didn’t have a choice - he was drafted by the 49ers as an amateur out of college. Fortunately for him, he is going to make a full recovery. The bullet did not hit any vital organs.

With that out of the way, the blame for this mess is on everyone who are in positions of power in this city for the past few years. Mayor, supervisors, police, non profits, judges, et cetera. We can’t have nice things because those in power are actively choosing to not have them. Breaking the law must have consequences, even if the offenders are minors. A slap on the wrist simply because they are underage is not acceptable. We can’t let an entire class of teens terrorize the community with impunity. And If you really can’t charge the kids, sue their parents or guardian for supreme negligence.

The apprehended Pearsall’s shooter is reportedly a 17-year old male from nearby Tracy. There’s got to be at least some prison time, right?

Consequences must follow

What really grinds my gears is going to Target and finding the thing I wanted to buy is locked up behind plexiglass. The introverted me will definitely not call for an associate to unlock the damn cabinet. Target often leaves me no choice but to buy the same item from Amazon. Sure I would have to wait two days to get it shipped for free, but at least I don’t have to beg someone to allow me the honor to make a purchase.

It’s a real shame that it has to be like this. Those tasked with making and enforcing laws have abdicated their duty to the public. When criminals can steal with impunity, the law-abiding majority suffers. The few ruins it for the many. We all have to take our shoes off at airport TSA checkpoints because one person nearly snuck a shoe bomb through one time. We all have to pay higher auto insurance premiums to cover the few who do not.

There has to be sufficient punishment to act as a deterrence. America cannot be like Japan: the orderliness, the cleanliness, and the utter lack of common crime is because of the Japanese culture. Lacking that, government must then create strong incentives. Take a look at China: pretty crimes are nonexistent, not because the population is overwhelmingly benevolent like Japan, but it is because there’s surveillance cameras everywhere. Who would be stupid enough to steal anything? Especially in a country with a somewhat arbitrary judicial system.

Not that I am advocating for mass surveillance here in the States. I’m just saying we cannot get to Japan from a bottom-up cultural standpoint. We must catch and punish those who do not follow laws. There’s no room for laxity. Oh, you can’t afford that red light ticket because you’re poor working class? Easy: don’t run the freaking red light in the first place. Choices were made, consequences must follow.

My fellow San Franciscans: you ever go to other parts of this country and be amazed that merchandise at a Target aren’t locked up behind glass? I have. It’s fantastic and sad to see at the same time. The powers at be in San Francisco are actively choosing to not have nice things.

Vote local

Who I vote for to be the President of these United States really doesn’t matter. Not because the California delegates will vote Democrat regardless (all those tech bros voting for Trump is kind of just pissing in the wind), but because whoever is the President doesn’t really affect me much materially. Now, who is going to be the mayor of San Francisco - that’s the most crucial race as it pertains to my life.

Because the citizenry might elect the wrong person, one who turns out to be super tolerant towards homeless camping on sidewalks, and petty theft done by teenagers. It was only a few years ago when we recalled a district attorney who didn’t want to persecute criminals. Imagine that! That’s like firefighters coming to the front of your burning home and just standing there. The fire has rights too, am I right?

The current San Francisco mayor - London Breed - knows it’s an election year so she is stepping up efforts to clear homeless encampments. The Supreme Court of the United States did our city a solid by allowing municipalities to ban people from sleeping in public spaces. Where will the homeless go, you ask? How about your house? If you’re so concerned about their wellbeing, why don’t you give up your resources?

See: it’s easy to virtue signal when you don’t experience any of the downsides. I bet the residents of the Tenderloin district is happy to finally see some enforcement action towards the homeless problem.

The local elections matter tremendously. Act accordingly!

No water for work

Nothing makes you appreciate first-world amenities quite like having them taken away suddenly. For example: running water. I went to work this morning (as one does every weekday morning) and turns out the entire campus has lost water pressure. This is not because of any maintenance fault of the university, but rather the City and County of San Francisco. Our facilities staff had to call public utilities for assistance. I know you're staring at an enormous fiscal hole, San Francisco, but shortchanging SF State on water is not the way to save money.

When there isn’t enough water pressure to flush toilets, it becomes enough of a biohazard to send everybody home. Thank heavens for modern work safety regulations! (Apparently, OSHA states that if there are working bathrooms within a 10 minute walk, then it is okay to continue working.)The modern us have it so incredibly nice. Think back to when even the highest of kings and queens do not have access to such luxurious plumbing. We are literally living better than royalties of old. No amount of money back then could buy the standards we have now. It’s humbling to think about.

I greatly appreciate automatic hot water out of every faucet tap in the home (here in America) whenever I go back to China. There, it’s typical for older apartment buildings to only have hot water for the bathroom shower head. Can you imagine washing your face with cold water in the dead of winter? (I don’t have to imagine it, because that is exactly what I will be doing a month from now.) Meanwhile, here in the States we open the faucet and wait for water to get hot in the morning…

The living standards are pretty high here, and I think it’s useful to not take it for granted once in a while. And perhaps, to not be so wasteful of it either.

All I got's a moped

I've noticed lately that a lot of the DoorDash/Grubhub food delivery drivers are on mopeds. Instead of, you know, automobiles. It makes sense: in a highly competitive game of being stuck in San Francisco traffic, the moped (and its motorcycle cousin) is hugely advantageous. The ability to weave in and out between stuck cars is crucial in ensuring that KFC order gets to the customer with reasonable temperature left over. No one likes cold fried chicken - a congealed mass of molasses.

There's advantage in parking, too. As in, there isn't a need to park a moped. Not that delivery drivers in cars obey the parking rules anyways. The speed demand means they double-park, and simply play the lottery of "hope you don't run into a meter maid." (Or an angry driver stuck behind.) I can confirm this to be the case, because my brother for a time did food delivery as a somewhat full-time job. (Surely he does not miss hustling in traffic all day for a measly $100 payout.) With a moped or motorcycle, the riders park them on the sidewalk right outside the restaurant.

What makes the proliferation of moped-as-delivery vehicles interesting is that in Asia, this has been the modus operandi for a very long time. You go to any major city in Asia, and mopeds are absolutely everywhere, ferrying all sorts of things. It's driven by necessity, of course: it's far cheaper to buy and own a two-wheeler compared to a whole car. Americans don't realize how, relatively to the rest of the world, car prices here are cheap and attainable. (Gas prices, too, in the non-Saudi Arabian category.)

Will mopeds become as the gig commerce vehicle of choice here in San Francisco - a la Asian cities? I think it depends how inflation-proof the gig economy is. Buying food - much less having someone deliver it to you - has become prohibitively expensive. If the economy contracts due to high interest rates, surely people will be way less inclined to order on DoorDash.

We can have nice things

The APEC summit is happening this week in San Francisco. Honestly, I’ve never heard of APEC until I started to see news of street closures and movement restrictions a few weeks back. Of course, when world leaders representing nearly half of the world’s economic output come together, security is of utmost importance. Especially in a country - the United States of America - where the second amendment exists. If the locals who live and work here are inconvenienced, so be it. Literally the price of doing business.

I sure hope the supposed increase in local spending from all the foreign visitors is worth it!

Because I am sure San Francisco is spending a significant sum in hosting, and its various logistics (Federal government is chipping in, surely). I was surprised to read the organizers literally built a 14-foot high security fence surrounding the Moscone Center area. Access is highly controlled and monitored, no doubt. (Who says we can’t built walls here in America?) Entire subway tunnels are shut down for the duration of the event. Freeway exits near the conference area are blocked, and entire lane of the Bay Bridge is closed to normal traffic.

There’s apparently a 30-mile no-fly radius - commercial aircraft excepted. Leisure guy flying his recreational Cessna better stay away, lest he wants fighter jets for company.

Another surprising thing is seeing the city actually enforcing laws! Sidewalk homeless encampments getting cleared out, and illegal street vending stopped. I bet the tacitly-allowed drug trade in the Tenderloin is also put to a pause. The Department of Public Works must’ve worked overtime to clean the downtown area. I love how shambolic it is that San Francisco only (literally) clean its act up when cameras and eyes from the outside world are upon it. Count me as one of the locals asking: why can’t we have this year round, all the time?

I wish APEC a successful summit in this city of ours. It’s wild to think I will be in the same 7-by-7 mile piece of land as Chinese President Xi Jinping.