Sunset

Outer Sunset, San Francisco California

From an email conversation.

California Bob - Counter-narrative: New York Times say I should feel better about where I live.

Uniberp - Downtowns everywhere in America are awful. Built for horses and converted for cars they never had good pedestrian accomodations.

Me - The New York Times is not to be trusted. They are part of the Democrat-Biden mafia.

California Bob - Chuck, it's dangerous to send these kinds of messages over unencrypted email. I've trained the gophers in my bunker to be couriers, and when I want to exchange ethnic jokes with my fellow militia members, I tie encoded messages to their necks and send them on their way. They are supplied with cyanide tablets, so if they encounter a soccer mom, they may die with dignity rather than listen to lectures about recycling.

The byline -- "The Outer Sunset’s success reflects how some cities have evolved during the pandemic" -- didn't really hit the mark with me. No, our part of the city doesn't have the problems of the Tenderloin or the biz district -- but it's a residential area not subject to those problems. I admit there has been some general improvement since I arrived -- fancy thriving shops, streets/sidewalks/public areas being upgraded -- but there's also been an increase in hobo campers. 

But I see it as slow general improvement, I don't really see any connection to the pandemic. So I agree: mafia-related or not, the Times has a somewhat forced narrative here.