I think I hate San Francisco.

[lefty]

Damn, I'm now looking at real estate in Taos.

lefty

 

[romafan]

Nice! We spent Christmas week in Santa Fe in 2002. My wife was 5 months pregnant w/ our sons so we were fairly sedentary. Our big exercise was the Christmas Eve Farolito walk on Canyon Rd - we stopped in O'Farrell's mainly because there was a nice little party going on. After a couple of drinks and listening to me talking about the nice hats that I could never wear in NY wife goaded me into getting fitted. Kevin was fairly soused and did a lot of the measuring by hand, but that device was on my head for a moment or so. I would not have been surprised if we later got my deposit refunded along w/ an apology about not being able to fill the order due to the overly 'festive' nature of the activities that evening, but sure enough a couple of weeks later a beautiful, perfectly-fitting beaver felt hat arrived in the mail, including a very cool horsehair hat band that I don't even remember discussing.

 

[djblisk]

This sounds marsupialed but Sedona Arizona was a revelation.

I just visited SF last month for work. I do not miss it at all. A lot of people are moving out.

 

[lefty]

Everybody needs a good cowboy hat.

We had narrowed our search for that final place down to Nova Scotia (as we have land there in a small fishing cove) and Mexico with the idea that we would split our time. But a warm pueblo style place where I can hunt and fish, and go to an art gallery opening sounds pretty sweet.

lefty

 

[Gus]

Artists told me, this past summer, that the art scene in Taos has all but died since 2008. But Taos still has a special vibe due to it's location at the base of the mountains. Much of the tourist art is on Canyon Rd. in Santa Fe F (although, to be fair, there are still a handful of remarkable Native crafts dealers located there) with the world class stuff now in the newer Railyard Arts District. We attended the International Folk Art Festival last July in Santa Fe. It was the best organized show of it's kind I've ever seen. And, of course, the Native arts show is known world-wide and brings in 150,000 over a week or two. The opera season is highly regarded as well. This way you get a dose of international visitors a few times a year and then can go back to enjoying the area without crowds.

 

[lefty]

My taste in art is pretty pedestrian.

lefty

 

[Gus]

You know, I would be able to agree with Trump if he had called downtown San Francisco BART stations shitholes. After all, that is how many use them...and their elevators.

 

[Bounder]

Of course, if anyone there other than my parents and a few close friends knew what I've done for the past year, they would kill me. So maybe that's for the best. (Some of those friends want to kill me, actually. I think they're joking. I think.)

I think Nicholas Antongiavanni needs to write another book, you know, for cover. I hope all the flak you have taken has at least given you a sales spike.

And haters gonna hate, no matter what you do. I don't think reasonable people are going to be angry with you for putting your finger in the dyke . . . err, in the Hans Christian Anderson sense, not the #MeToo sense, of course.

I don't always agree with you but I know that you are thoughtful, trustworthy and honorable . . . sometimes to a fault. I, for one, am glad you are doing what you are doing. Knowing that it's you doing it makes me sleep a little better at night.

 

[Bounder]

One of my best Christmas experiences was at the Taos Pueblo for the procession of the Virgin Mary. Because this is Indian territory you have to follow their rules, so no cameras or cell phones. And if they confiscate your phone you have no recourse.

It was magical (and rare) to stand in a crowd of 2000 people and have them all be present in the moment.

lefty

+1

I was visiting one of the pueblos near Santa Fe -- always get your pottery directly from the pueblo -- and they happened to be having a festival, complete with traditional dancing and ceremonies. Pueblos are usually pretty sleepy, but this place was packed and we were almost the only tourists there.

It turns out they have these festivals a couple of times a year and family members from all across the country come back to participate. It's not something they advertise and it's not for tourists. It something they do for themselves and something they have been doing some variation of for almost a thousand years. All in all, a very thought-provoking experience.

 

[sugarbutch]

Maybe if peninsula cities would allow denser housing near all of the "tech" employers, San Francisco wouldn't have to bear the brunt of that demand. Those cities are happy to take the corporate tax revenue without the burden of providing equivalent services. Or if Walnut Creek lived up to its own planning code and allowed more housing. SF is the canary in the Bay Area's coalmine.

 

[Manton]

When my family returned to the Bay Area in 1970, one of my two favorite escapes was to Santa Cruz (Tahoe was the other) - the beach, girls in bikinis, surfing - it was cool, it was a dream, what could be better when you are 17-18? But when all the tech guys started commuting from SC in the late 90's and then buying second and third homes there in the last 8 or 9 years it changed. It has become a land of poor daily visitors and wealthy tech landlords. I miss the cool, friendly beach feel and relaxed funky vibe of a Cali beach town.

Amen. I still love it, but it feels more and more alien.

 

[romafan]

Artists told me, this past summer, that the art scene in Taos has all but died since 2008. But Taos still has a special vibe due to it's location at the base of the mountains. Much of the tourist art is on Canyon Rd. in Santa Fe F (although, to be fair, there are still a handful of remarkable Native crafts dealers located there) with the world class stuff now in the newer Railyard Arts District. We attended the International Folk Art Festival last July in Santa Fe. It was the best organized show of it's kind I've ever seen. And, of course, the Native arts show is known world-wide and brings in 150,000 over a week or two. The opera season is highly regarded as well. This way you get a dose of international visitors a few times a year and then can go back to enjoying the area without crowds.

The International Folk Art Museum (I think that is the name - it's one of the handful of museums on museum hill) is a pretty cool place, even for guys like me (and lefty?). Ditto for the O'Keefe museum. Opera people LOVE the SF Opera but I think the season is pretty short. You want to get out of town there's the high road (?) to Taos, Abiqiu, the mining ghost towns of Cerillos & Madrid, the Pueblos. I would love to spend a night at De Maria's Lightning Field!!! One of the best burgers I've ever eaten was the green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite outside of town on the old Las Vegas highway, although I heard they have moved into town and it is now Santa Fe Bite it is still supposed to pretty darn good (they supposedly brought their griddle w/ them!)

 

[sfo423]

Yes on several fronts. Remember Jerry's "By Right" development proposal that died a sad death in the legislature? That legislation would have fast-tracked residential development by bypassing various local review processes. In other words, if your development created a minimum amount of below-market-rate units, the developer could bypass local design review and public approvals process(es). But, the burb dwellers (i.e. Mountain View, Walnut Creek, San Rafael, yadda yadda yadda) and their elected officials didn't like that idea as now they may have less that home-buying worthy residents, heck, maybe even (more) low income residents. Plus, power to say no or delay a developer is scary for local politicians. So, SF continues to take the load.

Maybe if peninsula cities would allow denser housing near all of the "tech" employers, San Francisco wouldn't have to bear the brunt of that demand. Those cities are happy to take the corporate tax revenue without the burden of providing equivalent services. Or if Walnut Creek lived up to its own planning code and allowed more housing. SF is the canary in the Bay Area's coalmine.

 

[sugarbutch]

Scott Wiener is coming for them...

 

[sfo423]

One of the saner politicians to come out of SF in a many decades....

Scott Wiener is coming for them...