The Ghosts of Xmas Past!

1/01/2024    Photo: © Stan Banos

Every year at this time I get anxious- how long till I take the first keeper of the year? It's ridiculous, I know since it'll happen... when it happens, always does. But this year in particular, since downtown San Francisco is not coming back anytime soon; it will remain a ghost town for the foreseeable future- not a good omen for anyone who shoots on the street. 

So I was rather surprised, to say the least, coming upon these gentlemen yesterday upon the end of my daily constitutional who were kind enough to oblige in allowing me my first people shot in quite some time- and my first official keeper of the year. Will make a helluva Xmas card too!

SF Homeless Sweep

Love the sarcasm- that is sarcasm... no?    Photo: © Stan Banos

The APEC summit is coming to town and the downtown area is in the process of being dehomelessized. They're definitely being scattered to the winds (well, at least their sidewalk blocking tents are) this week- whatever public safety/sanitation laws couldn't be applied previously, are now being applied... until they no longer are the following week! 8ft security barricades are also being deployed all around the Moscone Center as the Biden/Xi Jinping Express is scheduled to come barreling into town. It's gonna be one royal mess of crowds and security as yet another part of the world gets exposed to the embarrassment of vacant storefronts and vacant faces that is present day, downtown San Francisco.

And then it all reverts back to our now normal, everyday abnormality of filth, garbage, homelessness and insanity once the crowd returns home regaling their peers of the Dream once called American...

If You're Going To San Francisco...

I see this pretty much daily, and as bad awful as it is to experience live, it seems even worse on video. And while every store isn't closed, this shopping district isn't anywhere near as empty as the financial district directly next door,* and keep in mind you're not seeing the slew of: homeless tents, piles of garbage, mentally ill behavior, feces, drugs and general filth and squalor** of the neighborhoods of SOMA and the Tenderloin directly adjacent! 

All this in a city with sky high fuckin' rents that compete with... New York City!!!

*All of pre-Covid downtown San Francisco was one helluva hustlin' bustlin', crowded and thriving part of town for a city barely reaching 1 million.... 

**(not to mention the stench)

A Most Unusual Day

I usually go to different neighborhoods in San Francisco on weekends to try and keep it fresh, and lately to get the hell outta dodge (my immediate downtown zombie ghost land). Hadn't taken a decent pic in a while, so this Saturday I decided to revisit a somewhat industrial section of town that has always been rather desolate, it definitely has a different feel than the rest of the town architecturally, and different is what I wanted... but I wasn't welcoming the fact that I'd really stand out walking about and be easy prey for any gang of thieves (be they ambulatory or vehicular) looking for a quick camera heist these days. I managed a sole image of a lost soul, and shortly thereafter, decided discretion the better part of valor before deciding once again to... get the hell outta dodge. 

Photo: © Stan Banos

But I digress... 

Because the most unusual part of the day occurred quite some time before I had even left home. Around eleven that morning, I heard a knock on my door, looked through the peephole to spot two uniforms- WTF? Have you seen your neighbor lately? Whoa! That question usually ends one way. "No, no I haven't- but I only see him like once a month, if that." A gentleman in his seventies who walks with a cane and I always made a point to say hello to. OK, thanks. An hour passes and I hear a bevy of voices outside my door followed by the sounds of things being moved about next door. I don't have to ask what's going on. An hour later I'm headed out and the stench fills my nostrils immediately upon opening the door, just before seeing the latex gloves strewn about the hallway. 

It had to have been a few weeks before anyone noticed. I sure hadn't, and I was right next door- eating and sleeping probably no more than ten feet from a dead guy (yeah, our units are that small); didn't know anything, didn't smell anything... Did just make out the radio or TV late into the night- just thought it a lonely old man accompanying himself to sleep. 

There's a health hazard seal on his door now, and I sincerely hope they clean the place out properly tomorrow ASAP! A bottle of Lysol can only do so much, and I'm fortunate, indeed, that none of it permeates my apt- except for a certain amount of nagging guilt. Should've bothered to get to know him better, asked if he needed help etc, etc- shoulda, woulda, coulda... 

I'm betting there'll probably be a next time to make amends somewhere down the line; and then one day, no doubt, my turn to stink up the hallway good...

This Town...

Funny thing is... it would actually work!

Is coming like a... Ghost Town! The song rings in my head over and over and over again walking barren streets rampant with the ghosts of those without homes, without hope, many without their very minds... Wandering amongst the remains: a few desperate long term residents along with a sprinkling of hesitant, bewildered tourists.

Downtown San Francisco is split into two distinct parts: the business district and the commercial/shopping district. Realistically, the former didn't have a chance of reclaiming its former pre-Covid glory; not after having so heavily invested in tech, whose workers fealty to community and reality itself lies within the rectangle of their nearest computer screen. Once acclimated to working at home long term, they abandoned the urban workaday infrastructure altogether, and all the foot traffic, restaurants and other supportive businesses dried up in turn. The shopping district fared better, it was back to about 65% of its once normal self, but then the unabated shop lifting and robberies began, continued and took its toll... now, with the epidemic of recent store closures, it's down to about 40%. 

All Photos: © Stan Banos

I remember NYC in the seventies, when it was supposedly in its death throes- I just thought it was normal, maybe it was youth. But this is different, decidedly so, I'm watching a city metastasize and die all around me. It's visible, palpable, and it's not some outlying, marginalized neighborhood- it's the very heart and soul of downtown San Francisco (and its surrounding environs), sucked dry like a forlorn Martian landscape.

And it ain't gonna get better, before it gets worse. No one has a plan, not a one has the slightest what to do...

Fleeting glimpses of the remains of California dreamin'...