The Apocalyptic Hellscape on Black Friday

Chinatown Station on the Central Subway line. San Francisco.

Accentuate the positive. The utter demise of the United States under the reign of terror is hopefully slightly premature. I am finding widespread resistance and persistent signs of life on my trip to San Diego, San Francisco and the East Bay. I am also riding some great, relatively new, public transportation.

Patriotic protesters again the havoc wreaked by a parasitic billionaire, DOGE and the convicted felon in the White House. La Jolla.

I say all of this because I am writing on Black Friday, another day when satan is destroying the economy, the markets and the world. Living off your retirement account and everything you have worked your entire life to save for is overrated!

Déjà Vu all over again. Black Friday brought to us by the convicted felon.

Though I am born and raised in the U.S., before I arrived at Tijuana (TJX) recently to walk back into the U.S., I actually feared returning to the country from Mexico. Rationally or not, I was afraid that Homeland Security (what an Orwellian name!) would pull me aside, look at my Substack and deny me entry to the country under some sort of McCarthyite scheme to persecute public transportation advocates and enemies of the felon president. While I would wear that as a badge of honor, it would still sting as I had plans to visit close family and friends on the Left Coast.

In addition to the resistance and protests, the winter rains have done good things for the Faux News apocalyptic hellscape cities. It is Springtime and the California coast is green and lush after a winter of atmospheric rivers.

Enjoying Lincoln Park in San Francisco in Alta California where I was born.

Sure, the convicted​ felon has destroyed the economy of the ​U.S. and countless other nations. Sure, the convicted felon has eaten ​for lunch the retirement funds of tens of millions of Americans​ across the economic spectrum. ​Nonetheless, with the world burning, I feel like a tourist in the best sense of the word. At the end of the day yesterday, a hazy IPA at Vesuvio with the speaker playing Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers singing Pablo Picasso, deadened the pain of losing so much of my savings. ​Until 6 pm at least, when the San Francisco tech bros and sistas roll in on their thousand dollar e-bikes and the North Beach beat paradise changes the sound track and turns Vesuvio into a Silicon Valley singles bar. Where am I? In San Francisco, a city with its own Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.

A protected (floating parking) bike lane in The Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, San Francisco.

Maybe the above photo will cause the convicted felon and the rest of his hate-filled sycophants to stroke out on national TV.

A San Diego MTS Blue Line train.

In spite of the awful news all around us, San Diego has significantly expanded its public transportation system and San Francisco (several years ago) completed the Central Subway project from Chinatown to Sunnydale.

Chinatown Station, San Francisco.

The bike lanes (Ciclovías) and slow streets in San Francisco and the East Bay are outstanding, and the sea of riders even in the cold and rain, attests to a culture that is embracing zero emission transportation.

Paved nirvana for bikers, Bancroft Way, Berkeley.

Page Street, a slow street in the Haight.

An organic addition to Page Street, a slow street in the Haight.

The buses I rode in San Francisco from a visit with family in the Mission to NoPa where I am staying with friends, were crowded with riders at 10 pm. How refreshing to see crowded and safe city buses, though few riders seem to be paying (tapping) when they board through the rear door.

A San Francico MUNI bus around 10 pm on a Tuesday.

And have I mentioned the true bus rapid transit (BRT) on Van Ness in San Francisco!

Actual center-running Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) north of the Río Grande! Van Ness BRT, San Francisco.

I am not naïve. I know that BART is expensive and in need of a makeover, that the Central Subway was completed four years behind schedule and came in over budget and that the San Diego "MTS is facing a structural budget deficit of roughly $100 million per year."

Still, these great examples of public infrastructure have been built and are operating, serving San Franciscans and San Diegoans who are transit dependent or choose to ride the bus and train and trolley. As always, it is also great to be back in a city with such a storied public transportation legacy.

Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat.

Of course I also see the societal challenges: the extrajudicial mass deportations, the out-of-work and the homeless living on the streets of these great cities. The bipartisan failure of successive administrations to address the income security and mental health needs of the homeless is surely one of the greatest domestic disgraces of the past several decades.

Planters installed on the sidewalks in San Francisco to deter homeless encampments.

But California, especially the Bay Area, is still home to great beauty and some of the most creative artists, planners, scientists and business minds in the world. And San Francisco and San Diego are breathtaking, colorful cities that won't be defeated by a convicted felon and his flood-the-zone approach to creating chaos.

Calle 24, The Mission, San Francisco.

WPA murals at the Beach Chalet on the Great Highway. A vestige from when government and the White House cared about the public good.

Just like Joe McCarthy, the convicted felon and his ilk will perish. While that can’t happen soon enough, in the interim it is good to see that a few months into the kleptocracy, life in Alta California goes on for those fortunate enough not to have been deported or incarcerated by a hateful demagogue.

Yours in transit,

Joel

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