The San Francisco scene
"The San Francisco scene remained a layered, complex mulch from which sprouted some pretty advanced ideas: work should be spiritually sustaining; people should care for one another; riches should be shared; fun should be had.
There was a feeling in the air that humans had the potential to be more than workaday drudges. We had the resources then to make life amazing. In fact, resources begat resources, love begat love, and -- oh, yeah -- work begat work.
With a little work (or a lot, as it turned out), we could do anything, even save the world."
With a little work (or a lot, as it turned out), we could do anything, even save the world."
-- from a very interesting and inspiring letter to the editor in the September issue of Vanity Fair penned by a woman named Jeanne Wilkinson, in response to a long piece published by VF in July about the storied milieu in San Francisco during the famed 1967 "Summer of Love."
Things have certainly changed since then -- and a lot of that idealism was quite misguided -- but it seems a core part of the energy Wilkinson describes remains here in San Francisco. It's why I think things feel so fundamentally different here than in, say, New York (although they are finally starting to appropriate some of the old San Francisco attitude out east, I'm not sure they'll ever quite get it.) I love NYC to pieces but it's just not the same.
And despite all of the criticism about California and the Bay Area being "unfriendly to business," I think it's this unique core belief system that has made this a hub of two things that seem to be at odds: Forward-thinking business innovation and personal livability.
I say, long live the San Francisco scene.
I say, long live the San Francisco scene.
Comments
By katy at 10:16 a.m. Aug. 27, 2012
Well said all around--by both Jeanne and you. There is something about this place that you can't help but love (or, as in my case, *grow* to love); you just don't feel as cramped and wound up here as you do in New York...I think it partly stems from the fact that SF is an incredibly outdoorsy place and there are so many beautiful places to escape to whenever the urge strikes.
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