Lower Haight

I've found myself in one of the hippest, nicest neighborhoods in the city. And because of some of the best luck in the world, I found myself paying 415 plus utilities to live in an amazingly nice flat with four very interesting young professionals/artists.

The house is on Oak and Fillmore, just a couple of blocks away from Haight Street (of Haight Ashbury 1960s fame, where the original Gap was), Hayes Valley, Union Square (with the string of Victorians made famous by 'Full House'), and a view of the city's capital dome which is reminiscent of Paris (one could say).

Still, poverty of some sort is almost ever-present. Homeless roam the streets begging here and there. Some stay put in one place for hours on end. Then just some blocks away are housing projects - some of the nicer ones I have seen.

As with every city there are lots of people, the individual multiplied. But in American cities it is really just that - many individuals everywhere, each vying for their own separate way. In Japan, for example, there was much more of a communal feel, as if the people all agreed on what the city, and the life therein, was all about. Here, on the other hand, there is the sort of chaotic energy produced by the diversity. It means that the cultural landscape is much broader, and yet one must be sensitive to an array of cultural norms rather than just one.

With all the mixtures of values in the city, what happens to the individual's socially-based values? Does one learn to accept more diversity or less? Does one tend to accept the contingencies of his or her own moral and ethical beliefs?

You could look at S.F. as a model of globalization. There are many challenges to enacting social equality: the individuals' hard-headedness and inability to step out of his or her own culture and personal habits, the difficulty of getting the city's government to take care of its people in many of the neighborhoods (Bayview for example). And then there is the tragedy of the commons (which sometimes seems to be exacerbated by both the illumination of contingency and the disrespect for other cultures that can occur from time to time).... Luckily, there are many factors working in quite the opposite direction. Cultures seem to be fusing as people inter-marry and cultural knowledge equalizes and spreads. Then there is the huge amount of positive energy derived from times when people from different backgrounds can be good to each other - and that happens all the time around here, fortunately. So not to lose hope mi amigos!

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Today and Yesterday blue fighter jets stormed above the houses of our little neighborhood. They made the walls shake. Here is a photo of one of my roommates in her goregeous room (mine is much smaller, but that doesn't bother me).