Local global warming, anecdotally
Drove over to Dogpatch yesterday, a 10 degree difference from The Richmond where I live, 10 degrees to the postive that is, it being 67 degrees (F) when I leave The Richmond and 77 degrees (F) when I arrive in Dogpatch, the difference being negative to me as I'm no fan of hot weather.
The (F) is for Farenheit of course.
I drove to Dogpatch, a little over 4 miles from my place in The Richmond, to see a friend who's just moved there. He seems happy on the 5th floor of an almost brand-new loft-style apartment, with shiny buffed concrete New York-art gallery floors and views of the Bay Bridge, and the fact that he has to take an elevator to his bachelor pad doesn't seem to bother him. I don't take elevators, having been stuck in at least 2 of them, so I took the stairs.
Dogpatch is booming with new residential and commercial construction. I don't think I've ever seen so much construction activity in one place at one time, and I've seen lots of construction activity in my time. My friend pointed out how the new construction has been designed to fit in with the old construction--what's left of the old that is--and I guess I could see it, but not really, as the new chrome & glass construction isn't necessarily compatible with the brick & steel of the old construction. Some of the old construction remains of course, but it's starting to look out of place.
The word on the street is that the real estate in Dogpatch is just under over-priced.
My friend and I talked for awhile, looking out the windows at the fine sunny day. Then he asked, do you like tacos? Who doesn't like tacos?, I thought, of course I like tacos, though there are proabably a few people out there who don't like tacos, taco deniers as the mainstream media likes to call them.
We walked to lunch to a more-or-less new restaurant specializing in tacos and tequila cocktails around the corner from my friend's new pad. We each ordered the same thing--the 3 taco plate for $17.00.
After lunch, driving home from Dogpatch toward The Richmond, I did the math: each taco cost $5.66 (approximately). That's a lot of money for a little taco, and they were pretty little. The tacos were good, don't get me wrong, a pastor, a fish, and a tofu taco, but how can common people afford to eat like this? This led to a larger question: Is it sustainable, this economy? And are there still common people?
I'm probably the only person who ate lunch at that restaurant in The Dogpatch who did the math the way I did it; I'd bet my house I was. I was also the oldest diner there, by far.
When I turned left off Divisidero and onto Fulton, the sun stopped shining at or about Stanyan and I entered the cool fogbound neighborhood I call home--The Richmond, emphasis on the The, full of common people like me who like cooler weather.