(Not Quite an) Ode to San Francisco

I love the Bay Area.

The limitless sweep of the Pacific. The undulating urban vistas of San Francisco. The confluence of nature and architecture visible from the Marin Headlands. The urban oasis that is Golden Gate Park. The symbolic welcome of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Barbary Coast history of prospectors, rogues and mavericks. The resolute spirit of 1906 (and 1989) survivors and rebuilders. The indomitable will of civil rights protestors. The activist ethic of the early gay community. The pluck and drive of immigrant families and communities. The wonderfully quirky and altogether weird nature of the whole city.

Riding the 22 Fillmore from up-and-coming, dockside Dogpatch over the sleepy residences and warehouses of Potrero Hill, through the heart of the Mission, with its artists and long-established Latino community, into the gentrifying mix of young urbanites and Section 8 tenants in the Lower Haight and north into the Fillmore, the aging yet still-beating heart of black San Francisco, immediately into the Asian wonderland of Japantown, up the hill to the Old Money of Pacific Heights, then down into the new money and accumulation of recently-graduated fraternity boys and sorority girls in Cow Hollow and the Marina. And then back the other way.

The food. What can you say about the food? It's good. Really good. Sometimes it's authentic. Sometimes it's fusion. Sometimes it's authentic with just a slight new twist. Sometimes it's something completely new. It runs the gamut between ridiculously cheap and mind-bogglingly expensive. It's well-made and well-executed and served to a populace that knows when it's not.

Wine runs through the veins of the city, occasionally spiked with some craft-brewed beer or artisanal brandies or small-batch vodka or gin. But always at less than .08 percent.

Just like any other city, the people can be gruff, annoying, crazy, loud, opinionated, working-class, well-educated, moneyed, scraping by, hip, nice, helpful, friendly, strange. But above all, they're wonderful.

It really is The City, and I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be right now.