Rango
In an attempt to keep my weight from getting even more out of hand during the Covid lockdown this year I’ve been borrowing my neighbor’s dog. Every morning we go for really long walks. As a side effect I’m soaking up quite a lot of San Francisco along the way.
The city is seven miles (eleven kilometers) square and sits at the tip of a peninsula. There’s water on three sides and a mountain on the fourth. Since I live pretty close to the geographic center of town Rango and I can walk to just about every corner of the city in about an hour. Round trip we get a two hour tour no matter which way we trek.
The topography is varied which creates all manner of nooks and crannies with micro neighborhoods. Each has its own distinct demographic and flavor. We routinely drift from a Filipino enclave to a Russian area to an industrial zone to a Guatemalan neighborhood to an exclusive upscale district.
There are parks absolutely everywhere. Golden Gate is the largest and best known, but there are so many others that we hop between them along our daily routes.
Each part of the city’s shoreline has different views and particular attractions. It’s an incredibly accessible waterfront that was organized in a previous era when the most valuable land was often set aside as a public amenity. In other instances giant chunks of land had been owned and controlled by the federal government for military use. Over time these facilities were decommissioned and turned over to open space and recreation.
Some of these defunct military bases go back to the 1700s when San Francisco was a Spanish colonial possession. Remnants of World War I battle stations and canon fortifications designed to guard the bay are still around. So are old officers quarters and barracks now turned to museums and hotels.
In other spots old Nike nuclear missile silos linger as silent reminders of the Cold War. These were short range weapons meant to counter incoming missiles from the Soviets. It’s hard to reconcile the sleepy 1950s tract homes on the coast with atomic warfare, but there they were cheek by jowl.
There have been times this year when the sky turned a frightening shade of orange as forest fire smoke blotted out the sun. The pandemic induced a rapid exodus of a lot of folks who probably didn’t have much of an attachment to the city in the first place. Shops were closed, then opened, then closed again devastating local businesses. The municipal government is probably going to spent the next decade trying to recover financially from all the budget shortfalls. And we’re due for another earthquake. But this place is amazing and I really struggle with where else I might live if I ever had to leave.
