What's happened to New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco & Los Angeles is yet another sign of the insane corruption that has rotted out the Democratic Party (& the Republicans aren't stopping it)
I’m a third generation native San Franciscan. Watching the first video was so bittersweet and heartbreaking. I’m 60, and I have the most magical, beautiful memories of going downtown with my grandma! People have NO idea how classy San Francisco used to be!
Macy’s was I. Magnin decades ago, one of the most gorgeous department stores in the world! Christmas was absolutely spectacular!
And God forbid if you didn’t dress up to go Downtown! It just wasn’t done. My grandmother always wore gloves, and I always wore a dress, Sunday coat and Mary Janes.
Neiman Marcus was City of Paris, and before that it was The White House, which my great grandmother retired from. I still have her gold watch with engraving: “Garnie-From her friends in the Stationery Dept. White House 5-31-60”
Classy. What a wonderful word for so much that has passed! One used to dress to travel. I remember a grey wool suit with mother of pearl buttons and a pleated skirt from Best &Co that I wore to go to London in the early/mid sixties. What a different world. I wish we could retain all that was good (not everthing was, some change was needed!) and carry that forward.
Pat, I remember those days! Flying was such a big deal! One would always dress nicely to fly! Flying was something that was exciting and that you’d look forward to.
What has happened to society? Pajamas? Sweatpants? Beach sandals? Slippers? It’s definitely the “slobification” of society in my humble opinion.
For sure! People expected more because they were taught, either by their family or society.
I remember my mom telling me that I better be happy that she’s reprimanding instead of the world. Because, the world doesn’t love you. I’ll never forget that!
The slobification on many levels: dress, speach, grooming, manners, behavior. Every now and then I attend some sort of public event and I am appalled at what I see. Can't people simply put on a clean pair of jeans/pants/shorts and a decent shirt? Must the morbidly obese wear skin tight clothes that subject the rest of us to every roll of fat on their back? Must I watch them chow down on a meal chock full of grease and carbs? It's a strange new world.
And not a speck of graffiti, not even in the 1970s and 1980s, when I visited there. Stunning, gorgeous, steep (get those legs in shape), clean, aesthetically appealing, low-crime beautiful city by the bay. I hope it can be made to regain its former glory.
San Francisco is was and always will be the most beautiful city on the West Coast of the United States- physically as elegant as any city anywhere. That’s what people forget & I’m glad you mentioned: the classiness.
Yes! I bought a wonderful fuzzy blue coat from IMagnin, many years ago. Loved Gump’s, their china and jewelry sections. Stumbled into Gump’s several years ago, before closing time, walking around SF with my family. So many of those stores closing or leaving town because of the crime, it’s disgusting. I remember Philadelphia had Wanamaker’s and another one, Strawbridges? I think. ~~~ So, my seat mate in the airport waiting room in San Diego recently told me of an article out there about business applicants these days now needing entry training on behaviors and normal conversation expected on a new job, as so many these days don’t know how to act in the workplace! If anyone finds it, please post for us! ~~~My sister in law tells of her friend in business, who had a new hire, in the early minutes before starting the job, tell her, “I’m not doing that.” !!!! Wow, I would take great joy saying to her, “Thats so right, you’re not doing that, or anything else, nice knowing yah” Need a taxi?
Sharon! You remember! As a girl I remember walking into I. Magnin from Union Square to see the cosmetic section…so big, regal, with chandeliers and marble! It was magnificent! I was in awe! I still have my mom’s jade bug pin and earrings from Gump’s! My mom adored Gump’s! Classy, beautiful store! Memories!
And in Jan. '65, being in Gump's, choosing on my grandmother's behalf, a wedding present (a silver Revere bowl) for my brother who was to be married a few days later. As a child I always wore my Sunday white cotton gloves (and the excitement of choosing a new pair!) on going to the 'big city' of Springfield Ma. How many hours did I spend in the china/silver department of Forbes & Wallace and Albert Steiger.
That Christmas tree in the City of Paris, and Christmas Tree Lane/Maiden Lane. And those great dim sum restaurants just around the block from City Lights Bookstore, where one wore one's new silk blouse. My aunt bought me a pair of gold lame boots in Union Square, which I (in fourth grade) thought were the most beautiful thing ever created.
It’s so painful watching any older videos from my hometown it really hurts.
We lived in the Richmond district late 50’s-1980.
Absolutely wonderful times.
Mom and her family grew up in the sunset district.
Dads family from the Mission district.
Still in touch with many friends from the neighborhood. The ones we climbed trees with, rode bikes to the GGPark with and spent afternoons at Playland with.
Now.....
I just can’t step foot into the city by the bay anymore.
WOW! I’m so glad you said something. It’s so rare that I meet any true natives of SF! My mom and dad grew up in the Richmond District. I spent all of my time as a baby on Geary Street in the 60’s with grandma in a stroller. She knew everyone on Geary Street. I went to Playland with my dad, although I can barely remember much because of my age. I’m sure you and I could really compare notes! I can’t go to SF either, and I’m very close. I just want to keep my memories the way they are. God bless you!
My parents had season tickets to the Civic Light Opera at the Curran when I was a kid. I loved it so much, they ended up getting me a season ticket as well!
The dressing up, eating out, seeing all the greats in the 60s and 70s. it was very special!
My grandma took me to Wryth Bakery almost daily! I always got a free sugar cookie. And the five and dime store! You sure are bringing me back!
God bless you and guide you! I envy you being an “RV nomad” (sold my Kodiak 22ft. trailer a few years ago)! Be safe out there and I hope to cross your path again soon! ✝️💕
Going to San Francisco was my very first trip overseas from Holland! I went there by Greyhound from Ottawa, Canada, where my sister lived, all by myself. But before going there, i studied every map and brochure I could lay my hands on (oh those pre-internet days) and you studied everything that was located on those streets! So your mention of Geary street and Union Square brings back the breathtaking awe and excitement that I felt as a 23 yo when seeing downtown SF for the very first time. It is so incredibly sad to read that on both sides of the ocean we are experiencing the same disintegration of society.
Also Lord & Taylor. Then there was Gimbels, though not a fancy store. If you were a kid in Philly, they had a wonderful Christmas display of an old-fashioned village with a bakery, a butcher, etc.
What was the other 'nice' department store in Philadelphia? Albert......My husband's best suit came from there; he was wearing it ) on the day our 2nd child was born--and amniotic fluid gushed all over his suit as she emerged.
I'm 74, grew up in Oakland and have fond memories of San Francisco in the seventies with all its cosmopolitan wonders, many that other commenters here have mentioned. How times have changed.
Tony Bennett’s 1962 recording of “I left my heart in San Francisco” became his world-famous signature piece. In 1969, the song became the official song of San Francisco.
In 2023, San Francisco has lost the starlight luster, “where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.” It is a much different city. I don’t think Tony would have his heart in it anymore.
In honor of Tony Bennett’s passing, a homeless person sings, “I left my cart in San Francisco.”
I went to Berkeley in the mid-70s. My girlfriend and I would take the BART to SF occasionally where we'd walk for miles enjoying the brisk air and the beautiful buildings and scenery. We took my parents and friends who visited there for dinner and never gave a thought to being in danger, nor did we see homeless people or any of the trappings of decline—graffiti, trash, boarded windows, etc. It was clean, safe and vibrantly alive. We left CA in 1990 as it was already becoming a crap hole and I doubt it will come back in my lifetime. My wife, who's from the midwest, has never been to SF and will likely never go.
I remember too 😭 it is heartbreaking to see what’s happened to a once glorious city. I was so fortunate to have lived near it and to frequent it regularly. I just hope the art museums will be saved.
Thanks for the memories!! The biggest surprise of my old age is being happy for all the years under my belt in a freer and more refined era.. no wish to be younger except maybe my knees. Here in NYC folks still dress up but the classiness is gone.. not even close to the magic of everyone at the opera in the fanciest dresses & long gloves.. even dressed to impress w one or two good pieces worn to shop and travel.. lucky us for those days!!
There will be no smart cities or 15 minute cities. They will be internment camps for laborers. Initially, they may set up a few "model" cities that seem amazing, replete with happy useful idiots, to ease concerns of the masses, but the real implementation won't be that.
If you're over 25 have no fears! They won't even want you in the internment camps, you're too old and know too much of what freedom is supposed to be and will only cause trouble and eat too much bug gruel. You're already on the extermination list by virtue of your age.
Dog wrote: "If you're over 25 have no fears! They won't even want you in the internment camps, you're too old and know too much..."
Yes - and, like the movie "Logan's Run," when you turn 30, you'll go up for "renewal" - only what you'll really be doing is becoming next week's Soylent Green...
Yah, my sibling lives in Seattle where a huge new retail-condo going up in their neighborhood, thrilled they can walk to all that stuff, have no idea what’s really ahead for us all
We are already at the stage of ""model" cities that seem amazing" ... with the likes of Gent (Belgium), Valencia and Barcelona (Spain), Arnhem (The Netherlands) and and and.. ..
Christ I am so opposed to the principle, but even I, was gob smacked at how ... well I HATE TO SAY IT; but good they were. HOWEVER I DID NOT 3 THINGS IN ALL OF ... like a common theme or thread ... after visiting them all within the past year / 18 months and different months ... 1. Cameras everywhere ... but the same cameras - all small, white 360 degree monitors tracking everything - point and surprise being the same model ... 2. All venues had "Pride" flags everywhere; even on the municipality of government buildings ... 3.. For me a smoker - most had just implemented a ban on smoking outside on the terrace (WTF ?) and made the people stand on the road; yes the road. We English ignored that of course LOL.
Obviously no cars, only a few taxis; e-bikes, e-scooters and normal bikes galore.. but there were a couple of other things, that I have forgotten for now.
Not just the cities. Unity College, Maine - presumably done in by the COVID scam - recently proposed to house as many as 600 "asylum" seekers. [That's what the local propaganda rags call it, asylum; really? From where?] There might be a couple of dozen jobs on some local farms. None of them, BTW, in walking distance. Public transportation in rural maine? Hello?
It's easy to go from there to Mad Max scenario, where local militias have to form simply to protect local communities. People are asking, are we crazy to have to discuss this?
Maybe Unity could become a smart town. Too bad about the Amish community, I guess. Or maybe all these "asylum" seekers might join the Amish, get horses, farm.
I bring this up becuse it's not just the big cities.
They are not allowing the Amish to exist. They chemically destroyed the farmland in Ohio, where the Amish are by the train spill.
This Amish Farmer in VA had to throw away in the trash $10,000 of beautiful farm raised beef. Can't be having healthy food for people to consume. It makes me sick and very angry. Thankfully people have done a little fundraising to help them w/their losses.
The Amish don't allow their picture to be taken so they had to find a woman to be photographed to manage the money via the GSG site. Which is yet another reason the gov't hates them, no photo ID, no internet social usage.
There is zero doubt that massive chemical release was deliberate and interesting how a Republican Governor (RINO no doubt) signed on to that extreme act of environmental sabotage. A purge of the Republican party is needed. The DemonRats are a lost cause.
Yup, one of my favorite stories. I have given up the hope Mitch Rapp is going to show up to save us. And since Americans can't turn off their Tv's we won't be like the Poles either. We allow the gummint to shut us down but we don't seem to be willing to return the favor.
I think they are going to be sent to an abandoned giant cell phone factory right outside our small town. The DoD bought it and is rehabilitating the entire 1.8 million square feet. Supposedly it’s installing a medical glove factory. It needs 1.8 million square feet? Maybe the coming inhabitants will work the glove making machines. I’m so suspicious. There is a road off the state highway in the back of the rolling hills property with an entrance. Trucks and buses could enter basically unseen. You can’t see the facility very well from the state highway in the front and federal keep out signs and cameras are now installed. We will see.
Of course I don’t know this for sure. The last owner was arrested in Canada for securities fraud. It’s been one mess after another with that property. I could see a weapons contractor installed there but medical gloves? And federal guards?
The Amish are already finding out that Big Finance wants their land and will use regulations, taxes and climate change excuses to kick them off their land. They will find themselves living in the 15min ghetto cities like the rest of us.
Yah, sure and high school and college kids, coming home after a game, girls in shorts! Heaven—no Allah forbids! I fear for their safety in their innocence.
They're trying to do it in every western country. The Globalists are resettling Ireland, a small nation with no history of colonialism. Aside from IT and finance jobs in Dublin, Ireland has small family farms and a service economy that caters to tourists. Ireland has a good education system and has little need for immigrants in their IT and banking sectors. The Irish have no qualms about working in pubs, hotels and golf courses - they don't need to bring in immigrants to do these jobs. Ireland has one of the higher birth rates in the west so they don't need to boost the population. The majority of the people are against immigration yet the globalist supported politicians and media are forcing it on them. We don't have a say.
Canada too. There is a housing crisis in Canada that will take a decade to overcome but no politicians in any of the three major parties have the courage to ask that immigration numbers be reduced.
They all want to increase the population to one hundred million. They can't build houses and roads and provide health-care for the population now. Clearly a mental illness, in my opinion.
Central London is being hollowed out. Stores everywhere are "coffee shops" "sweet drinks" shops, sunglasses shops (no, not joking!) Everything to appeal to teens - (with their parents' cash to spend). A hard winter will kill it.
Remember the 15-minute neighbourhoods - containing everything ?; I think the buildings will be converted for the council, health service etc etc.. plus of course for more of us useless eaters as we are forced into the cities.
WEF has already stated that SMEs and independent shops will go; we willbe ordering from the internet, using our UBI in digital currency if we have behaved and our social credit score is OK, our Carbo footpring OK ... and it will be delivered by drone.
I don't think buildings will be converted, they'll be demolished an either replaced with towering rabbit hutch type residential buildings (cf China - metal doors welded shut during the 2020 debacle or, mixed class buildings with separate entrances for the low social credit score and the higher social credit score). The selling of "sunglasses" everywhere suggests to me the projection of images to start soon - if you have the "right" specs you'll see certain holographic images others won't. Thus everyone's experience of the environment will be controlled. A version of this in print media recently occurred re start date of wider ULEZ in greater London. Multiple blank pages (green block) & just a QR code.
Funny how we are all programmed to say China hey ?. I say that because I have ravelled to many of these plces and it was Japan that was number 1 in providing these "closets" for people to live in; China.. OR THE CHINA I SAW was the total opposite.
Still not convinced on the social credit score in China for the people... but did not look into it nor do I use a mobile phone... so could be wrong.
The sunglasses and the rest interest me though; so will look into that... cheers.
Israel implemented a certain amount of the SMART via mobile phone things that China has used extensively - eg only if you have the right profile (eg the health pass) were you allowed into stores (electronic gates) - or to open the glass fronted, locked cabinets in the stores. People (not sure if this is only in cities or everywhere), you have to have the right "profile" to be able to by a transport ticket. If a contact of yours is a "bad" profile, your profile will also be downgraded. Where we had traffic light systems to show whether we were allowed in the store - they've gone the step further in preventing you/the individual from transacting in any way they decide "for the common good", of course.
It's not so much personal hardship, though there is that in places, but during the lockup they ripped the soul out of the physical London, bankrupt businesses, no rush hour, no one working in town, no hustle and bustle; even shutting all the public toilets to put people off going into town. You used to feel London. Now it feels like a strange shell of a city, just a collection of buildings. Lost all its sparkle.
There’s way too much influence from the US in places like London. Way too much cultural influence from the US all over Western Europe- that’s why they protested en masse more often about the lockdowns, which you eloquently describe as a lockup. Six feet apart struck me as oddly symbolic of death—- the term “six feet” for burial… of course in the UK they have a different system of measurement so “feet” doesn’t matter and I don’t know about their burial measurements…
Wow…..I’ve said it before, where are all those rebels who had the bumper sticker “Question Authority” on their back window?
This whole series of comments and input in this update should give us pause for weeks to come You have our gratitude Mark, you share without piggieness $$, letting us all choose what we can afford to join.
Yeah, it’s a loaded measurement for sure… if the measurements are the same or the instructions were the same it would be sort of threatening for people in rhe UK & Ireland
"Incompetence" has joined "conspiracy theory" as one of the core shut up/don't question narrative cover-up phrases. The whipped up "why" explanation when the first-level ugly "what" becomes impossible to deny or hide.
I like to say I wasn't born a cynic, just an observer. It's true.
(Mind you, that's only in relation to human-established paradigms. God's world remains unspeakably beautiful, innocent, and pure. The demons can't fit it all in their cesspool.)
When you hear them admit to incompetence or "we just didn't have the experience" or "we could not anticipate" is a blatant tell that in reality it is devious conspiracy, likely financed by Davos.
I lived in Denver for 9 months and saw this firsthand. I have been travelling to Denver for the better part of 30 years to see my parents who live in Colorado. There is an enormous homelessness problem in Denver now. I befriended a homeless vet who was living under a bridge across the street from my apartment building. I tried to find housing for him during the winter because the temperature was sometimes below zero F at night. I called and emailed about a dozen homeless outreach and veterans' programs. Out of all of them, two organizations made promises to get back to me. No one followed through. The sense I got was that these organizations were overwhelmed. They didn't have the energy or resources to provide support for this vet.
I don't want to generalize because there are people in Denver trying to help the homeless. But the Democrats I knew and spoke to in Denver appeared to be pretty oblivious of the homeless. There were encampments of tents and sleeping bags across the street or down the block from their homes. I would see people riding expensive bicycles out of their yards, past the homeless.
It was not only the left who ignored the homeless. There are plenty of mainstream right war supporters in Denver. I watched young employees of military corps tool around in 70K vehicles with "Lockheed Martin" stickers, etc. They'd cruise down Speer Blvd. past the bridge under which Ernie, the homeless vet, slept every night. That really says something about the state of our country, also.
Indeed. I am in touch with friends in Oahu who are fighting along with the residents of Maui to be heard. Yes They do have a plan to trash real owner’s properties and then build up their own dream condos, etc. The wickedness….. I could not have believed, ten years ago Okay, five years then….
Yes, and if any of us decide to protect our property, there will be more and more Ruby Ridges and Wacos to shut us down and teach us lessons - just like they're doing in DC with all the J6 prisoners being held on fake charges. Disgusting...we have to figure out creative ways to fight back.
Their version of "law and order" is a whole lot different than what we have come to know as law & order. In their version, if you are a member of the ruling class, you are exempt from all crime, including child sex slavery, if you are not, arbitrary rules enforced brutally will be called laws.
Where will they house the illegals in these new cities? Maybe they’ve been brought here to build them?
It should be interesting whether they push Covid vaccination with this group? I suspect they won’t. I hear some claim they will replace us. At one time that would have been a crazy notion, but the crazy train keeps expanding.
Exactly like Maui. Turns out their DemonRat Governor is a top 15min ghetto proponent, spokesperson for the WEF @ Davos, Agenda 2030 all the way. And elsewhere wildfires that the government was repeatedly warned needed to be properly prevented, and standard methods rec'd in order to prevent the fires burning towns & cities. In pretty much every case the Gov't ignored the recommendations. Cut funding for wildfire prevention & forest management. And forced stupid expensive evacuations, that were entirely unnecessary. They're trying to destroy our country.
The intentional act of allowing the infrastructure within major cities to decay while concurrently permitting an unending influx of migrants, but turning a blindeye to hundreds of thousands of homeless, drug addicts, and the insane while at the same time sanctioning "smash and grab" lawlessness at major shopping centers are all part of a deliberate agenda by psychopathic elite ghouls to gather public consent for totalitarianism.
Good stuff, Mark, as usual, but stop calling it the “democratic” party. It is the DEMOCRAT PARTY. "Democrat" can also be used as an adjective, though I understand that nomenclature thuds on the English-hearing ear. There’s nothing democratic about the democrat party, as the DNC treatment of Bernie Sanders proved in 2016 (just ask Seth Rich) and as their disenfranchising of RFK Jr. is proving now.
Didn’t Rush decide never to use “Democratic Party”. ?
Another one, ticks me off is when the media always uses “gentleman” for gender. You mean, “the gentleman who raped her”? That one? Gentleman doesn’t mean the same these days, so don’t use it unless you know he is one.
I am inclined to agree with Ed Dowd, these cities all over the world well be controled by warlords and you well pay takes to them for food and protection or else
that's already happening in LA and SF. Can't find the article, but SF hired ex-cons to clean up the streets and instead they became kingpins of the streets -- with no accountability.
That is exactly right! Can one force be as ugly as the one we are facing now globally? I knew when the Notre Dame burned on and on that something was wrong. Nothing accidental about that either. It's trying to spell doom over and over but they can all go to hell.
I’m a third generation native San Franciscan. Watching the first video was so bittersweet and heartbreaking. I’m 60, and I have the most magical, beautiful memories of going downtown with my grandma! People have NO idea how classy San Francisco used to be!
Macy’s was I. Magnin decades ago, one of the most gorgeous department stores in the world! Christmas was absolutely spectacular!
And God forbid if you didn’t dress up to go Downtown! It just wasn’t done. My grandmother always wore gloves, and I always wore a dress, Sunday coat and Mary Janes.
Neiman Marcus was City of Paris, and before that it was The White House, which my great grandmother retired from. I still have her gold watch with engraving: “Garnie-From her friends in the Stationery Dept. White House 5-31-60”
Thanks for listening!
Classy. What a wonderful word for so much that has passed! One used to dress to travel. I remember a grey wool suit with mother of pearl buttons and a pleated skirt from Best &Co that I wore to go to London in the early/mid sixties. What a different world. I wish we could retain all that was good (not everthing was, some change was needed!) and carry that forward.
Pat, I remember those days! Flying was such a big deal! One would always dress nicely to fly! Flying was something that was exciting and that you’d look forward to.
What has happened to society? Pajamas? Sweatpants? Beach sandals? Slippers? It’s definitely the “slobification” of society in my humble opinion.
It’s all a break down in boundaries…
For sure! People expected more because they were taught, either by their family or society.
I remember my mom telling me that I better be happy that she’s reprimanding instead of the world. Because, the world doesn’t love you. I’ll never forget that!
Good one!
The slobification on many levels: dress, speach, grooming, manners, behavior. Every now and then I attend some sort of public event and I am appalled at what I see. Can't people simply put on a clean pair of jeans/pants/shorts and a decent shirt? Must the morbidly obese wear skin tight clothes that subject the rest of us to every roll of fat on their back? Must I watch them chow down on a meal chock full of grease and carbs? It's a strange new world.
And not a speck of graffiti, not even in the 1970s and 1980s, when I visited there. Stunning, gorgeous, steep (get those legs in shape), clean, aesthetically appealing, low-crime beautiful city by the bay. I hope it can be made to regain its former glory.
China owns SF now. It will never be the same. Such is life. And I don’t speak Chinese. 😬
Bummer . . .
San Francisco is was and always will be the most beautiful city on the West Coast of the United States- physically as elegant as any city anywhere. That’s what people forget & I’m glad you mentioned: the classiness.
Thank you and God bless you! 💕
Yes! I bought a wonderful fuzzy blue coat from IMagnin, many years ago. Loved Gump’s, their china and jewelry sections. Stumbled into Gump’s several years ago, before closing time, walking around SF with my family. So many of those stores closing or leaving town because of the crime, it’s disgusting. I remember Philadelphia had Wanamaker’s and another one, Strawbridges? I think. ~~~ So, my seat mate in the airport waiting room in San Diego recently told me of an article out there about business applicants these days now needing entry training on behaviors and normal conversation expected on a new job, as so many these days don’t know how to act in the workplace! If anyone finds it, please post for us! ~~~My sister in law tells of her friend in business, who had a new hire, in the early minutes before starting the job, tell her, “I’m not doing that.” !!!! Wow, I would take great joy saying to her, “Thats so right, you’re not doing that, or anything else, nice knowing yah” Need a taxi?
Sharon! You remember! As a girl I remember walking into I. Magnin from Union Square to see the cosmetic section…so big, regal, with chandeliers and marble! It was magnificent! I was in awe! I still have my mom’s jade bug pin and earrings from Gump’s! My mom adored Gump’s! Classy, beautiful store! Memories!
And in Jan. '65, being in Gump's, choosing on my grandmother's behalf, a wedding present (a silver Revere bowl) for my brother who was to be married a few days later. As a child I always wore my Sunday white cotton gloves (and the excitement of choosing a new pair!) on going to the 'big city' of Springfield Ma. How many hours did I spend in the china/silver department of Forbes & Wallace and Albert Steiger.
Yes, Strawbridge and Clothier
That Christmas tree in the City of Paris, and Christmas Tree Lane/Maiden Lane. And those great dim sum restaurants just around the block from City Lights Bookstore, where one wore one's new silk blouse. My aunt bought me a pair of gold lame boots in Union Square, which I (in fourth grade) thought were the most beautiful thing ever created.
Cynthia you remember too! I loved the City of Paris Christmas tree. It was HUGE! And the stained glass ceiling!
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_City_of_Paris
What beautiful memories.
Renee
Love all your memories.
3rd Gen SF’can also.
It’s so painful watching any older videos from my hometown it really hurts.
We lived in the Richmond district late 50’s-1980.
Absolutely wonderful times.
Mom and her family grew up in the sunset district.
Dads family from the Mission district.
Still in touch with many friends from the neighborhood. The ones we climbed trees with, rode bikes to the GGPark with and spent afternoons at Playland with.
Now.....
I just can’t step foot into the city by the bay anymore.
It’s been 5 years since a visit
WOW! I’m so glad you said something. It’s so rare that I meet any true natives of SF! My mom and dad grew up in the Richmond District. I spent all of my time as a baby on Geary Street in the 60’s with grandma in a stroller. She knew everyone on Geary Street. I went to Playland with my dad, although I can barely remember much because of my age. I’m sure you and I could really compare notes! I can’t go to SF either, and I’m very close. I just want to keep my memories the way they are. God bless you!
My parents had season tickets to the Civic Light Opera at the Curran when I was a kid. I loved it so much, they ended up getting me a season ticket as well!
The dressing up, eating out, seeing all the greats in the 60s and 70s. it was very special!
Yes Renee keeping my memories from long ago in my nearby memory banks but won’t be making the journey in anymore.
I’m a year older than you I think between the two of us there is so much to recall about “the city”.
And don’t get me started on Geary street ..... home of Wryth Bakery and the five and Dime store across from the Alexandria Movie Theater
Mom strolled us up from CA & Clement every week to do some local shopping.
Family is mostly in Sonoma county now and that’s where I visit when I come back from being a retired traveling full time RV nomad
Renee it’s really fun to chat with a SF local from long ago 🥰
My grandma took me to Wryth Bakery almost daily! I always got a free sugar cookie. And the five and dime store! You sure are bringing me back!
God bless you and guide you! I envy you being an “RV nomad” (sold my Kodiak 22ft. trailer a few years ago)! Be safe out there and I hope to cross your path again soon! ✝️💕
Going to San Francisco was my very first trip overseas from Holland! I went there by Greyhound from Ottawa, Canada, where my sister lived, all by myself. But before going there, i studied every map and brochure I could lay my hands on (oh those pre-internet days) and you studied everything that was located on those streets! So your mention of Geary street and Union Square brings back the breathtaking awe and excitement that I felt as a 23 yo when seeing downtown SF for the very first time. It is so incredibly sad to read that on both sides of the ocean we are experiencing the same disintegration of society.
And Philadelphia had Bonwit Teller.
Also Lord & Taylor. Then there was Gimbels, though not a fancy store. If you were a kid in Philly, they had a wonderful Christmas display of an old-fashioned village with a bakery, a butcher, etc.
What was the other 'nice' department store in Philadelphia? Albert......My husband's best suit came from there; he was wearing it ) on the day our 2nd child was born--and amniotic fluid gushed all over his suit as she emerged.
I'm 74, grew up in Oakland and have fond memories of San Francisco in the seventies with all its cosmopolitan wonders, many that other commenters here have mentioned. How times have changed.
I wrote this requiem for Tony Bennett's passing: https://nedb.substack.com/p/in-honor-of-tony-bennetts-passing
Tony Bennett’s 1962 recording of “I left my heart in San Francisco” became his world-famous signature piece. In 1969, the song became the official song of San Francisco.
In 2023, San Francisco has lost the starlight luster, “where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.” It is a much different city. I don’t think Tony would have his heart in it anymore.
In honor of Tony Bennett’s passing, a homeless person sings, “I left my cart in San Francisco.”
LMAO!!!! I’ll tell you…I thank God for my sense of humor everyday! Your meme is great! Sad, but very true!
Oakland is another area that had the potential to be beautiful and thriving. The “collective mind” is lost, for now. Thank you Ned, and God bless you!
I went to Berkeley in the mid-70s. My girlfriend and I would take the BART to SF occasionally where we'd walk for miles enjoying the brisk air and the beautiful buildings and scenery. We took my parents and friends who visited there for dinner and never gave a thought to being in danger, nor did we see homeless people or any of the trappings of decline—graffiti, trash, boarded windows, etc. It was clean, safe and vibrantly alive. We left CA in 1990 as it was already becoming a crap hole and I doubt it will come back in my lifetime. My wife, who's from the midwest, has never been to SF and will likely never go.
Yes, yes it was so.
I remember too 😭 it is heartbreaking to see what’s happened to a once glorious city. I was so fortunate to have lived near it and to frequent it regularly. I just hope the art museums will be saved.
Yes Elise! The museums are wonderful. I loved the DeYoung, and the Legion of Honor!
Indeed, those very two were regulars for me!
Thanks for the memories!! The biggest surprise of my old age is being happy for all the years under my belt in a freer and more refined era.. no wish to be younger except maybe my knees. Here in NYC folks still dress up but the classiness is gone.. not even close to the magic of everyone at the opera in the fanciest dresses & long gloves.. even dressed to impress w one or two good pieces worn to shop and travel.. lucky us for those days!!
Pamela, I totally understand. I thank God every single day for what I, and many others, experienced.
Now I know why my grandfather always listened to 1930’s music. He just wanted to go back for a little while.
I’m 60 now, but as a young girl, I didn’t get it. Wow!
There will be no smart cities or 15 minute cities. They will be internment camps for laborers. Initially, they may set up a few "model" cities that seem amazing, replete with happy useful idiots, to ease concerns of the masses, but the real implementation won't be that.
If you're over 25 have no fears! They won't even want you in the internment camps, you're too old and know too much of what freedom is supposed to be and will only cause trouble and eat too much bug gruel. You're already on the extermination list by virtue of your age.
1,000 % TRUE this Comment
Dog wrote: "If you're over 25 have no fears! They won't even want you in the internment camps, you're too old and know too much..."
Yes - and, like the movie "Logan's Run," when you turn 30, you'll go up for "renewal" - only what you'll really be doing is becoming next week's Soylent Green...
...I was thinking Soylent Green as I read Dog's remark.
Their vetting out the implementation of the 'meat' factories for it even now.
Sadly, one of my favorite movies turns out to be predictive programming.
Potemkin Villages for young Wokesters, like that Microsoft 10 Paradise Hel joke... "break's over, heads back in the steaming shit pile".
Oldies in the Dumpster, no more of that "when I was young" crap!
Orrrr 8 billion people kill 6000 Billionaires, I mean 🤗 just sayin'!
Yah, my sibling lives in Seattle where a huge new retail-condo going up in their neighborhood, thrilled they can walk to all that stuff, have no idea what’s really ahead for us all
We are already at the stage of ""model" cities that seem amazing" ... with the likes of Gent (Belgium), Valencia and Barcelona (Spain), Arnhem (The Netherlands) and and and.. ..
Christ I am so opposed to the principle, but even I, was gob smacked at how ... well I HATE TO SAY IT; but good they were. HOWEVER I DID NOT 3 THINGS IN ALL OF ... like a common theme or thread ... after visiting them all within the past year / 18 months and different months ... 1. Cameras everywhere ... but the same cameras - all small, white 360 degree monitors tracking everything - point and surprise being the same model ... 2. All venues had "Pride" flags everywhere; even on the municipality of government buildings ... 3.. For me a smoker - most had just implemented a ban on smoking outside on the terrace (WTF ?) and made the people stand on the road; yes the road. We English ignored that of course LOL.
Obviously no cars, only a few taxis; e-bikes, e-scooters and normal bikes galore.. but there were a couple of other things, that I have forgotten for now.
PS 100% agree with your comment.
No doubt true, and equally true that many on the "extermination list" will be taking a few of them with each of us.
They have to have something to labor on........they are completely
eroding the tax base, the homeless will have to go rural and squat, plant some corn, raise some chickens.
We have come to a dangerous place
Even Trump has indicated we are going to "build new cities". 🙄
Not just the cities. Unity College, Maine - presumably done in by the COVID scam - recently proposed to house as many as 600 "asylum" seekers. [That's what the local propaganda rags call it, asylum; really? From where?] There might be a couple of dozen jobs on some local farms. None of them, BTW, in walking distance. Public transportation in rural maine? Hello?
It's easy to go from there to Mad Max scenario, where local militias have to form simply to protect local communities. People are asking, are we crazy to have to discuss this?
Maybe Unity could become a smart town. Too bad about the Amish community, I guess. Or maybe all these "asylum" seekers might join the Amish, get horses, farm.
I bring this up becuse it's not just the big cities.
That's for sure. Lahaina was not a city.
They are not allowing the Amish to exist. They chemically destroyed the farmland in Ohio, where the Amish are by the train spill.
This Amish Farmer in VA had to throw away in the trash $10,000 of beautiful farm raised beef. Can't be having healthy food for people to consume. It makes me sick and very angry. Thankfully people have done a little fundraising to help them w/their losses.
The Amish don't allow their picture to be taken so they had to find a woman to be photographed to manage the money via the GSG site. Which is yet another reason the gov't hates them, no photo ID, no internet social usage.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2023/08/18/golden-valley-farms-n2627121
There is zero doubt that massive chemical release was deliberate and interesting how a Republican Governor (RINO no doubt) signed on to that extreme act of environmental sabotage. A purge of the Republican party is needed. The DemonRats are a lost cause.
"Purge" is too nice a word...
Aways a fan of the Romania USSR dictator solution. Fast trial and to the wall.
Yup, one of my favorite stories. I have given up the hope Mitch Rapp is going to show up to save us. And since Americans can't turn off their Tv's we won't be like the Poles either. We allow the gummint to shut us down but we don't seem to be willing to return the favor.
Absolutely it was deliberate, just like all the food plants, Maui, etc.
The next big catastrophe could happen exactly where anyone of us sits. The fear is real that the gov't we fund is creating these "events".
That is the truth. It is like waiting for the other shoe to drop, whether it will be catastrophe or a sudden death.
I think they are going to be sent to an abandoned giant cell phone factory right outside our small town. The DoD bought it and is rehabilitating the entire 1.8 million square feet. Supposedly it’s installing a medical glove factory. It needs 1.8 million square feet? Maybe the coming inhabitants will work the glove making machines. I’m so suspicious. There is a road off the state highway in the back of the rolling hills property with an entrance. Trucks and buses could enter basically unseen. You can’t see the facility very well from the state highway in the front and federal keep out signs and cameras are now installed. We will see.
Or else a quarantine/concentration camp for the likes of us.
Wow, that is terrifying…..so much undercover, OMG, one can only imagine. do you know of the owners who had sold it?
When I think of the peepul I know who would never open one of Mark’s emails here, or read it, and the deliberate ignorance out there…..
Of course I don’t know this for sure. The last owner was arrested in Canada for securities fraud. It’s been one mess after another with that property. I could see a weapons contractor installed there but medical gloves? And federal guards?
The Amish are already finding out that Big Finance wants their land and will use regulations, taxes and climate change excuses to kick them off their land. They will find themselves living in the 15min ghetto cities like the rest of us.
Yah, sure and high school and college kids, coming home after a game, girls in shorts! Heaven—no Allah forbids! I fear for their safety in their innocence.
Sickening! How many words can one find?
The same thing with Detroit
They're trying to do it in every western country. The Globalists are resettling Ireland, a small nation with no history of colonialism. Aside from IT and finance jobs in Dublin, Ireland has small family farms and a service economy that caters to tourists. Ireland has a good education system and has little need for immigrants in their IT and banking sectors. The Irish have no qualms about working in pubs, hotels and golf courses - they don't need to bring in immigrants to do these jobs. Ireland has one of the higher birth rates in the west so they don't need to boost the population. The majority of the people are against immigration yet the globalist supported politicians and media are forcing it on them. We don't have a say.
It’s World Wide!
hoping the irish will rebel when they're limited to 2 guinesses a week https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12438233/Americans-limited-two-beers-strict-new-alcohol-guidelines-Bidens-booze-czar.html
Citizens need to realize they have gasoline and are millions
Citizens must realize that since Obama we are exporting oil and gas in a drain America first policy.
Finally something to motivate the lazier vigilantes.
Ireland was the first English colony.
Same thing in UK and EU ... maybe not to the same extent YET; but getting there quickly.
Canada too. There is a housing crisis in Canada that will take a decade to overcome but no politicians in any of the three major parties have the courage to ask that immigration numbers be reduced.
They all want to increase the population to one hundred million. They can't build houses and roads and provide health-care for the population now. Clearly a mental illness, in my opinion.
Canadians can not overcome the voting machines, ballot printing and vote counters
Central London is being hollowed out. Stores everywhere are "coffee shops" "sweet drinks" shops, sunglasses shops (no, not joking!) Everything to appeal to teens - (with their parents' cash to spend). A hard winter will kill it.
For now;but yes have seen it - embarrassing.
Remember the 15-minute neighbourhoods - containing everything ?; I think the buildings will be converted for the council, health service etc etc.. plus of course for more of us useless eaters as we are forced into the cities.
WEF has already stated that SMEs and independent shops will go; we willbe ordering from the internet, using our UBI in digital currency if we have behaved and our social credit score is OK, our Carbo footpring OK ... and it will be delivered by drone.
I don't think buildings will be converted, they'll be demolished an either replaced with towering rabbit hutch type residential buildings (cf China - metal doors welded shut during the 2020 debacle or, mixed class buildings with separate entrances for the low social credit score and the higher social credit score). The selling of "sunglasses" everywhere suggests to me the projection of images to start soon - if you have the "right" specs you'll see certain holographic images others won't. Thus everyone's experience of the environment will be controlled. A version of this in print media recently occurred re start date of wider ULEZ in greater London. Multiple blank pages (green block) & just a QR code.
Funny how we are all programmed to say China hey ?. I say that because I have ravelled to many of these plces and it was Japan that was number 1 in providing these "closets" for people to live in; China.. OR THE CHINA I SAW was the total opposite.
Still not convinced on the social credit score in China for the people... but did not look into it nor do I use a mobile phone... so could be wrong.
The sunglasses and the rest interest me though; so will look into that... cheers.
Israel implemented a certain amount of the SMART via mobile phone things that China has used extensively - eg only if you have the right profile (eg the health pass) were you allowed into stores (electronic gates) - or to open the glass fronted, locked cabinets in the stores. People (not sure if this is only in cities or everywhere), you have to have the right "profile" to be able to by a transport ticket. If a contact of yours is a "bad" profile, your profile will also be downgraded. Where we had traffic light systems to show whether we were allowed in the store - they've gone the step further in preventing you/the individual from transacting in any way they decide "for the common good", of course.
Wow
“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3
You don't want to see what they've done to my London. Heartbreaking.
I‘be met a few British people who said how hard Brits were doing…
It's not so much personal hardship, though there is that in places, but during the lockup they ripped the soul out of the physical London, bankrupt businesses, no rush hour, no one working in town, no hustle and bustle; even shutting all the public toilets to put people off going into town. You used to feel London. Now it feels like a strange shell of a city, just a collection of buildings. Lost all its sparkle.
There’s way too much influence from the US in places like London. Way too much cultural influence from the US all over Western Europe- that’s why they protested en masse more often about the lockdowns, which you eloquently describe as a lockup. Six feet apart struck me as oddly symbolic of death—- the term “six feet” for burial… of course in the UK they have a different system of measurement so “feet” doesn’t matter and I don’t know about their burial measurements…
What’s her name, Dr So and So, in her book said she just made up that six feet, no particular meaning to six feet… what an idiot.
But yes for folks who think, six feet, sure, that too
Not even her idea. Came from a 15 year old’s science project (with a little help from her dad) https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/11/06-0255_article
Wow…..I’ve said it before, where are all those rebels who had the bumper sticker “Question Authority” on their back window?
This whole series of comments and input in this update should give us pause for weeks to come You have our gratitude Mark, you share without piggieness $$, letting us all choose what we can afford to join.
Well of course then much research was employed
Good grief
They made the whole damn thingy up… this was just a little acutrement , a not so minor arbitrary indication…
I suspect the 6 feet came from some DoD-sponsored research trial about track-and-trace via cell phones. Probably not an accident.
that's a very interesting point about the 6 feet...yes in ireland and uk it was also 6 feet although we officially use the metric system
Yeah, it’s a loaded measurement for sure… if the measurements are the same or the instructions were the same it would be sort of threatening for people in rhe UK & Ireland
"Lost all it's sparkle". I feel that way about life in general these days.
And to think I believed it was just shit-headed incompetence... 🙄
"Incompetence" has joined "conspiracy theory" as one of the core shut up/don't question narrative cover-up phrases. The whipped up "why" explanation when the first-level ugly "what" becomes impossible to deny or hide.
And I thought I was weary and cynical..🤔
I like to say I wasn't born a cynic, just an observer. It's true.
(Mind you, that's only in relation to human-established paradigms. God's world remains unspeakably beautiful, innocent, and pure. The demons can't fit it all in their cesspool.)
Hafta admit to feeling that way myself …. This week
Hard to find the remedy for the spirit, seek out the beautiful and inspirational to keep fighting
A couple of shots of rye usually does it for me... 😘
Speak out in UK and the police will soon be at your door.
Big market in Europe for stab proof under garments
When you hear them admit to incompetence or "we just didn't have the experience" or "we could not anticipate" is a blatant tell that in reality it is devious conspiracy, likely financed by Davos.
Demoted to First Lieutenant or Lieutenant Junior Grade; until you bow your head in shame and say "Sorry; but I have awakened now".
True
I lived in Denver for 9 months and saw this firsthand. I have been travelling to Denver for the better part of 30 years to see my parents who live in Colorado. There is an enormous homelessness problem in Denver now. I befriended a homeless vet who was living under a bridge across the street from my apartment building. I tried to find housing for him during the winter because the temperature was sometimes below zero F at night. I called and emailed about a dozen homeless outreach and veterans' programs. Out of all of them, two organizations made promises to get back to me. No one followed through. The sense I got was that these organizations were overwhelmed. They didn't have the energy or resources to provide support for this vet.
I don't want to generalize because there are people in Denver trying to help the homeless. But the Democrats I knew and spoke to in Denver appeared to be pretty oblivious of the homeless. There were encampments of tents and sleeping bags across the street or down the block from their homes. I would see people riding expensive bicycles out of their yards, past the homeless.
It was not only the left who ignored the homeless. There are plenty of mainstream right war supporters in Denver. I watched young employees of military corps tool around in 70K vehicles with "Lockheed Martin" stickers, etc. They'd cruise down Speer Blvd. past the bridge under which Ernie, the homeless vet, slept every night. That really says something about the state of our country, also.
When they’ve destroyed the cities, the oligarchs will buy up the real estate at pennies on the dollar and reinstate law and order.
Result? Billions for them, bankruptcy for us.
Indeed. I am in touch with friends in Oahu who are fighting along with the residents of Maui to be heard. Yes They do have a plan to trash real owner’s properties and then build up their own dream condos, etc. The wickedness….. I could not have believed, ten years ago Okay, five years then….
Yes, and if any of us decide to protect our property, there will be more and more Ruby Ridges and Wacos to shut us down and teach us lessons - just like they're doing in DC with all the J6 prisoners being held on fake charges. Disgusting...we have to figure out creative ways to fight back.
Their version of "law and order" is a whole lot different than what we have come to know as law & order. In their version, if you are a member of the ruling class, you are exempt from all crime, including child sex slavery, if you are not, arbitrary rules enforced brutally will be called laws.
Where will they house the illegals in these new cities? Maybe they’ve been brought here to build them?
It should be interesting whether they push Covid vaccination with this group? I suspect they won’t. I hear some claim they will replace us. At one time that would have been a crazy notion, but the crazy train keeps expanding.
Aha, the old colonial approach: make the land unlivable for the inhabitants to drive them out, then take it over to rebuild it the way you want.
Or burn it down. And push up costs by forced evacuations or lockdowns, any excuse will do.
Oh, you mean like on Maui...?
Exactly like Maui. Turns out their DemonRat Governor is a top 15min ghetto proponent, spokesperson for the WEF @ Davos, Agenda 2030 all the way. And elsewhere wildfires that the government was repeatedly warned needed to be properly prevented, and standard methods rec'd in order to prevent the fires burning towns & cities. In pretty much every case the Gov't ignored the recommendations. Cut funding for wildfire prevention & forest management. And forced stupid expensive evacuations, that were entirely unnecessary. They're trying to destroy our country.
also heard on jimmy dore today how they've been sequestering and diverting the water for years and thus creating the dry scrub land
"wildfires" aka DEW + chemtrail accelerants. This was deliberate. #IntentionalHarm
I can confirm all that was said in this article about SF is sadly true.
The intentional act of allowing the infrastructure within major cities to decay while concurrently permitting an unending influx of migrants, but turning a blindeye to hundreds of thousands of homeless, drug addicts, and the insane while at the same time sanctioning "smash and grab" lawlessness at major shopping centers are all part of a deliberate agenda by psychopathic elite ghouls to gather public consent for totalitarianism.
Portland same. Spreading fast throughout Oregon.
My guess, within 5 years total collapse. Grid goes down, China takes over with helpnof Russian Nukes, 90 percent of Americans dead by 2035.
When is Eastern Oregon going to smarten up and separate from Oregon or join Idaho?
Good stuff, Mark, as usual, but stop calling it the “democratic” party. It is the DEMOCRAT PARTY. "Democrat" can also be used as an adjective, though I understand that nomenclature thuds on the English-hearing ear. There’s nothing democratic about the democrat party, as the DNC treatment of Bernie Sanders proved in 2016 (just ask Seth Rich) and as their disenfranchising of RFK Jr. is proving now.
Democrat Party is a Terrorist Organization.
Yes, this drives me Nuts!!
Didn’t Rush decide never to use “Democratic Party”. ?
Another one, ticks me off is when the media always uses “gentleman” for gender. You mean, “the gentleman who raped her”? That one? Gentleman doesn’t mean the same these days, so don’t use it unless you know he is one.
Thank you! Exactly right.
Yup, controlled demolition, everywhere, all at once. Herding, herding herding...
I am inclined to agree with Ed Dowd, these cities all over the world well be controled by warlords and you well pay takes to them for food and protection or else
Thumbs up on Ed Dowd 👍👍👍
that's already happening in LA and SF. Can't find the article, but SF hired ex-cons to clean up the streets and instead they became kingpins of the streets -- with no accountability.
Related links though:
https://www.piratewires.com/p/let-them-eat-crack
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/theres-poop-everywhere-san-franciscos-office-district-not-only-ghost-town-its-also
That is exactly right! Can one force be as ugly as the one we are facing now globally? I knew when the Notre Dame burned on and on that something was wrong. Nothing accidental about that either. It's trying to spell doom over and over but they can all go to hell.