We are off to Philadelphia tomorrow, so it’s been a few days of whirlwind cleaning and shopping here. Living in San Francisco means that you are nearly always unprepared for the climate you’re traveling to. I always first go into denial (pants will be fine in mid-80 degree weather), then concern (except, none of us can handle temperatures above 70 anymore), then frantic shopping (SHORTS, Size 4T, STAT), back to denial (how hot could it be?), then rationalization (I’m not going to spend all this money on clothes we’ll never wear in SF; we’ll be fine.)
And then we spend the first couple days in our new locale shopping for more appropriate clothing. Sigh. This is how I end up wandering the scorching hot Sonora Desert wearing a black wool sweater, black skinny jeans, and sneakers. I took my scarf off at least.
From around the webs:
The Kitchn rounded up five grown up things you should be doing in the kitchen. Double sigh. See above. I fail grown up class every time.
A photo to remind you that you really need to park behind the white line along any Muni route. Don’t be that guy.
Transit nerds, this one’s for you. Watch transit networks for 249 cities worldwide move in (soothing, captivating) real time. It’s like watching a subway ballet.
Three humpback whale friends swam into the bay this week. Awesome takeaway quote: “The three were together for a time and then two headed for Alcatraz while the third made its way toward Tiburon. ‘I guess one of them was looking for something a little more upscale,’ [Mary Jane Schramm, a spokeswoman for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary] said.” Snooty Bay Area whale joke! Well done, Ms. Schramm!
Speaking of going high brow, Sylvia at SlyWit has a terrific and hysterical rundown of opera plots in 101 words or less. (Part II here.) It’s all mistaken stabbings, tuberculosis, hell demons, and woe. Absolutely splendid, laugh out loud funny.
On the state of SF housing, Supervisor David Campos’ commissioned study on AirBNB’s effect on the SF housing market came out this week, and it’s not great. The report estimates nearly 2,000 rental units have been taken off the market to be used as AirBNB lodging. This goes hand in hand with Mission Local’s chart on disappearing housing supply.
Finally, an even more serious discussion on housing, Richard Rothstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. was on Fresh Air this week to discuss our government’s racist housing policy past. It’s a must-listen, to understand how the first suburbs in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s explicitly segregated the races (it was in the deeds, y’all) pursuant to federal loan recommendations and how the housing boom that followed created socioeconomic divisions that continue on today, generations later. We read many of the court cases in law school (UPHOLDING THE RACIST DEEDS), and I was still shocked.
