Reports of the demise of San Francisco are premature

We attempt to make the case for an SF reset

On weekends, we don’t make coffee. We order it from Philz as a little treat. With the pandemic, Philz is only taking mobile orders, which means ordering with an app.

Between the extra step of having to place the order remotely and the fact that you can’t go inside the store, I figured they were probably struggling.

“Making any money?” I asked the guy at the door when he handed me the cups.

“We’re doing better now than we were before,” he said.

Really? He said people were so eager to get out that they were getting tons of pickups. And the app, he said, was no problem. In fact, he’d heard they were years ahead of the number of users they expected.

Maybe I’m way off the mark here, but that felt like a bellwether moment.

This virus, and economic free fall, has everyone freaked about the future of San Francisco. I’ve done a bit of freaking myself.

It makes perfect sense. The restaurant industry has already proved to be, as they always warned us, built on a very slender profit margin. With the shutdown, a lot of place are not just on hiatus, they’re closed for good.

And, local companies — yes, a lot of them are tech — have been forced to allow employees to work remotely. And it turns out that rather than drinking tequila and napping on the couch all day, the workers got stuff done.

So now, the theory goes, working in a comfortable home setting could be a reasonable alternative. All that office space may not be needed. And workers realize they don’t have to pay crazy rent to live in San Francisco. They can leave the city and keep their job.

It’s a perfect storm. Workers leave downtown, office space is empty and the restaurants and bars that made SF so charming are gone. San Francisco becomes a hollowed out husk.

And maybe that will happen.

Except . . . last week local restaurants opened for outdoor dining. We made a Saturday night reservation at MoMo’s, by the ballpark. That afternoon we took a walk along the waterfront and noticed that ATWater was open. So we went in and had a little snack and a beer.

And then we got word that Mission Rock was serving dinner. As a pre-Father’s Day celebration, my wife made us a Thursday night reservation.

So without really meaning to, we went out to eat three times in six days. (And let’s take a moment to say we recognize we are fortunate we can do that. These are difficult times for many people who can not.)

But what we noticed was that in every case, every table was full. There weren’t as many tables because of social distancing, but there was clearly a huge enthusiasm for going out to eat.

Some of which may have just been cabin fever. But not all of it, I don’t think.

This is going to be a rough time for this city. But it, it is worth remembering, it is still San Francisco. The wisdom of the founding fathers, who elected to dredge out a huge, glittering bay at the edge of the city, is validated. It is still a gorgeous place, from hilltop to hilltop.

And it remains a sophisticated, world-class city. Those diners last week know a little something about food. They appreciate good dining. There’s a foodie culture here, from those who love to eat good food to those who create it.

It’s an innovative place too. You know the concern restaurants had about re-using menus? At ATWater they had a scan card on each table. You view it with your phone’s camera, it clicks and the menu is on your phone, touch-free.

And sure, you can take your laptop and live in a cabin in Tahoe. But you are likely to find that you miss a place that is actually a collection of little neighborhoods, separate and distinct.

We have to assume that housing prices are going to fall in this crisis. Rents too. The pandemic may do what City Hall has tried and failed to manage for decades, make housing more affordable. Last week someone told us his landlord, unasked, offered a rent reduction.

Which could work for night life too. Maybe this will be the end of those “the landlord tripled our rent" stories. We know we have the smart, creative chefs and artists here. If they can weather the current crisis, who says they won’t be able to afford to move back and give the city a re-start?

The good news is the real economic engine of SF won’t go away. Tourists are not traveling now. But they will. They spent $10 billion — that’s right, billion — in 2019, before this happened. People will still love coming here — eventually.

It’s a thought anyhow. The other day my adult son was talking about taking a long walk in the city. He said it was warm and sunny enough to wear shorts, with just enough light breeze to keep it cool. And he said, thinking of the 90+ temperatures on the other side of the bridges, “the weather here is just about perfect.”

He’s right. Granted the next few months (at least) are going to suck. But this is a city that built itself up from an earthquake and fire. It’s San Francisco. I like our chances.

As usual Herb Caen has the best line. And every good writer knows when to steal a good line. So . . .

Herb said he expected when he got to heaven he’d look around and say, “It’s nice. But it’s not San Francisco.”

This is when writers of newsletters make a pitch for support. And I do have a special offer. If you act now, a subscription is free. Of course, if you act later it will also be free, but why not get this off your plate and click on the button?

Memo to dad: it’s not that important

All right, we know Father’s Day is over. And yes, this is a Father’s Day column I wrote for Sunday's Santa Rosa Press Democrat. But honestly, it did get a nice reaction from readers.

The idea came about after texting with my kids as Dad Day approached. And it made me think about how much time we spend on youth sports when they were growing up. And how, looking back on it, how we (and me in particular) got way too carried away with how important it all was.

I would say that I think I got better. It wasn’t like I was screaming at the refs — except for the time my daughter clearly got back onside before she scored a goal. It was a lot of time driving to tournaments and sitting in high school bleachers. And for the most part it was a positive, good experience. But like a lot of dads, there were times when I thought a game or a race was one of the most important things in the world.

It is not.

So all those fireworks and booms at night? I thought it was just us. Turns out it is happening in LA, NY and elsewhere. And how do we know that? Because someone shared that information. Sharing. What a concept. Maybe you’d like to share this, for example? Just click on the button.

Back by popular (and unpopular) demand —kneeling during the national anthem

We don’t even know if there is going to be an NFL season. And given the way baseball and the NBA have been floundering around, an NFL opener has got to be a 50-50 call at best.

But if there is a season, here’s a more likely prediction — kneeling during the national anthem will return. If anything, given the current climate of racial unrest, the movement is likely to be stronger than ever.

I wrote about that in this post for the 49ers blog in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

As I said, all the factors are there from the big 2017 controversy — players kneeling and President Trump making it an angry campaign issue.

By the way, some seem to have forgotten how widespread the protest was in 2017. It wasn’t just Colin Kaepernick. After Trump shouted “Get that son of a bitch off the field,” over 200 players participated in some sort of protest. It was a big deal.

But there are two differences now. First, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made a video, saying the league should have taken player concerns more seriously. And second, polls show Americans have changed their minds and now understand, and appreciate, the protests.

If there’s a season, and if players kneel, expect the reaction to be much different this year.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments welcome. Criticism, not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius