Driving up a slight incline on the diagonal street, I caught site of the City Lights Bookstore to my left, inhabiting a much larger building then it had in my imagination. I checked to my right for the possibility of a way-too-lucky parking spot, but it did not exist, so I thought "Of course, Columbus is a busy street," and made a turn off to the left into residential streets. But still no luck, cars everywhere, every seemingly empty space marked red or hiding a driveway. I turned left and right and left again, back past the bookstore lurking in my mind's eye as I tried to keep my sense of direction stable, driving every which way around and around. For twenty minutes, I kid you not. While trying to keep my frustration and road rage under the surface, I realized that San Francisco was not made for cars, and that I was not made for driving in the city.
I also realized that being in a car made the bookstore that much more inaccessible to me, and in fact if I had taken the bus or bart and walked it would have been much simpler. It made me consider my privilege as a college student to have a car, and the irony of the situation. Now of course I could have extended my parking search out a few more blocks in either direction (or paid $15-20 flat rate for parking) and I could have made it work. But it was nearing sunset and my "nice trip to the city" was quickly unraveling, so I gave up and moved on to North Beach where I spent time walking around Fort Mason and got dinner from a food truck selling creative grilled cheese sandwiches.
If I get the chance before the end of the quarter it would be nice to try this bookstore adventure again with more time and preparation, and have the chance to browse the literary selection and get my picture taken by the doorway, but in the mean time here is a picture that I did not take.
How unfortunate that you didn't get to go in! If you managed to park up in North Beach, it's only really a twenty minute walk down to the book shop if you are so able, and there are buses that make that run as well, but I don't know what situation you found yourself in at the time. I'm curious as to why exactly that made you feel privileged as college student with a car?
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point about how inaccessible the city is with a car, and how it seems like cars simply do not belong in the city.
ReplyDeleteI love SF, and visit my boyfriend who live in Marin county every weekend. Sometimes we go to the city, and I would love to go more often, but every time we make plans to go, we are like "ugh we have to drive, and park, and we both drive stick", which is like the age old complaint about driving in the city. I would love to visit more often, but the fact that Bart does not run from San Rafael, or anywhere in Marin county really, makes it really difficult for us to get out there. In a way, it seems kind of inaccessible to us even though its like 20 minutes away, and that has always seemed ridiculous to me. There is the ferry, but then you are restricted by the hours it runs, and it does not run very often, or very late.
It almost alludes to the point that the land the city was built on was meant to be inaccessible, or at least not meant to be turned into the imperial city we have turned it into. If you think about it, the city is all hills that wind and twist and turn, and when you are driving on those streets, stressed out of your mind because of all the traffic and hills, it feels kind of unnatural and wrong to be driving in the city.
Christiana-
ReplyDeleteAs I think many of us will concur, this seems to be the inevitable SF-noob experience. I hail originally from Southern California, a land built for and around the concept of the automobile. Ironically enough, my first visit to SF was not quite so bad. I stayed at a hostel and, no thanks to my poor planning, lucked out on a complimentary parking spot. I spent those few days exploring the city by foot and public transit and absolutely loved my time - there is nothing quite like experiencing a city for the first time unmediated by rubber, glass, and a few thousand pounds of metal. After moving the Santa Cruz, though, I found that my experiences in the city became exponentially more frustrating. This was, of course, due to the same reason as you - I was stuck in my (expletive) car! I raged. Pure, unadulterated, Southern California gas-sucking psycho driver rage. And if you want real fun, try parking in Chinatown. But when I calmed down a bit (finally satiated by inhuman amounts of vegetable pork buns), I started to realize just how silly my frustration was. I had spent years declaiming the age of cars and the polluting, destructive, lethargizing effects it brought with it, only to renounce my convictions as soon as it became even minutely inconvenient. As time has moved forward, the city has become more and more congested with traffic, but it wasn't always this way, and the city itself was not constructed with automobiles in mind. This makes San Francisco possibly the perfect city for the institution of future alternatives. Why not make the city more bike and pedestrian friendly and encourage folks to leave the Prius at home? I still drive to the city now and then, but when I do, I am sure to keep in mind the situation that awaits me when I arrive.
I know that when I visit my friend in the city, or go to a Giants game, I almost always take Bart. Once I'm in the city, I find that traveling on foot is really the easiest way to go. Driving involves parking garages that I don't really have money for, alongside a lot of navigation that the streets don't really help you out with. Have you ever tried using a GPS in San Francisco? I swear, the city has some sort of magnetic wave that disrupts all GPS functionality (kidding, of course. It wouldn't surprise me though).
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, it's also how I've lived in Santa Cruz these last 4 years. I have a car back in Vacaville that I use to drive to Vallejo where I work, but I always travel to Santa Cruz by train and bus, and just use the bus system to travel while I'm here. Like with San Francisco, owning a car in Santa Cruz would just be too expensive for me to really benefit from, although maybe that's due to UCSC's parking expenses more than anything else.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI currently have a car that I frequently use in Santa Cruz, and I must say that I find myself in similar situations here. I even drive my car to campus! Not only are there economical and ecological benefits from exploring without an automobile, but the cities nooks and crannies are now easily accessible for the urban flaneur. New subterranean spots are found this way, and the mental atlas of whichever city your in is exponentially expanded as soon as you leave the car at home.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post!
Gotta go put air in my bike tires.
I also do not own a car and every time I head up to the city it's either on a train from San Jose's Diridon Station or via a rideshare. Taking the train takes awhile, but it's a nice little jaunt and I normally use the time to read or write.
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco is definitely a walking/busing city. I have a friend living there who does not own a car and one who does. The one with the car rarely uses it and, in the instances in which he does, he tends to just drive it to the nearest BART station and park it.
Bryan, I also come from Southern California and down there, it is nearly impossible to function without a car. That whole area is inaccessible without private transportation. The public transportation is severely lacking.