While this winter hasn't been particularly harsh here in Michigan, any chance I have to escape for a while I relish the opportunity. This past weekend (and then some) I got to visit a place that's been on my bucket list for quite some time: San Francisco.I am lucky enough to have a friend who now lives in Berkeley, which if you're unfamiliar, as I was, Berkeley is across the bay from San Francisco, practically a suburb. If San Francisco were Detroit then Berkeley would be, well, Berkley.
I had a quick trip, flying in late on Saturday night and leaving early on Wednesday morning, but the few days were enough to make me yearn for the bay area even more.
I've always envisioned myself as a person who would enjoy the west coast, particularly San Francisco northward. Los Angeles is still not attractive to me, but I'm sure one day I'll visit. After visiting the bay area, I can't imagine life without it, and my desire to move west has increased tenfold.It was one thing to wake up every morning to a crisp temperature that you knew would warm during the day, unlike February mornings in Michigan where that temperature at seven a.m. may well be the high temperature for the day. It was another thing to venture into my friend's parking lot and peer down the foggy mountainside for the mysteries below. It was another thing entirely to turn around and see the bay laid out before me. While trees prevented complete views of the entire bay area, the little sliver of view was more than enough.
I had a fair amount of time to explore the city and major attractions on my own and a bit of time to have a guide in the shape of my resident friend. While there were so many things to see and enjoy, the three most prominent things I noticed were the multiculturalism, the sense of community, and the integration of all these different cultures. Naturally, I am forced to compare my experience with my experience of living in Detroit.
I generally feel that Detroit has a large sense of multiculturalism just as San Francisco does. What I found to be quite different was that San Francisco generally celebrated these differences in areas such as Chinatown, North Beach (the Italian neighborhood), French roadsigns, and of course the 'hippie' area in Haight-Ashbury. Each neighborhood was distinct and yet integrated into the landscape. It was never something that you felt like you were in a new city or encroaching into another culture, but that each of these cultures was what made the city thrive.In my experiences in Detroit, this is a very different idea. While you can certainly experience different cultures, its like the neighborhoods were established to maintain identity and keep a stark border, not to celebrate our differences. This is the main part of that third thing I noticed; a stronger integration of cultures in San Francisco. This integration, both in race and culture, seems to be missing from the multiculturalism in Detroit.
It was my last day in San Francisco when I noticed while riding in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) that the collection of people in my car was very widespread. Being the entry port of Asia there were naturally many Asian people, but also African-Americans, all of us whities, and a wide variety of languages being spoken. And what was more interesting to me was the large number of multi-racial couples that didn't garner weird looks. And being San Francisco there were many same sex couples as well. People weren't eyeing each other through sideways glances and people weren't clumped with people who looked like them, everyone was just riding to work or school or wherever they were going.This to me is the starkest different between San Francisco and my experiences in the Midwest. Its not that Detroit doesn't have different people and its not that the Midwest doesn't have culture, but the wide acceptance of different peoples doesn't seem to be as present. We have our neighborhoods and we have our sections of the city where people live, but there doesn't seem to be much co-mingling. Keep in mind this is based solely on observation and not on any other hard evidence. I'm sure a quick search would tell me if San Francisco deals with many similar problems of segregation, but the perception for this outsider is that they have it right. People are people, no matter how they look.
The final observation and the one that makes me most attracted to the area is the strong sense of community. Its possible that it was so stark for me because I live in Detroit, a place where each suburb tries so hard to be distinct from the next and where borders are incredibly important. Its also possible that it was simply where I was or who I was with, but regardless, I felt a sense of community that doesn't exist where I live. I took a walk one night through my friend's neighborhood and saw many people on the streets and in their yards who would say hello or were simply out enjoying the wonderful evening. Cars flew by with a friendly sense of acknowledgment that I was a pedestrian, unlike in Detroit where if you don't have a car you're more likely to get a honk or some stare downs instead of respect on the roadway. Cyclists integrate seamlessly with traffic and while some are bolder than I could ever be, there is a respect that these people, like you, are just trying to get somewhere.I have a hard time capturing what this feeling of community really was. Because I feel that the Midwest still has a warmer hospitality than California, but the community and acknowledgment that we're all in it together seemed to be stronger in the bay area. And this was a feeling not just in San Francisco, but also in Berkeley and in the towns near Berkeley and the towns north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. And it seemed to transcend neighborhoods that were high tourist and neighborhoods that were slightly off the beaten path.
Again, I only observed a very small slice of the bay area, but the fact that I felt this in this small sliver leads me to believe that it is evident throughout the area.
I had a wonderful trip. The sights are gorgeous and the city is moving. I felt like a part of something there and I was there for just three short days. I can only anticipate the next time I shall return.
