SILVER ATTACHÉ CASES FILLED WITH CASH

In the last week or so I read more than one writer in the local press claim that the current sea-change San Francisco is undergoing is nothing new, that newcomers have always been arriving, and this is just a new generation coming in.

That’s not quite true. While there's always been a new generation coming into the City every 20 years or so, the current influx shift is more than generational – it’s a whole new economic strata or class.

The following quote illustrates what I mean by that:

“Some of the wealthy young people are literally coming down [to buy a cordo or apartment] with bags of cash, and whatever the offer price is, they’re offering $200,000 over – in cash.’

– Cobalt Corazon (click here for full article

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/3/san-francisco-affordable-housing-is-unaffordable.html

Better than bags of cash

is showing up with a silver attaché case neatly stacked with rows of benjamins.

                                                                 

This is no longer a city you move to. This is a city you buy in to.

But that’s the way it is in San Francisco 2015, our Monaco-by-the-Bay, the City of the Future!

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/I-just-moved-to-San-Francisco-and-now-I-m-6316605.phphttp://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/I-just-moved-to-San-Francisco-and-now-I-m-6316605.php

Copyright © by Chris Enquist 6/11/15

NOTHING SAYS NEW MONEY LIKE: THE ROCKWELL (#2 in a series)

Yet another blog about the nouveau riche oligeeks* of Pacific Heights (*from a recent Leah Garchik column in the SF Chronicle) pouring into the City. This time the focus is on the Rockwell (where do they get these names?)

Rockwell Sales Office, Polk Street

another $600K plus condo/townhouse development now undergoing construction at the corner of Pine and Franklin.

A woman I know recently called San Francisco ‘Monaco-by-the-Bay’. I could see her point. At the present level of rents ($3,000+), the only current and future residents of the city will be people with incomes of $100,000 a year or more. It’s a place I could never afford to live in if I didn’t already.

The closing poem is by David Nelson Fox and is taken from his blog (click here for the link to which appears after the poem:)

San Francisco, Slightly Used

 Settling for things is OK by me.
I don't need to eat out
As often as I used to

Don't need a blow-out night
Of state-of-the-art sushi
Or French, or artful presentation.

It would be nice to afford
A day at the museum
A night of inventive dance

Or mid-run theater by a friend
A film or band, something odd
With a chance of spectacular,

Something I used to do
On a bookstore salary
On a whim. Well, a whim with a budget.

Visiting the city that inspired me,
Where I live, is out of reach.
I rush through the halls

Of the museum of what I used to do,
As the speakers announce it will close soon.

David Nelson Fox
5/6/2015: 8:35 PM, 9:20 PM

http://davidnelsonfox.blogspot.com/

Copyright © by Chris Enquist 5/21/15