{"id":8910,"date":"2024-02-27T20:58:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T20:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=8910"},"modified":"2024-03-11T21:03:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T21:03:06","slug":"cool-gray-city-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/cool-gray-city-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool Gray City of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Dear San Francisco<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

A writer\u2019s exploration of San Francisco\u2014square mile by square mile\u2014opens our eyes to the wonder of really seeing the places we live.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Review by Sara Holston<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Most of us don\u2019t think much about where we live. Outside the shops or stops in our orbit, the towns and cities we live in are just the background to where we really reside\u2014the streets we travel; the stores where we shop; the offices where we work; the bars or coffee shops where we socialize.<\/p>

But in Cool Gray City of Love, <\/em>lifelong Bay Area resident Gary Kamiya spends 360 pages thinking about San Francisco. After decades living and working and biking there, Kamiya decided to be more intentional about his exploration of his city. He broke it into 49 square-mile chunks and began immersing himself in them, one by one, getting to know every corner of every neighborhood and mapping these new perspectives onto the city he\u2019d known his entire life.<\/p>

His resulting work is a collection of 49 vignettes about San Francisco, weaving together history, personal anecdotes, and observations from his exploration. And, like the city it celebrates, this book is unlike anything else of its ilk. Some of the chapters explore the history of the neighborhoods on which they focus (and, through that, the history of the city as a whole). Others are reflections on what it\u2019s like to be in those neighborhoods, or what kind of character they have. A few are just excuses to talk about more general iconic aspects of the city\u2014its old bohemian spirit, or its capricious and untamable weather. Kamiya is poetic in his odes to the magic of the city, and he is also unflinching in baring its darker corners and sometimes sordid past. Underlying all of it is a kind of tenderness; Cool Gray City of Love <\/em>is, above all else, a love letter to San Francisco.<\/p>

It’s an easy and hard city to love. It\u2019s no secret that San Francisco has fallen on tough times in the past decade, and the news stories about San Francisco\u2014that it is full of violent crime, surrounded by rampant forest fires, littered with human waste on the street, and stalked by speculation about the overdue Big One\u2014have well-earned it the descriptor \u201capocalyptic.\u201d In their wake, it sometimes feels like all anyone can see are the scars and blotches on its surface. But there\u2019s something in the water in San Francisco, and despite its (many, many) flaws, you\u2019ll fall in love with it if you open yourself to its magic\u2014I\u2019ve seen it happen to most people I know here, and I felt it happen in myself. Reading Cool Gray City of Love <\/em>is like watching this enchantment happen to Kamiya, while seeing the effects of that transformation at the same time, mingling with his own memories and history in this place.<\/p>

In a chapter on one of San Francisco\u2019s lost waterways, at Sixth and Channel Streets, Kamiya writes about the vanished waters of San Francisco, now only peeking through in places like Mission Bay, where just outside Giant\u2019s stadium you\u2019ll find a four-block stretch of water that is all that\u2019s left of Mission Creek. He notes that \u201ccities are museums of time, and to live in them is to be haunted by the places they once were.\u201d<\/p>

He writes about his own neighborhood, Nob Hill, which he describes as a place where \u201ceverything essential to the city is jammed together, the rich and the poor, the sublime and the ridiculous, the ethereal and the raunchy. It\u2019s where the city\u2019s tectonic plates meet.\u201d He tells a story about the history of his own house, situated between the battered back building, turned into a cramped tenement, and the modernist $2.5 million condo across the street. This historical chapter feels different from the ones on the Gold Rush or the AIDS crisis, offering a window into a part of the city\u2019s history (and present) that isn\u2019t captured by the books\u2014that is only really seen by the locals.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Reading Kamiya\u2019s book, I\u2019ve come to realize that a big part of my love for San Francisco comes down to one thing\u2014it\u2019s the city that I know.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

As the book draws to an end, Kamiya concludes his exploration in the only place he could\u2014Land\u2019s End, at the mouth of the Golden Gate Strait. And as he reflects on that last square-mile before the open ocean, he writes: \u201cThe place in the world I love most happens to be San Francisco. It could have been somewhere else, but it isn\u2019t.\u201d After 359 pages celebrating everything that makes San Francisco special, this might seem like a surprising admission. But I think it\u2019s profoundly true. The whole world around us is the divine creation of God\u2014in some sense, nowhere within it is more inherently sacred or special than anywhere else. But, by the same token, all places are sacred and special, and knowing them more fully enables us to see them as such.<\/p>

When I moved to San Francisco shortly after college, I thought I would be there for at most two years. I didn\u2019t intend to stay, and I didn\u2019t expect I\u2019d ever feel differently about that. It was happenstance that the pandemic hit about a year in, and I found myself waiting for things to settle down before making any big life changes. It was a gift that I got to see the city begin\u2014slowly\u2014to remake itself on the other side, and in the process to see it anew.<\/p>

So for me, too, it could have been some place other than San Francisco that I fell in love with. And maybe, someday, the place I love the most will be somewhere else. But reading Kamiya\u2019s book, I\u2019ve come to realize that a big part of my love for San Francisco comes down to one thing\u2014it\u2019s the city that I know.<\/p>

In my comparatively paltry explorations, I\u2019ve discovered some of the city\u2019s secrets myself. I know that there\u2019s a piano bar downtown with an open mic, and I know that if you go late on Monday nights it fills up with actors and actresses stopping through on tour and enjoying their night off. The performances (and the martinis!) are phenomenal. I know that a few blocks from the water\u2014just on the other side of Levi\u2019s classic startup-turned-megasuccess complex\u2014there\u2019s a winding staircase hidden in the trees and ascending a cliff face dotted with cozy homes. And while, admittedly, that does feature in one of Kamiya\u2019s chapters, I know where to find a garden just off the path that\u2019s open for anyone to drop by for a quiet lunch.<\/p>

It\u2019s a familiar idea, that knowing and loving are intimately intertwined. So it\u2019s no surprise, really, that by coming to really know San Francisco, I fell in love with it\u2014from its dirty streets to its unearthly sunsets. I love its endless fog, and its fake \u201crain\u201d and, well, maybe I still don\u2019t love the earthquakes. But I can live with them. After all, \u201cthese are the kinds of things that happen when you live on a jagged peninsula at the end of the continent, under a torn-open sky, in a city that is only borrowed from the sea.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Sara Holston<\/strong> is a student at HLS, and the current Managing Editor of Fare Forward. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco<\/strong> was published by Bloomsbury USA on August 6, 2013. You can purchase a copy from the publisher here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A writer\u2019s exploration of San Francisco\u2014square mile by square mile\u2014opens our eyes to the importance of really seeing the places we live. Review by Sara Holston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Cool-Grey-City-of-Love-3D.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8910"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9210,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910\/revisions\/9210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}