Paul Berens

San Francisco

SF has been home for the last .

It’s tragically broken—hic manebimus optime?—due to a convergence of factors, but safe to say it’s mostly due to the city’s political structure and dynamics.1234

However, overall, its flaws are overcome by its beauty and charming fog; its interesting people and its eccentricities; and Rice-A-Roni.

I concur with Om Malik:

In San Francisco, technologies, new ideas, and people collide randomly in the oddest of places, at the oddest of times. Much of this has to do with the density of techies. In a way, that in itself is a self-fulling [sic] destiny.

Example from my own life: the family organizer app we rely upon was built by our former downstairs neighbor.

Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach Baker Beach, December 2013.

  1. Gibson, Michael, “San Francisco’s Slow-Motion Suicide”, National Review, Apr. 8, 2019. 

  2. Arroyo, Noah, “65% of San Franciscans say life in the city is worse now than when they moved here”, San Francisco Chronicle, Sep. 13, 2022. 

  3. Moritz, Michael, “Even Democrats Like Me Are Fed Up With San Francisco”, New York Times, Feb. 26, 2023 

  4. Heller, Nathan, “What Happened to San Francisco, Really?”, The New Yorker, Oct. 16, 2023