Picto Diary - 05 November 2019 - San Francisco Anecdotes (Part Three)

Above: Downtown San Francisco. 05 November 2019.

Image captured from roof deck of The Battery.

FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING. 05 November 2019

Cocktails on the roof. Three quarter moon.

Talked to a despondent, native San Franciscan here on the deck. Limited Partner investor rep. Bemoaned the decline of California. High taxes, skilled people moving out, unskilled people...dependents moving in, bad roads, growing homeless population, lousy public education, unreliable electric power, yada. Said CA in general, and SF in particular, nearing a tipping point. — at The Battery.

Above: Battery Street. San Francisco, CA. 05 November 2019.

Image looks north from Market Street.

FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING 05 November 2019

Battery Street. 8:00 PM.

I walked the 3/4 mile southbound from the Battery Club to Market Street. At least a dozen homeless men were ensconced, preparing for overnight, in closed business entrance ways. In a couple of instances the air reeked of urine as I walked by.

As I was "there," homelessness became less of an abstraction and more of a reality. Looking at these men, I felt genuine sorrow...for the men themselves...how can people live like this?...and for the community.

Battery Street is not some skid row warehouse area, it's right smack in the financial district, one of the wealthiest spots in America. So, I also ask, how can a "community" live like this...allowing its citizens to live in a cardboard box in the middle of a wealthy city in sub 50 degree overnight temperatures?

This is not compassion. Its brazen insouciance. — in San Francisco, California.