Once a month, I publish a post that’s more newsy than it is literary — more like we’re walking around the neighborhood together than like you’re solely on the receiving end of a newsletter update.
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What’s going on in San Francisco isn’t just media hype. Perhaps you’ve seen or heard the news: major retailers and hotels, such as Nordstrom, Whole Foods Market, and the Hilton, have left the downtown shopping district, mostly due to petty crime, a significant decrease in sales, homelessness, and the Fentanyl drug crisis. The City by the Bay has long held a spot on the map, but the pandemic changed things. When corporations enforced work-from-home policies, all of those leased buildings downtown sat empty — and when all of those buildings sat empty, retail workers who staffed nearby coffee shops and restaurants had to find new jobs as well.
As it goes, Powell Street, which is bordered on one side by the financial district and the infamous Tenderloin on the other side, felt the trickle-down effect more so than any other major city. All of it is, well, a lot. But I find myself curious about the many friends and residents who live on the other side of the 49-square-foot city, who continue to call the beloved place home. How is all of this affecting them? How is it changing their quality of life, if at all? What will it take to rebound from this downfall? (Read this article for more)
Sometimes recipes friends post on the Internet really are the best. I hosted book club on Saturday morning, and as the story often goes, an hour or so before my friends came over, I realized I needed to get my act together and feed them. I’ve never been a Martha Stewart, everything-has-to-be-perfect kind of person, but I do want to, you know, feed the people when they show up at my house. So, I made an old stand-by that never fails to shine: Baked Pancake with Saucy Fruit. It’s a recipe that an old Internet-friend once posted in a guest blog post article (remember those?) over ten years ago, and it’s one I continue to visit regularly today. This recipe is pretty similar.
I am pretty much a pickle ball professional. Seeing as I played pickle ball for the first time in my life last night, at one point, my imagination got the best of me. Visions of Serena Williams started dancing through my head, like I was somehow one of the Williams sisters on a little East Bay pickle ball court. But y’all, let me just set the record straight: I looked more like an 88-year old granny hobbling across the court, afraid my knees were going to give out if I ran too hard. Still, it was pretty fun.
That’s it for now! Hit me up with your three quick things, including your prowess on the pickle ball court.