I like this picture because it really tells you something about San Francisco. What do the French say? "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." (Aplogies to Delphine and my high school French teacher: I'm too lazy to go looking for the accent marks.)
My neighborhood has changed enormously in the last several years. This picture could be an emblem of its past. Where was it taken?
I set the camera on the fence here, and pointed it into the yard the fence encloses...
The yard belongs to this building...
Which is someone's little holly roller church.
Do you think the pastor sleeps in the van? Cooks his breakfast on the grill?
This little church is quite literally around the corner from my house. Frequent visitors can probably intuit what kind of neighborhood I live in from the many pictures I've shown on my blog. As the future rolls in, things are trending inexorably...nicer. Without really trying, I end up showing you scenes of many things that are fading away. That's because I blog what I'm drawn to.
Maybe you can imagine what kinds of conversations people in Bernal Heights have when they talk about living here. I don't have any big judgments to make. The changes going on are much bigger than me. I just think it's funny that no matter how nice it gets, there's still a certain weediness just behind the fence.
4 comments:
Maybe you could do much more. It's time for you to try some guerilla gardening in SF. You have already found your first target. This night, you got to the pastor's garden and you plant waves of crocrosmias all around the van. What about putting some Aeonias in the old barbecue ?
Darling, you write perfectly french and i don't like the accent marks too)
Thanks for expanding on this one, Chuck. That little piece of your neighborhood reminds me of my entire neighborhood--scummy, yet appealing. I think when my neighborhood becomes 80% nice instead of 10% nice, my heart will grow fonder of 30-year-old vans in the grass.
Now I get it, Chuck - that's what happened to the deer, right?
There are parts of Austin with this same feel, and they've also become more trendy of late. The word is that wealthy Californians are coming in, buying up everything, driving up prices and then blandifying the neighborhoods.
Mine is so not trendy... don't think we have to worry.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Heh...I'm always attracted to the weeds, too! ;) Seriously, I think the "less well-kept" areas are often much more interesting than tidy, manicured homes and lawns...more tales to tell, I guess.
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