February 17, 2005
Gardening in the Lower Haight
The day I looked at my first apartment in the Lower Haight, I arrived early for the showing and walked around the block to get a feel for the neighbourhood. I walked in to the Sunrise Market to pick up a drink, and when I walked out a man was peeing against a tree.
This morning I was walking down the same block, and another man was watering the garden, nonchalantly, in the middle of the sidewalk. The Lower Haight: it isn't just for the dogs, even when it comes to pooping and peeing on the sidewalk.
Addendum: Yesterday evening, two men were standing on Haight St., outside the weird metal condos in the middle of the block between Steiner and Page, rolling a huge joint. This morning, in more-or-less the same spot, two other men were talking about some drug delivery device (a zepplin? a dirigible? something like that ... ) which involved nitrous and marijuana. Oh yeah, that spot is just outside The Vapor Room ("... emphasizes non-carbonizing vaporizers as a healthier way of introducing THC into the body ... ").
And this morning, around 6.45: I was one of three people sitting in the coffeeshop. A dirty-looking sort stuck his head and said to the man sitting at the nearest table: "Is that your bike? It isn't locked up." The man said yes, it is my bike, and I didn't lock it. (I don't like my bike outside the café, either. I don't know why.) The smelly interloper nodded and mumbled his way back out the door. Just now I saw him again, pushing a bicycle past the construction site across from the DMV.
Reminds me (again!) of the Neistat Bros. short about stealing bicycles in New York City.
