SF, YEAH IT VANISHED ON OUR WATCH

 I lived over in Oakland and Emeryville but I went to the City. I mean, they had a Borders Bookstore in Union Square! and, I kind of liked hanging out in the Francis Drake to watch the slashing lines and the Fairmont was always a good place to entertain.

It's a little bit like about reading the lesser known history of the fall of Rome. If you cannot keep the markets open you really aren't a city at all.

Our towns have lost sight of that. They don't even want to hear about their crappy roads. When a business vehicle breaks an axle on one of them the business will start looking at Texas or Tennessee. They have options.

I miss the City on the Hill. I got there in good time to read Herb Caen's columns in his Baghdad by the Bay roundups every week in the Chronicle. It was the last decent newspaper I ever read.