GOOD AND PROPER

 I see from afar that it is still possible to enjoy a night out at the Tonga Room and finish at the Top of the Mark. If you have the chance and the inclination, go. They are both fond memories of a ludicrous place and still alive and breathing in Baghdad by the Bay.

I am not a city guy by upbringing. The Army, oddly enough, did not set up their camps and posts by the major cities and certainly not while I was around. Oh sure, the Presidio was once home to Sixth Army and has the fine buildings and houses to show for it but we were never stationed in California when I was growing up, were I? No, I was not. Kansas and again Kansas and Oklahoma and Alabama and OK, maybe New Jersey just a long throw from New York City but it was a dump back then.

I arrived long long after the heyday in America's leading cities of the 20th century. Detroit was just about dead and buried when we pulled into the drive at Selfridge Air Force Base and Cleveland was well beyond its prime when I got to metroparkcentralis but it still has some really nice features in very small places.

I see that Huntsville is now the largest city in Alabama. When I lived there that honor belonged to Birmingham and the less said about that place, the better. Good Lord, the opening sentence at google calls it a "vibrant hub" so you know it's unspeakably dismal.

I don't complain. I spent 30 years living on the west coast and while most of that was in San Diego in places ranging from right downtown and up to Mission Hills and then up to Del Mar, Solana Beach and Encinitas, I had a grand time there. I lived in itty bitty Seattle when it still had not more than 7 tallish buildings and Emeryville on the other side of the Bay from Baghdad.  I liked Berkeley, Emeryville, TI and even Oakland had its moments but this was all at the height of the TechRush and computer age.

I have to say that I find the major cities today to be kind of soulless. I know, that's a common complaint but here it comes from knowing a lot of cities and remembering them as stuffed to the gills way into the wee hours of the morning with young partying revelers who were going out and staying out and mingling and having a good time. I don't see any of that in the cities above.

On the other hand, I remember staying at the Marine Memorial Hotel in San Francisco where the windows in the rooms open wide and you can step into oblivion if you're not careful and noticing that at around 0200 downtown San Francisco in 1999 was as dead as a doornail and twice as quiet. There was nothing moving. There was a different feel to the place that was all urban and did not alarm with feeling dangerous all the time after dark.

Well, it was long ago and by the sea so perhaps that explains it.