an outtake from #TheRealSF shoot - just a chill row of houses, somewhere near alamo square

Small signs marking Page Street as a "slow street." San Francisco has a network of mixed-use streets where bikes and people are more welcome than cars. They're not fully barricaded; locals need to get to their driveways and they haven't removed curb parking. Enforcement complaints aside, the traffic is significantly lower on slow streets. PSA: Walk and ride in the middle. Pedestrian allowed use of full lane.
@[email protected] #TheRealSF #SlowStreets

This is the street I live on. As you can see, someone has pitched a tent. The inhabitant lives here as much as we housed do. The city just poured new sidewalks; the tent was moved down the block. Once the concrete was dry, it was moved back. It sits in front of neglected property owned by the school district.

A tent is a municipal failure, but not in the way that's sold by the money class. They have no stake in reducing tent population; every tent is another plank in their "SF is broken, we should take it over" narrative. But there are people inside those tents, without a way to get housed, and the city might expend real effort to house them if their existence weren't a convenient political punching bag.
#TheRealSF #OneRealTent

These are the famed painted ladies. They look just like you remember from Full House. It's an unusual side-angled shot because the park is closed off, as is typical the day of the Bay to Breakers footrace. I just hoisted my rig above a chain-link fence and hoped for the best.
#TheRealSF #AlamoSquare #PaintedLadies

This is Oracle Park, previously known as AT&T Park, SBC Park, and Pacific Bell Park. It was built as Pac Bell Park and I still call it that. The ballpark is pretty grotty and down-at-heel. The views definitely have not held up over the years.

Some people don't have the money for cars and are stuck taking a boat to the ballpark. Or maybe they just didn't have $100 for parking.
#OraclePark #TheRealSF #SFGiants

This is the Transamerica Pyramid. Nobody but bankers ever loved the building or its name. The area around it has always been marginal and untamable, all concrete and bollards, given the way it breaks up streets and concentrates wind. Don't let anyone tell you this area's gone to shit. It was never good. I stood here a long time to get a shot without a lot of fake car traffic, because of course nobody's left here. #TheRealSF #TransamericaPyramid

This is Union Square, the historic heart of our shopping district. As you can see, it's overrun by tents and druggies. I'm sorry, I can't answer for this, it's just a hellhole and I am shame.
#TheRealSF #UnionSquare

This is the Walgreens at 825 Market Street whose security guard shot Banko Brown dead on the sidewalk for trying to shoplift about 15 bucks' worth of stuff. The city District Attorney, supported chiefly by the money class, refuses to press charges, and for weeks tried to prevent the body-cam footage from even being released to the public. (This DA reached office after the recall of her predecessor for seeming soft on crime - a carefully cultivated image created at great expense by the now-incumbent's supporters.)

This mini-thought board is scrawled in the entrance. Weeks ago there were periodic protests and the shop was closed for a time. Now it's open but with obvious scarring.
#BankoBrown #TheRealSF #walgreens

Once a year we have the "Bay to Breakers" race famous for serious runners winning, often from Africa, and serious jokesters not knowing the meaning of "win."

I live at the bottom of the infamous "Hayes Street Hill," a gradual but relentless rise going straight up into the horizon. There are eateries and bars at the bottom of this hill. Each year, hundreds of people decide this is a fine place to stop running, so much so that the city puts up a bank of porta-potties. Some dinosaurs had a little too much to drink and were talking their way into the bathroom at Hazie's.

One of my favorite costumes from yesteryear was "the bar," a cloth nailed to a wooden plank with cocktail glasses and shakers glued to it, the runners wearing tuxes. This PG&E crew is its spiritual descendant, and the League of Their Own isn't half bad either. Whoever invented the Alien Carrying Human costume made bank; they were everywhere.
#BayToBreakers #BayToBreakers2023 #sanfrancisco #TheRealSF