During Covid my son was going crazy. He was living alone in an Oakland apartment when the pandemic hit. Sure he worked remotely but that wasn’t enough social contact. He said, “I am going out of my mind.”

Needing excitement, as any 22 year old year old male needs, his solution to the situation was to jump out of airplanes. That was one of the things you could do then. Clearly it was outside and more than 6 feet apart from others. I was not happy about it. 

As a tall skinny guy, I was worried for his back. I was worried in general. Because he went up in the planes, he got a free subscription to a parachute magazine. His mail still came to my home address since his address was temporary. Every time that magazine came, I threw it in the trash. 

I pleaded with him to stop jumping out of airplanes. It was starting to damage his hearing. Besides, seemed these pilots didn’t have a lot of regulations. Maybe almost anybody with a plane could get a license to do this. Finally, my pleads became demands. He reluctantly agreed.

One night at dinner, outside in my driveway 6 feet apart with masks on, during that strange time when you couldn’t even hug your kids for fear of death, my son said,

“The Bay Area is the problem.”

My daughter and I countered, “No, Covid is the problem

“The bay area is the problem. I am going to move to New York City“

I didn’t want him to move to New York City. I selfishly wanted him to stay in Oakland where he grew up, in California. Doesn’t everyone like California? However, I knew that he was his own person, and as a young adult, he should be able to do what he wanted to do.

He said, “Either I move to New York City, or I continue jumping out of planes.“

I said, “All right then, move to New York City.” 

He’s been happy there ever since. Thank goodness he visits Oakland twice a year.

This last vacation, he brought his girlfriend. They went to Valencia Street, one of my favorite hoods in San Francisco. They took the subway, and were disgusted by the walk from the Mission St. Station to Valencia Street. That’s a block and a half, if you count the alley, where a lot of homeless people live. Once on Valencia Street, they were not impressed. Not much is able to hold a candle against New York City.

He grew up in the very nice part of Oakland. College Avenue runs between the California College of Art (CCA) and UC Berkeley. It is well heeled. The last evening they were here, parked on College Ave for karaoke night with friends, the car was broken into. 

My son, being street smart, is careful never to leave anything in a car in the bay area. We all know you can’t do that. You will be subject to “smash and grab”. There was nothing in the car. The vandals broke the back window. From there they went into the trunk. There was nothing in the trunk.

My son was furious. In the rental car contract, you cannot drive a damaged car so he called Hertz to return the car. He could not return the car from the location where it was rented because that location was closed on Sundays. He was told to go to a different location. When they went to the different location, near the airport, they were charged $200 for not returning the car to the original location.

The Hertz parking lot had many broken windows. People with reservations, just off the plane, were unable to get their car because it had been vandalized. Usually after a client returns a car, it is vacuumed and given it to the next person. Not so with a broken window.

“I told you the bay area was the problem. It’s pathetic here with all the homeless and all the crime.” 

For a living he analyzes data. He quickly pulled up facts on his phone. 

“Per capita there are more homeless, more crime, and more murders in Oakland than  New York City. Oakland is the second most dangerous city in the United States, the first being Baltimore.” I don’t think that is true, but I don’t know. I got his point.

The bay area is so expensive, the people who teach in the schools can’t afford to live here. San Francisco is not what it used to be. We were the haven for the out of the box eclectics. In the 1949 gold rush all kinds of adventurous entrepreneurs came here to change their lives. In the 1960s came the hippies. In the 1980s the gays came. All of this made the city more vibrant and desirable

However, when the techies came, we didn’t benefit. They made housing more expensive and restaurants unaffordable. Shelter and food inaccessible, people became homeless. Crime at an all time high, even Macy’s is closing it’s doors after 101 years.

Almost all the merchandise at Target is in cases under lock and key, even laundry detergent. You cannot shop there at night because it is too dangerous in the parking lot.

The California College of Art (CCA) founded in 1907 recently announced its intention to close. It is the third and final art school in the bay area to close. Now we have no art schools.

CCA was bought by Nashville-based Vanderbilt University. Additionally, the San Francisco Art Institute (1871) and Mill’s college (1852) have folded; their deep history now also gone.   The 82 billionaires living in the bay area didn’t help. They are on their own kind of gold rush. 

The CCA Oakland campus is going to be turned into 451 units of market value real estate.  451 is the temperature that books burn. Curious that a university would choose such a number. 

The Bay Area has a problem.