San Francisco Shouldn’t Sue Oakland, It Should Thank Oakland.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, (lucky you if you have) you’ve probably heard about the controversy regarding the potential name charge at the Oakland International Airport. City leaders in Oakland want their proximity to San Francisco highlighted, and it’s no secret why – Oakland, especially the corridor near the airport, is going through some shit.

There’s a crime problem, and businesses are leaving due to the crime problem, most notably IN-N-OUT burger. But honestly, there are too many of those anyway so fuck ‘em.

San Francisco’s response to Oakland trying to alleviate some of its economic burden has been to file a lawsuit. Which is the kind of annoying response I expect from San Francisco because God forbid Oakland ever benefit from its proximity to San Francisco the way San Francisco has benefitted from its proximity to Oakland.

I know some of you are going to be like “what benefit!?!?!” Well, I can explain: San Francisco has for the most part, with the exception of overcrowded SROs and neglected public housing complexes, become a foggy country club filled with the type of people who utilize the language of social justice without really understanding what it means. There are still lots of cool people in San Francisco, but many of the new arrivals are rich people who haven’t been told their opinion doesn’t matter enough.

While these people have reshaped the city in their shallow self-image, they’re still people and they still need services. They need their kids watched, their lawns mowed, their cars serviced and their dogs walked. They need all kinds of shit. The working class, which pretty much isn’t allowed to exist in San Francisco, have largely lived in Oakland or other parts of the East Bay. Without these Oaklanders, San Francisco would be fucked.

But SF doesn’t only benefit from Oakland’s workers, it benefits from its culture and institutions. San Francisco was a major hub of expression. It was a place where people felt safe to explore themselves. It still is in a sense, but many of the weirdos can’t afford to live in the City. As the City has become more expensive, Oakland has taken SF’s place. The art scene has moved East and shit is really flourishing here. A lot of those artists still paint murals and do cool shit in San Francisco. Oakland’s creative community increases the vibrancy of San Francisco.

From an institutional perspective, when major sports teams get good, San Francisco steals them. Have you heard of this small team called the Golden State Warriors? They sucked forever. Then they stopped sucking, and after a few years of them being the best team in the NBA, San Francisco decided it was time to gut the only economic hope Deep East Oakland had by relocating the Golden State Warriors into Downtown San Francisco.

This fucked Oakland. Fuck the Raiders and the A’s, but the GSWs actually added something to Oakland, something very important: Money.

So now after essentially being robbed and exploited by San Francisco time and time again, Oakland attempted to get something from SF that could theoretically benefit them and now SF is trying to block it.

It’s unfair. Also Oakland is on San Francisco Bay and SFO isn’t even in San Francisco.

You know what’s actually misleading? The 49ers playing 50 miles away in a suburb of San Jose.

But that’s a different conversation. Maybe instead of suing Oakland, SF should thank Oakland. It provides the diversity SF pretends to care about.

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