On Logging Off And Actually Living in San Francisco

The Vacant to Vibrant program revitalizes the Embarcadero in a creative, social way. (Paolo Bicchieri)

On a rumbling N Muni train, coming home from Medicine for Nightmares and the shop’s well-attended Poets for Palestine event, I see a scene straight out of Spike Jonez’s Her play out in front of me. A 20-something person flicks between matches on Bumble, a map of San Francisco itself, and SFFunCheap, a known page for newcomers to the Bay Area looking for, you guessed it, fun and cheap activities. Now, this person could be legitimately new to the city, though the Bumble matches and weekday nighttime ride to the sleepy Sunset make me think otherwise.

More likely this is another person who’s lived in San Francisco for a minute without taking a bite out of what this place has to offer. The scene smacks of yet another ripening fruit on the “SF is a hellscape” tree bound to fall when the sheer ridiculousness of looking for intimacy, hobbies, and directions in the city where you live really hits. Many can relate, or those who weren’t raised in the Bay Area can understand the desire to take root in a new landscape.

But we can’t seriously talk of organized resistance, like those at that bookstore did just before this scene played out, when the city’s highest earners are still putting in their own addresses on Google Maps to get home from the hackathon, bombs flying on their Instagram feeds all the while.

So if you’re one of these self-proclaimed “creatives” living in San Francisco — a term nobody I’d met until living in California had the lack of social grace to call themselves with a straight face — consider this an invitation to put your money where your mouth is. Get creative about tapping into San Francisco in a way that makes you and your neighbors’ lives better.

Poet and writer Antony Fangary takes over Market Street to share his work. (Paolo Bicchieri)

This isn’t just a takedown article — I’m not bullish enough to think that serves you or me or anyone else. Think of it as a call to action. If any of this has summoned a scoff, then it’s an ideal chance to prove me wrong. If being a “creative” is the best thing since gluten-free sliced bread for personal and political fulfillment, make it known. In fact, speaking of hackathons, the recent Accelerate SF sprint to tackle issues in the city is a possible example of how to get active with one’s relevant skills. As reported by Mission Local, coders spent 48 hours leveraging city data with programs that could better translate that information into resources for our citizens. If that’s how you can best agitate and protest, make things better in your community, then terrific; Machine learning for good might be able to disable ballistics targeting, say, on mass groups of women and children.

Put your creative foot forward, then, as the organizations that focus on pressing social issues of the day do all throughout the Bay Area. Queer Surf makes room for LGBTQIA+ athletes and casuals on NorCal shores, and Brown Girl Surf fights climate change and capitalism’s racist impacts in the same arena. If the ongoing plight of Indigenous Palestinians has you fired up abroad, tap in with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust working to rematriate native land in the Bay Area. And for those trying to solve the city’s problems, date, and navigate the city by being chronically online, take a trip to see San Francisco’s Vacant to Vibrant program and its myriad vendors on the Embarcadero. All these organizations need volunteers and donors, and that last field trip could solve a few of your and the city’s problems at the same time.

I have a whole list of inspirational examples in my pocket of the Bay Area’s political and artistic crossroads alone. Keli Dailey, Antony Fangary, Preeti Vangani, Alan Chazaro, Kevin Dublin, Kevin Madrigal, Louis Trevino, Vincent Medina, Eric Ehler, Michelle Nazzal, and many more come to mind, each of whom harnesses writing and food and all kinds of creative disciplines to push not only culture forward but actual dollars and resources into impacted communities’ hands. Take it from them, not from me. But, for my part, I did find a new life in San Francisco, a chance to tap in with inspiring talents such as theirs, natural beauty, and, yes, coalition building. If someone who’s not even a creative can pull it off, for god’s sake, there’s hope out there for self-proclaimed visionaries across all 48 hills.

Jess Semaan is a creative force who uses her talents for agitation and organization. (Paolo Bicchieri)