This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column in the San Francisco Examiner. I’ve made some tiny updates. The last time San Franciscans talked this much about Oakland was in 1906. The City was ablaze and 100,000 residents fled across San Francisco Bay, many never to move back to San Francisco.

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column for the San Francisco Examiner. Many of the things we shrug off as normal in San Francisco don’t happen in other places. Like when I heard someone outside my window yelling, “Honor your father and mother!” Without looking, I knew it was

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column in the San Francisco Examiner. “Pride reminds me of the America I want to live in,” I said to whomever was next to me. I was standing near Fourth and Market, a few vodka Red Bulls in, and watching as the beautiful,

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column in the San Francisco Examiner.  In the past seven years, San Francisco has been staggering under the weight of an ugly and brutal struggle: whether to run from its past or hide from its future. You know this. We’ve all had too

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column for the SF Examiner  (The short version: You can circumvent all the algorithms for my stuff right here.) Facebook announced earlier this year that it’s completely changing its algorithm — a move that will reduce the amount of actual news provided in

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column for the SF Examiner. San Francisco is a thieving-ass city. It steals hearts. It takes away breath. It captures people’s imaginations after just a single visit. But it’s also larcenous in more concrete ways. Shattered car windows cover sidewalks all over town,

This originally appeared in my Broke-Ass City column in the San Francisco Examiner. A decade ago, I moved to Brooklyn. I was there for a year researching my second book, Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City, and while doing so was working as a waiter four