The Great San Francisco Bubble (FreeRepublic Mentioned)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | day, May 9, 2003 | Mark Morford

[nickcarraway]

It's that odd dumbstruck jolting feeling you get as soon as you step more than 25 miles away from this most progressive and funked-out and deeply flawed and self-consciously screwy of kaleidoscopic American urban metropoli: oh my freaking God, what is happening to the world? This is what you say. To yourself. Probably.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"Maybe S.F. is an entirely pointless, disposable, disease-ravaged wasteland full of perverts and icky gay people and used-up liberalism and way too many amazing organic-produce markets and yoga studios and wine shops and fetishwear outlets and Pulitzer Prize winners and a coastline to nourish your soul."

YES!!!

[Lancey Howard]

I was thinking meth.

[Gothmog]

Yeah, he not only writes a crappy column but he gets his facts wrong. The housing market is strong nationwide:

http://www.realtor.org/rmoDaily.nsf/AllStories/050703#D1F54B630

NAR: Housing On Track For Second-Best Year

(May 7) -- A firming economy and a continuation of historically low mortgage interest rates mean 2003 is likely to be the second-best year on record for the housing market, according to the National Association of REALTORS.

David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said home sales are at a sustainable pace. "With most of the disruptions of unusual weather and war behind us, home sales should be fairly stable going forward," he said. "The current level of activity is on track with our forecast, which would make this the second-best year ever for home sales."

Lereah said the 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate should move only gradually and rise slowly to 6.3 percent by the end of the year. "This will pinch some buyers at the margins of qualifying for a loan, but will not significantly impact the overall market. We also expect the economy to gain momentum in the second half of the year, brightening the job market and boosting consumer confidence," Lereah said.

NAR projects 5.53 million existing-home sales in 2003, down 0.7 percent from the record of 5.57 million sales last year. New-home sales should total 956,000 units this year, which also would be the second-best on record, down 1.8 percent from 974,000 sales in 2002. Housing starts are seen to total 1.72 million units in 2003, up 0.6 percent from last year.

The national median existing-home price is expected to rise 5.1 percent this year to $166,400, while the median new-home price should rise 3.2 percent this year to $193,500.

Growth in the U.S. gross domestic product is projected to improve during the second half of the year, reaching an annual growth rate of 3.9 percent in the third quarter. Although GDP will average only 2.3 percent for the year, it should rise to 3.5 percent in 2004. Consumer price inflation is likely to be 2.6 percent for this year.

NAR expects inflation-adjusted disposable personal income to grow 2.6 percent in 2003, while the unemployment rate should peak at 6.0 percent in the current quarter and then decline to 5.8 percent end of the year. The consumer confidence index is expected to rise to 90 by the in the fourth quarter.

For example, in NC:

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/All/D195DB97F#10E9FA7866CF95E886256D19004E7CEE

N.C: Brunswick County Market is Hot

(May 1) -- Brunswick County, N.C., saw an 82.5-percent boost in residential property resales in 2003's first quarter from the same period a year ago as buyers flocked to the barrier islands. In fact, sales skyrocketed 58 percent for all of last year due to demand for oceanfront properties among retirees, investors, and vacation-home buyers.

Sales reached record heights on Bald Head Island last year; and Oak Island also is experiencing a boom. Cheaper land and a "tear-down" trend contributed to the market's growth, with developers replacing groups of smaller homes with single, large dwellings.

Elsewhere in the state, sales rose 8.7 percent in Wilmington, 15 percent in Greenville, and 2.5 percent in Charlotte.

Source: Myrtle Beach Sun News (04/30/03); Bailey, Issac J.

[vikingcelt]

"The San Fran of Stan Delaplane, Charlie McCabe and Herb Caen. Even the hungry i. Incredible place..."

Oh I know! I remember all of them. They had class. I must be getting old but how could such a wonderful, incredible, beautiful place get so ugly and twisted.

[nutmeg]

bump

[TXnMA]

Go, San Andreas!

[gitmo]

The Great San Francisco Bubble (FreeRepublic Mentioned)

[luckystarmom]

We've stopped going up there much. We'll go to a destination like the Exploratorium, and that's about it.

It's too grimy, and I can't stand the bums. I prefer to go to Monterrey to escape the South Bay.

[Cultural Jihad]

It's hard to believe that a generation or two ago, women would wear white gloves whenever visiting the City, and the Tenderloin District was filled with lively jazz clubs.

[vikingcelt]

"It's hard to believe that a generation or two ago, women would wear white gloves whenever visiting the City, and the Tenderloin District was filled with lively jazz clubs". Yup it's hard to believe alright. I grew up in a small country town (which is no longer a small country town...now it's the fastest growing "city" in California) and it was such a treat to go to San Francisco. There WAS a dress code of sorts then and a good bit of class and sophistication. It's absolutely and totally sad about the jazz clubs. I'm trying to remember the name of one of them where I saw (and heard) Thelonious Monk perform once. Whatever the name of it was, it was very famous...now gone of course. Gone just like a lot of black people are gone from the City now. Driven away by those supposedly so very tolerant ones...there is no tolerance in San Francisco for anything decent...tolerance only for the perverted.

[luckystarmom]

If you stick to touristy areas, you can still have a nice outing with the kids. I just wouldn't take the kids around much after dark.

[blackie]

SF has certainly changed over the years ... I first visited in '48 when I was in the Navy and lived in the Bay Area from '49 until '90. *sigh*

[Grampa Dave]

It is a shame. It was crazy in the 60/70's with the peace marches, the Zebra shootings and Zodiac cases in and around it.

After you moved, the Gay Mafia and hate America Crowd took over the political scene. To many of us, it is a cess pool to be avoided.

[jejones]

Quite the stream-of-unconsciousness logorrhea there. I hope he feels better now.

[maxwell]

relatively free-thinking ground

Free-thinking? Huh? After he just got done ranting and raving about how folks like me would be tarred and feathered in his city? (Well that's the message I got out of that...)

"Less evolved"... How can he compare his screaming maudlin faux-plastic existence to that of any normal American... If that's evolution, I'm stayin' in the dark ages.

[maxwell]

Truly outstanding, FRiend! Good stuff.

[blackie]

We were in CA in '01; we visited friends and family in Vallejo, Fairfax, Hayward, San Jose, Santa Maria and Granite Bay ... we missed SF. *sigh* :):)

[blackie]

Some SF Jazz clubs I remember: Black Hawk, Facts, Say When, Cieros (sp), Kubla Kan, Bop City, plus many, many more. :)

[Grampa Dave]

Be glad that you didn't visit as a Christian Conservative.

Remember it as it used to be.

[blackie]

I didn't/don't have any Christian bumper stickers on my white Ford SVT Lightning pickup, just George Bush 2004 and many pro-gun stickers. :)