san francisco

On a lark, Jaime Kornick created Patrick’s Park. Then she created a dog parade, then….

iHeart mentioned the Dog Parade on the radio, local publications wrote about it, and the RSVPs started rolling in. In total, more than 350 people said they were coming.

That’s when I realized I needed to get a permit.

Then she got a call:

I told them the panel would consist of thought leaders within the canine community, bull shitting. They were wondering if the co-founder of Wag, Jason Meltzer, could be on the panel. When I hung up the phone, I was like, damn, you can really create something out of nothing in this town.

Jaime Kornick tells the whole story here.

I wade into this topic wearily, but I do love my new city, even in the moments where it drifts from critically self-aware to navel gazing. Ian S. Port’s July 17 review of the media coverage of the gentrification debate included this nugget discussing Ilan Greenberg’s angle on the topic:

[W]hat’s happening here isn’t gentrification at all, but merely middle-class residents using the word to conceal discomfort over richer people coming in and ruining their good time. Greenberg argued that neighborhoods like the Mission are already long gentrified, and that the Againsts are a simply bourgeois class with access to the media, who are ignoring the plight of the genuinely poor out of worry for themselves. “In San Francisco, anti-gentrification is a progressive cause to save financially viable people … from losing their lease on a rental property in an already gentrified neighborhood,” Greenberg wrote, with the emotional detachment of an outsider. “In the best of times, it’s hard to envision a lot of people shaking the rafters for this one.”

In a city that has long enjoyed significantly higher median household incomes than the rest of California and the nation, this has a ring of truth to it.

Flickr Video

More mesmerizing than a fireplace video?

As noted here, I’m going to WordCamp in SFO in early August.

Matt describes it as a BarCamp-style event (where “’BarCamp-style’ is a code phrase for ‘last minute’”) with “a full day of both user and developer discussion.” I’m just going for the free t-shirt, of course, but I can imagine a number of folks will get a good value out of the sessions and discussions that will likely run, especially all the developer stuff.

Also, if you’ve got some suggestions about what else I should be doing in San Fran, leave a comment or contact me with any suggestions.