[Marxism] (no subject)

["Anthony Boynton" <anthony.boynton@xxxxxxxxx>]

*A Little Trip North*

It was the first time in over four years that I had seen the USA, the good
ole USA.

California was burning - it still is – and a lot of people in Houston are
really, really fat. Actually is still the most over-used word in America.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I saw lots, and lots of Obama bumper stickers and window signs, mostly where
you would expect them to be in San Francisco and Berkeley, but also here and
there from Watsonville to Petaluma.

I did not see any sign of McCain. No bumper stickers. No signs in windows.
Not a single bill board. Nothing, and not anywhere. And I was constantly
looking.

So far most of my friends have not been touched by the southward slide of
the economy. My Fresno friend, a flooring contractor, had the three worst
months of his business during the Winter, but surprisingly things picked up
during the Spring. My silicon valley friends are a little nervous, but at
least one of them thinks there might be a great opportunity to pick up some
real estate cheap.

True, everybody who owns a house has lost money on paper, but none of my
friends have variable rate mortgages, so they are okay as long as they don't
lose their jobs.

California is still a beautiful place, but half the time we were there the
sky was dark from the forest fires. You could smell the smoke. Air quality
warning alerts were posted just about every day of our visit.

Flying over the state you see yellow. Dry grass extends all over the
northern part of the state. Even places that look green from the air, are
bone dry under the trees. In fact, even along the foggy Mendocino coast the
grass a hundred feet from the surf was dry and brittle.

The mix of cars has changed from four years ago. There were a lot less SUVs
on the road, and a lot more Toyota Priuses.

And the whole Bay Area has grown, grown upward, grown into all the abandoned
old spaces, and grown outward. All along the fringes of the area there are
new apartments, homes, and malls. Driving south from San Francisco along
Hiughway 101 all the buildings are taller and newer. More offices, more
hotels, more who knows what.

But most surprising to me was SOMA: South of Market, and not just the few
blocks between Market Street and Folsom Street, but all the way down to
Hunters Point. The old industrial district of San Francisco died a long time
ago. By the 1980's every major factory had been closed. The area closest to
downtown changed into night clubs and offices twenty years ago, but further
south things stayed depressed and ugly.

Now the transformation is almost complete. The new Giants' baseball park,
the crown jewel of Willie Brown's real estate politics, is the center piece
for a vast new area of restaurants, shops, and offices. Tourist town has
moved south along the waterfront all the way to China Basin.

Not all of the old working class culture has disappeared, but almost. Right
across the embarcadero from Gordon Biersch's latest yuppie brew pub Red's
Coffee Shop still stands. It used to be a longshoremen's hangout which sold
the People's World. Who knoes who goes there now. The few longshoremen who
still work in San Francisco have to go much further south. Anyway, most of
the shipping activity in and around the Bay is on the other side at the
giant container port in West Oakland, or at the oil terminals that line the
Bay from Richmond past Martinez.

Construction is still going on South of Market, but who knows for how long.

A lot of construction workers have moved, some – nobody knows how many –
back to Mexico. Others are looking for new ways to get by. One guy I know
has moved into the copper wiring business. He used to collect the stray
pieces of wire discarded around the sites where he worked to sell for a
little extra cash. But now, with copper prices so high, and construction
jobs so few, he has made it into a full time business. So far he seems to be
keeping his head above water.

Even though my construction worker/copper dealer friend doesn't speak Engish
very well, his kids do. His 10 year old son, who was born in California
unlike his Mom and Dad, was very proud that he could talk to me in English
without making any mistakes (almost). He is going to summer school to make
sure he speaks English even better. He and his parents think it is his key
to the future.

Bi-lingualism and multi-lingualism have made giant strides in California, an
amazing contrast to the 1990's when the state's voters decided to prohibit
bi-lingual education in the public schools. Now more and more public schools
in San Francisco have Spanish language and Chinese language immersion
programs for kids from English speaking families. Half of the products on
the supermarket shelves have labels in English and Spanish, and a lot also
have Chinese.

Prices for everything other than real estate are amazingly high, and rising.

Now I'm back in Bogotá, and happy to be here.

More later, Anthony
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