The annual Macys-at-Union Square flower
event had a theme of a Chinese Dragon Garden this year. (It was inspired by an old garden in Shanghai.) The flowers
filled every window and spilled out onto the street as they do every
year. The unusual creation for 2005 was the construction over the
entrance on Union Square. Photo on the right. (Like all photos on
this blog, you can click on the image to see a larger photo.)
April 1st is the annual St. Stupid's day parade
here. It starts casually when the crowd is ready from the
Embarcadero and stops at the Federal Reserve Bank, a statue honoring
mechanics, then to the Zellerbach plaza (where the photo on the left
was taken), and on to the old Pacific Coast Stock exchange (which is now
a gym) for a throwing of socks into the crowd (the sock exchange). The three Doggie Diner
heads joined the crowd as usual. There were only one or two political
signs this year in the 400-plus people having fun.
My favorite ARCO station at Market and
Castro had a great day with its pricing sign.
I met another person, Emily, who represents the new wave of San Franciscans. She owns an apartment in a well-to-do neighborhood. Emily lives in Napa County during the week, where she works as a CPA, and spends the weekends in San Francisco.
By my rough estimates there are 40,000 people like Emily, for whom San Francisco is a weekend resort. Of the 40,00 people I estimate one-third have rent controlled apartments.