It’s Swingin’ Again in South Park
In December 1995 I strarted working at the Institute for Alternative Journalism (publishers of the excellent Alternet) and found myself just across the street from South Park in San Francisco’s SOMA district. I had recently come back from a year working in Bangladesh. Before I left for Asia in 1994 I had only heard of people viewing text and photos on the Internet with Mosaic. When I got back everyone had a dial-up account, email and Netscape was doing something called going public.
Having lunch and hanging in South Park was a true joy. My previous job in the city in from 1992 to 1994 I wore a tie just so I could be an office admin. At South Park folks with blue hair doing nifty things at Wired and Organic rode the swings and talked about digital civil liberties. I stood and cheered in Feb 2006 in protest of the congressional act to allow censorship of the internet. I smiled in glee as a speaker read the last page of James Joyce’s once-banned Ulysses … “she let him and she saw that he saw and then it went so high it went out of sight for a moment and she was trembling in every limb from being bent so far back that he had a full view high up above her knee … and she wasn’t ashamed and he wasn’t either…”
We all know what happened in South Park. The passionate were displaced by the greedies. The societal movement became a financial one. Some of the doers mistook themselves for historical figures. The boom became a bubble and for years South Park had plenty of parking and always an open seat to enjoy your Centro bagel and coffee. In fact one article described it’s fate as ‘New Economy Drivel Leaves SF Neighborhood High and Dry. Whatever. I was just happy the kapow-kapow asshats had returned to whatever insurance adjuster or paper supplier job they had before they got start-up fever.
Last week the Groanicle had a so-so piece about start-ups being back around South Park. I like most all the companies mentioned so I was happy to see them get some press for doing what they are doing. There are plenty more in the immediate area they omitted.
Coincidentally today I was going to visit my friend Biz at one of those offices and I saw South Park in it’s splendor for the first time in many a moon. Granted it was one of the first sunny day in a while, but the park was full of bright-eyed people having lunch loving the moment. Both swing sets were in use and picnic tables were full. Who knows what’s going to become of now, but it made me happy to see people that seemed happy and relaxed who probably had some challenging meaningful work they enjoyed (at least to some degree ;) A lot of people like to imply that this behavior is evidence we are in another mindless bubble we’re doomed to repeat. While that may be true in a year or two, what I see are people once again having an opportunity to have a job they don’t hate and not have to hate their life while they are doing it. Thinking back to my mandatory-tie job with no internet or fun, it really makes me happy to see it.
What are your South Park memories?
