About this project

About this project

Fog City is a blog I started after moving to San Francisco, when I turned 28. Eager and untried, I was training myself to write tautly, and get down the heady adventure of being young in a city. A preordained city, it turned out. And in the early 2010s, we all sensed it.

Two bridges

I'm in Oakland now, with my partner and many of the same friends around me. Already in our 40s. Carried along by life's unfolding, and by an eruptive decade of history.

Staring across the Bay, are we gazing into the past? The rude spires of Laputa floating just out of reach. Or past the Western horizon, unready for the future?

Still untamed

This is a heaving moment, I think we all sense it. Again. Not just in historical terms. For us. Those who were here, on the poppy-covered hillsides, looking out from our shuttered windows, following the Instagrammable babies, footsteps echoing past the empty spires and the poop on the sidewalk.

Gulls circle and the sun shines again. Beer pours, the coffeemaker beeps, the running shoes are laced up. They're boarding Group 2. A patchwork of gray faces nod wearily on the Zoom screen. The dogs yip, pee a little, and rush to greet us. Platters of food arrive, we hug – at first tentative, then urgent. The emerald ocean heaves.

So I'm writing again. Welcome back to Fog City.


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Write back

Write me a comment, or write me offline. I can go only go so far, chattering with my own echo, and if I come here for anything, it's to learn.