ANA Y2 D242

Yesterday I read some sad news. After 76 years, In-n-Out is doing a first. They are permanently closing a location. In all their history, they have never had to do this. They have relocated locations due to growth or strategy but never close one for good.

The location closing? Oakland. The one next to the airport. Why? Crime. Regular car break-ins, property damage, armed robbery. All in the parking lot of what is a profitable store. They have armed guards in the parking lot and that still isn't good enough. Broad daylight people smash and grab. Multiple incidents per day.

Every day I think about my decision to leave California. Some days I miss it. I am a 4th generation San Franciscan. I was born at Mission Hospital, as was my mother, and my grandmother. Part of my family helped build Little Italy. I spent the first few years of my life growing up in the Haight. But when I read about things like this or I watch documentaries on what's become of downtown SF (specifically the degradation of the Tenderloin), it breaks my heart. My city that I loved. My city whose streets I walked up and down as a teenager is no more. This extends and includes Oakland. Oakland was always a place where I went with caution but I never felt truly unsafe in most areas. The food, the lifestyle, the community was always strong and banded together. But now. I don't know any more. I don't know what's become of that area.

 I cry that I left my 'home' but I look at it now and know it's not my home any more. It's a place of hate and destruction. And more importantly, pain. People struggle to live and even just survive most days. Greed has destroyed the lives of so many people in Northern California. Greed of CEOs and tech billionaires who care nothing for the history, the people, the lives of the communities they have pillaged. These people weren't born there. These people weren't on the streets in 70s and 80s when we were getting arrested for daring to live our best lives. They weren't there when Harvey Milk was shot in broad daylight. They weren't there when the raids would sweep the Castro. They weren't there when the police would come into Aunt Charlie's and drag us off for "perverse behavior". They weren't there when we watched our friends and neighbors lose their apartments because now a 1 bedroom is suddenly worth 10x more than it was yesterday. They weren't there when clinics closed, bodegas shut their doors, laundromats became $10 to do a load of laundry. They weren't around when we watched drug treatment programs get stripped from the budget. They showed up and fought BART expansion. They showed up and put up fences and locked themselves away in Pacific Heights.

I was there. I was there for all of it. I have scars both mental and physical. I watched it fall apart. And I ran. I ran for a better life. Here I am a decade later living my best life but my heart never left. My heart cries for the Union Square of my youth. I wail at the closing of theaters and monuments that stood for so many years. To all of you who still live in my city, thank you. Thank you for doing your best to keep it safe and healthy. Fight every day. Keep small businesses open. Refuse the gentrification of neighborhoods. Fight for mental health programs. Fight to put the pigs back in their cages. Make me want to come home.