Not a single Tech visitor to real San Francisco
This week there were over 40K visitors to San Francisco for the RSA Security Technology conference, and I saw no evidence that even a single one of these visitors took the time to check out San Francisco. I love going out and meeting visitors. I’m proud of my city, and people typically love meeting a trans woman, if they had the chance. Which they didn’t.
The conference ran Monday-Thursday and I was excited to go out Wed and Thu night and see what kind of fun I could drum up and share . I figured with over 40K visitors I would see people skipping out from the corporate hospitality suites and parties and check out the scene in such a great city. I didn’t expect to see thousands of people, I didn’t expect to see even dozens of people, I expect to see at least a few.
I didn’t see any! Not a single person visiting, the city was completely dead, other than the area around the conference which the Lyft drivers said was bustling with people going between hotels and restaurants. I went to the Castro to check out the Gay scene. Nothing. I went to the piano bar Martunis a few blocks from the conference which is well known mix bar….totally dead, all locals. I went to Divas, the transsexual bar. Nope. Even Polk street, usually bustling on a thu night, was devoid of activity. I got around real easily on Lyft as the streets were completely empty.
(BTW Diva, the TS bar is closing because people I guess just aren’t interested in seeing something interesting and real. It used to be packed, but now I suppose people rather just surf online — BORING!)
I understand people are busy, but I didn’t see a single visitor. Not one out of over 40K people! WTF?? Nobody was curious to check out the city? They were so busy networking so they could find their riches, that they didn’t feel it was worth their time to check out San Francisco’s unique night life. There weren’t any gay people looking to cruise and hook up (instead of meeting online — BORING!). There weren’t any curious straight people who wanted to check out the transsexual bar, sing at a piano bar, or see the gay Castro district for themselves. I know people get tired, but nobody, not one, nada!? San Francisco is a TINY city, were talking about a 5 minute Lyft ride that would cost $15 round trip. $7.50 if you shared it with somebody.
I have seen this before many times. For example I was visiting Midtown Manhattan on a business trip years ago during the days of Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park. I suggested to my colleagues we hop on the A train, a 15 minute ride, and walk by Zuccotti Park and check it out, and then grab a deli sandwich or something. The responses I got were, why would I want to do that when I can go back to my hotel room and watch TV. My response was, “because you’ve never seen it before, and it’s a national phenomenon…” . I got blank stares. I thought to myself, “are you dead inside? What killed you?”. I went myself and that was one interesting experience. (I got a real flavor for what that was all about…..for another post…and I happened to be there the day before they disbanded it).
What am I missing? Are people just too tired? Has our modern world sucked the life out of us? Is our modern world designed to deaden us so we’re less likely to become activists and be engaged in our society giving our business and political leaders the power to walk all over us, our society, and our planet? Has tech sucked the life out of us by designing social networking platforms that addict us to surfing so we can muster up the energy to meet real people. Or am I just some weird freak who doesn’t belong here?
