When I was a kid, my orbit wasn’t very large. Within a mile or so of my house was just about everything I needed: the record store, the supermarket where my mom caught me buying beer when I was 15, my high school, and the mall, where sex, drugs, and rock and roll were always available…
I’ve always been glad I didn’t grow up in the hardcore suburbs, where you have to go two or three miles just to find a convenience store. How do kids without cars manage areas like that? I’d hate it even as an adult who HAS a car…
That’s one really great thing about San Francisco: if you don’t want to drive, you really don’t have to. In fact, it’s very often better NOT to drive here. Except for the occasional Safeway run, the purpose for having a car in the city is to get the hell out of it, not to navigate within it…
Which is a lesson an awful lot of people need to learn…
