What I saw downtown this weekend

For as terrible as whoever is in charge of Garbage City sometimes seems, once in a while they get together and do something super smart and it usually involves closing a road to cars. This year the city resurrected Winter Walk, where they close a couple of blocks of Stockton Street next to Union Square and set up little bars and booths by the sponsors (including GoPuff, some kind of delivery service with a fucking godawful name) and all that stuff. And in Union Square, you have the ice skating rink and also Tyler Florence’s new joint.

I took my kid down there this weekend (also to go shopping at Macy’s, I know, so old school). And what do you know, it was basically like the Before Times. There were a TON of people out and everyone was all smiles (perhaps because of the lines at the Winter Walk bar) and it seemed like the beautiful city I remembered.

(My 10-year-old said I could “get her a little treat at Louis Vuitton” and I have no idea how she’s ever heard of Louis Vuitton, she goes to public school.)

Of course there was a thick crowd in front of the Macy’s window where they have the puppies and everyone was trying to get a look at two extremely tired and somewhat bored-looking puppies.

We went into Macy’s, which was ALSO packed.

Don’t say anything about my Dad shoes, I’m a Dad and I adopted the slipon lifestyle during the pandemic, along with 20+ pounds. Anyway, I’ve never noticed the Spencer Elevator Company plaques on the elevator floors at Macy’s. According to this Elevator Wiki, Spencer Elevator was founded no later than 1911 and acquired by Westinghouse in 1932, making the elevator were rode in around 100 years old. Worked fine.

An Elevator Wiki! What a world.

I always thought of Macy’s as super expensive but everything was like 60% off or Buy 2 Get 1 free and a lot of the stuff we got was cheaper than Amazon. Macy’s! I have not been compensated for this content.

So to sum up, almost everything that involves closing streets turns out well. They should really keep Stockton closed permanently, along with Grant in North Beach and a big stretch of Valencia in the Mission. That cranky bike shop guy would flip the fuck out, but that’s a feature, not a bug. I am telling you, people love a pedestrian plaza.