S3E24: What the hell happened to San Francisco!

History Behind News Program

Rome of the Pacific! Geneva of the Pacific! A city that aspired to eclipse New York.

What do Nordstrom, Whole Foods, H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap and Crate & Barrel have in common? Care to guess?

They all have left, or are leaving, San Francisco!

I asked my guest, Dr. Gray Brechin, if we are seeing the lowest of the low for San Francisco in its history? A categorical "yes" was his answer! He adds that the San Francisco of unforgettable songs by Tony Bennett and Journey is gone.

Dr. Brechin tells the history of San Francisco, from its booms in mid-19th century to busts and booms again. He explains how the forests of Northern California were sacrificed to build San Francisco. We talk about the media moguls and industry magnates of San Francisco's past, who lived in and around the city and invested in it. He draws a distinction to the tech entrepreneurs of our time, who do not invest in San Francisco and are ahistorical. As for San Francisco's liberal culture and politics, did you know that the City's elite used to be Republican?

Dr. Brechin IS a historical geographer and author whose chief interests are the state of California, the environmental impact of cities upon their hinterlands, and the invisible landscape of New Deal public works. He is currently a visiting scholar in the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography and founder and project scholar of The Living New Deal. He is a San Francisco Bay Area local, who in the 1980s worked as a journalist and TV producer in San Francisco. He is the author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin, a book that we discuss in this episode. You can also get the audiobook here.

To learn more about Dr. Brechin, you can visit his website.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

Adel

Host of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠History Behind News⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ podcast

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