New York media has an annoying tendency to come to San Francisco and get things wrong. Like majorly wrong. So nitpickers and anyone who gets frustrated with mistakes from someone whose only job was to write about the fancy vacation he took might not want to read Pico Iyer’s travel essay on San Francisco for UK’s Guardian, which is basically the British New York Times.
Iyer is a respected essayist and novelist and a Brit of Indian descent. He lives in Japan but used to live in Santa Barbara, so in theory, he knows California. But not enough to avoid some oopsies, such as saying Valencia Street is “near” downtown, or that the Presidio is “nearby” Pier 17. (This city is small, but not everything is near everything else.) We can maybe overlook “the Sausalito neighbourhood,” because who isn’t a sucker for that extra u? But the observation that independent bookshops are “everywhere in San Francisco” is no longer true. Cranes, Teslas, and reclaimed subway tiles are everywhere. Bookstores are dying.
Beyond geography, some criticism misses the mark. When Iyer writes that “the self-styled ‘Baghdad-on-the-Bay' can be a little too pleased with itself at times,” he’s definitely got my ear. But apart from a Muni ad, all the evidence he cites – Holistic Hound, Chez Panisse – is actually in Berkeley. An overuse of scare quotes and a general gosh-wow tone permeate the whole thing, and I wish he’d elaborated on the murals that made him think “the whole place was coming up and falling apart in the same breath” because that’s actually very apt.
Curiously, Iyer also talks about dropping by the XO Ball& Expo and the Folsom Street Fair – even though both of them will actually take place this coming weekend. If we charitably assume he isn’t bullshitting his readers and did in fact attend those events last year, well, 51 weeks is a long-time to sit on your homework. Also, if “gay shrinks” were the craziest thing you saw at Folsom, you obviously snubbed everyone I have ever met there. Rude.
Iyer roamed far and wide, though, and that’s to be commended. Amused at WeBe Sushi’s “Like Mom Used to Make” tagline and by the artisanal “yoghurt” in the Fillmore, impressed by Tilden Park and the new Exploratorium, he definitely got out there. If he thinks having a “Best Indian Pizza” is strange and alienating, at least he didn’t quote any humanoids who talk in biz-speak. Come back soon, Pico Iyer, and have a good time. Thank you for not mentioning $4 toast even once.
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