San Francisco: be who you are

I'm in San Francisco for a long weekend. To say that I love it here is an understatement. This city has good public transportation, including a very active uber network, there are great ethnic resteraunts on every corner, world class bakeries, great locally-made goods, fun shops, the ocean AND the bay - there is so much to do and see and eat here that it's just incredible. Plus, the weather is good.

What is especially interesting is the personality of the city. You can be who ever you want to be in San Francisco. Want to ride your bike down the street with a live chicken in a crate on the handlebars? Why not? Feel like roller skating your happy self down the street wearing yellow sequined hot pants and a hat with a red ball on top? Feel free. No one cares. No one looks at you funny. Well, I did cast a bit of a side eye towards that guy yesterday wearing nothing but a leopard print fuzzy coat with white fringe, a cowboy hat, and boots. No pants, as far as I could tell. But you also have me, in my mainstream jeans and hiking shoes and fleece vest and I have never felt like I didn't fit in, the way I can in some of the more hipster-ish neighborhoods in Baltimore or yuppie areas of DC. Even when I ate lunch yesterday in a Pakistani resteraunt or today in a Spanish tapas place both patronized almost exclusively by Pakistanis and Spaniards/Hispanics, respectively, the staff simply switched to English and seemed happy to have us there.

I have no doubt that the "be who you are" vibe is closely tied to the fact that this is, clearly and without a doubt, an anti-trump town. There is everything from "love trumps hate" signs to Donald trump piñatas and toilet paper. I got into a nice chat with a lady on a bus about the ACLU action to overturn Trump's executive order banning Muslims from the US. The police calmly escorted a group of demonstrators down a major road so that they could peacefully protest the pipeline today.

I don't know San Francisco history well enough to speak with any great authority about it, but I can't help but wonder if the modern-day attitude of acceptance stems from the time in our history when Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps. The American people don't intend to allow that type of injustice to happen again. Fast forward to today, where everyone is welcome, no questions asked.