Is there any there there?

Gertrude Stein didn't think so, but that was in 1937.  She had returned to Oakland on a lecture tour, and couldn't find her childhood home.  But I think any town that produced both Gertrude and Jack London must have had a little something there.  Anyway, we're there now and we've been there for the better part of a week.  In fact, even if there wasn't anything there when we moved east in 1989, the intervening 23 years have been good to our old neighborhood.  Lots of trendy restaurants and shops.  No less than four (4) espresso houses in the four blocks between our place and BART.  The old Safeway is still there, but of course they now want to tear it down and build a megamarket complete with parking deck.

I'm of two minds about development in general, and with respect to this project, I can't figure out to which mind I should listen.  [Cynthia, wherever you are, please note the absence of the dangling preposition.]  On the one hand, College Avenue is pretty consistently jammed with traffic, especially between Alcatraz and Claremont where the Safeway is, and parking overflows into the neighborhood.  And the overcrowded old store is really pretty small by modern standards.  On the other hand, they would probably put in a specialty bakery, butcher counter, and a lot more fruit and vegetable racks, all of which would compete even more heavily with La Farine, Ver Brugge, and Yasai respectively.  It would indeed be terrible to see these great little shops driven out of business by the Colossus.

But there's another point to keep in mind here as well.  Yes, big chains and box stores eliminate individuality, kill off small businesses, and are politically incorrect.  But if you're scraping to get by and put food on the table every week, that cheap price which is lower than the competing small business could possibly match can be a godsend.   It's great to be able to afford locally grown, organic, pesticide-free, growth-hormone- free, non-genetically modified food, but before we get too snooty about Safeway and its cousins, let's take a moment to remember that many people can't afford Whole Foods, much less Yasai, La Farine, and Ver Brugge.

Meanwhile, in the blowing your own horn department, I noticed a recent Princeton commencement address by Michael Lewis, author of "Liars Poker", "Moneyball", and "The Big Short", among others.  Here's an excerpt:

My case illustrates how success is always rationalized. People really don’t like to hear success explained away as luck — especially successful people. As they age, and succeed, people feel their success was somehow inevitable. They don’t want to acknowledge the role played by accident in their lives. There is a reason for this: the world does not want to acknowledge it either......Life’s outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them. Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with  luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your Gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.

Now, refresh your memory by reviewing my first post on this blog (which, just to reassure you, was posted one month to the day before his speech).   Seems as if the celebration of randomness is definitely in the air these days.  But I'm still waiting for that commencement address extolling the virtues of atheism.  Actually,  I was shocked to discover that there really is an avowed atheist currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives!  None other than good old Pete Stark, whose district is immediately to the south of Oakland.  It almost makes me want to move to Hayward.


And what of our travels?  Well, the road trip is on hold for a while.  For one thing, the Enterprise is once again in the shop, sadly.  This time it's the generator, which will be our third warranty repair so far.  We've been wondering if this should be three strikes and you're out, but maybe we should give it one more chance.  Haven't decided yet.  Even if it weren't in the shop, it would be in Carmel for the summer because I have a consulting gig in San Diego and Cherie is signed up for a stained glass workshop in Berkeley.  So the blog may undergo a brief hibernation while all this is going on.  But you might want to check in occasionally just to see if I've had any brilliant inspirations worth sharing.