Turn, turn, turn

"The rise of '60s counterculture has had a significant impact on our culture today. The Summer of Love resonates in strip mall yoga classes, pop music, visual art, fashion, attitudes toward drugs, the personal computer revolution, and the current mad dash toward the greening of America.

While some of the counterculture's dreams came true, others evaporated like the sweet-smelling pot smoke that saturated the air that summer."

Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle

This morning, the night after I said good bye to very good friends of mine who have had enough of the cost of living in the Bay Area or should I say the Bay Area has had enough of them? This year as San Francisco celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the summer of love I curse the rise of the dot.com industry. I lament the loss of San Francisco's Summer of Love ideals. And I watch, as we one by one leave the Bay Area because we can no longer afford it. Most of us are interested in the arts. Either artists, musicians, or writers by profession we also surround ourselves with ourselves and live as shadow artists encouraging one another not to lose hope.

As e-commerce and web industries make their return so slowly does the money back into Bay Area cities. Not that it ever really left. It was more apparent in the 90's when many en mass were priced out of the Bay Area, but slowly and surely even the middle class can no longer afford it here.

I met my friends over ten years ago. We all worked together at our low paying University jobs. We didn't get paid much but had unlimited access to priceless print collections and we were nerds enough to think that enough. About six months after working together two of our ranks left. One back home to Kansas and the other to live in Italy. My friends began dating shortly after that and moved in together within a couple years. Their apartment became the epicenter to our group as we all moved on to other positions. We would gather for bountiful bbqs or be summoned to an art shows at their gallery. Trouble first appeared as the answer to the housing shortage was found in urban living condos and cheap but plentiful complexes went up quickly. Those projects started to push out the last of the artist communities in our cities. The land where most of the galleries and live work spaces were situated became prime development areas.

As the cost of living was still steadily rising so were these buildings and the landscape became unrecognizable. We were unable to identify with what it was we were fighting so vigorously to stay apart of. One of my friends actually took her P.H.d's off of her resume so that she was more marketable -- less intimidating, and took administrative positions. My friend's are leaving for good reason. One was offered an artist residence in Montana, and the other doesn't want California living to eat up the last of their savings. In Montana, they say, we can eventually afford a home. As they leave we joke that maybe if "the big one" hits they'll come back.

What will become of San Francisco after we are all gone? After it finally has its way and costs us all out of here? In my travels when people would ask me where I was from I was proud to say San Francisco. Often even though I was American, people treated me better knowing this. They would complement my city and forgive me my country's arrogance. If the City does away with its artists by making it impossible for us to live here will it continue to enjoy its reputation as a cultural well-rounded metropolitan?

Maybe Joel Selvin hasn't taken this phenomena into account for the spreading of Summer of Love ideals. Maybe its just the dreamers who no longer could afford to live here going forth and populating the country. What happened to those the San Francisco Mime troupe fed in the 60's? What is going to happen to us?