Thread by @ClaraJeffery

Whooo boy, this writer is talented, but this is a piece written by somebody who's not lived here very long and substitutes a pastiche of indicators for actual understanding.

Says the person who lives 50 feet from the Kelly green building that went up in flames.

https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1138662808881680384

And NO there's no reason to believe that arson is behind most Mission fires. For one thing—ask any expert!—it's waaaaaay harder to deceive with arson now than 30 years ago. And these are, mine included, 120+ yo wood buildings with old wiring.

There is a problem with such old housing stock that is also poorly maintained. But most of the worst fires have had, also, a commercial use element: kitchen fires, overstuffed storage for stores, etc.

And, I'll just add, I watched like 30 firefighters, many no doubt from Station 7, ~two blocks in the opposite direction, get everybody out of that building.

"In San Francisco, Tech Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness"

No shit.

"In Manhattan, Real Estate Money Gave Us The Worst of All Possible Presidents"

I should add that, as is true most of the time, most places, the writers don't write the headlines. And that @NewYorker headline convention is by turns delightfully and frustratingly antiquated.

Perhaps the faults with these pieces is that (and I say this as an East Coaster and former NY mag editor) it is hard to wrestle with the fact that what is propelling our society, good and bad, is no longer exclusively or maybe even mostly coming out of NYC.

This has been true for at least 150 years. But it is ever more true. Immigration, housing, food, culture, tech, wealth, poverty, politics...where isn't the West likely to be (if not the only) the leading indicator?

Also though I was mourning their demise the other day, perhaps "the letter from" format in this day and interconnected age had better be a long and/or deeply observed and/or reported piece, and not a take postcard. (Also why is this posted from Silicon Valley, idk)