San Francisco’s tourist pitfalls

While I’m working on other projects, I’m presenting some great trunk songs. Today, I present a segment (with some really handsome shots by Matt Crum) about all the ways to make San Francisco, which is already a good-value city for vacations, into an even better value.

One of my books is a guide to San Francisco, which is still for sale. It may be the most plainspoken guide to San Francisco ever written. I actually tell people all the things that  are not as exciting as they’re cracked up to be. On The Haight: “You’re more likely to meet slumming rich kids from the suburbs who have discreetly parked their Beemers a few blocks away than you are to meet any actual hippies.” And I proclaim the vagrant-plagued Tenderloin “a national shame.” Oops.

I think it’s true. But as it turns out, people don’t always want the unvarnished truth in their guide books. They want more cheerleading.

Framed this way, though, in a helpful how-to video, navigating the mistakes of San Francisco becomes much more appealing. Another reason I have branched into camera work.

This was made for a website that is now defunct, where it ran in a much shorter version.