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San Francisco used to have a theme park, Playland at the Beach many years ago, but the author of The City – A Global History recently did an interview in the New York Observer saying San Francisco is a theme park. You know, like the Haight Ashbury trippy Tilt-a-Whirl [tm], the Mission Track Bike Hipathon, The Tenderloin Haunted House of Ghoulies, the brand new South Beach Rocket Ride to the Stars, Pacific Heights Lost Treasure Train, etc
Should New York diversify and follow this theme park economy?. Some choice quotes
So, you’ve got the nomadic rich and these students who are essentially nomadic. And then you have the servant class that takes care of them. And that’s really San Francisco. San Francisco is a city where a relatively small—I mean, down to 5 percent—[portion] of the population could afford a median-price house.
Think of the country—there’s this country and then there’s these giant theme parks; and one is New York and one is San Francisco. … You go there; it’s a phase of your life. You live there for five years, 10 years. But then most people either don’t do well enough to stay, or get tired of it at some point and leave.
Is San Francisco more LaLa land than LaLa land?