When I was a young child we lived in San Mateo for a while and I had nothing but the fondest memories of that time and the many earlier years visiting much of my father’s family in Monterey.
Fast forward to my mid 30’s and the naive move to San Francisco (lower Pac Heights because I was led to believe that was a “safe” part of the city). I endured a little over a year there before returning to Texas saddened and disillusioned by my experiences there. It was heartbreaking to see what was happening to the city. When I first arrived I would see outrageous or gross or scary bizarre things daily and always text my boyfriend, then after a while they were so frequent, I would forget to even mention them. I would walk around with blinders on pretending to not see unpleasant things. Once, when my Aunt came up from Monterey to visit us she said “I wish you could have been here when this was a beautiful place to live” – SHE, a CA native felt sorry for us. Anyway, I could write a novella about my experiences there and I hear from friends and fam out (mainly in LA & SF) there that it’s only getting much worse. I have a friend in LA that posts pics almost daily of the homeless crisis there. It’s insane that Pelosi (net worth of what, close to $400Mill) doesn’t see a problem there, but would rather try and run Trump into the ground, apparently thinking she knows what’s best for an entire nation. God speed and much Love to all you guys powering through it. Get out and vote. Take your state back! We all watching and praying for you guys!!
Former California resident, current Texan Ashley Hendrick