100: feels like the odometer rolled over and we're starting again


Walking down Market Street. This is definitely maskworld. I'd say it's about 90% mask, maybe 80%. Even the people not wearing masks over their faces have them. Well, most of them.


Pedestrian traffic is maybe up a smidge. Car traffic remains about the same. Is this The New Normal?


A side conversation at last night's reading was about how much empty office space there is in the city. I had the radical suggestion that perhaps it could be turned into housing. We all marveled at the idea, and yet there was an overwhelming consensus that wasn't about to happen. We'll see.




Passing the cafe that got its windows smashed that crazy night. After how many weeks of lockdown? 100 days. How many weeks is that? 14 weeks. After 14 weeks of lockdown they were able to put out tables like this. They probably had to get a permit to do it.



Bike traffic going downtown is up a lot. Maybe 5% of pre-pandemic, but 500% more than a couple weeks ago. Car traffic seems up a fair amount too.

The boards around Uber are taken down, but the building's next door are painted black, as are the boards covering up Starbucks. There are new boards going up at Fox Plaza as I speak, covering over what looks like it used to be a window.



Fingers crossed. It's depressing watching local businesses fall like dominoes. I guess that's why they call it a Depression?



Deb asked me yesterday what was happening in the US as far as Covid-19 deaths. The answer is, nationally, we're at about 400 per day, down from over 2k during the height of the NY/NJ/Conn outbreak. But national statistics don't really tell the whole story, because, again, basically the first two months of bad bad news was all from the NY metro area. Now, we're spreading the pain around.


That first wave was basically all NYC, so what looks like a second wave on this chart is really the first wave for most of us. 



Who are "us?" This looks basically like a chart of who is taking shelter-in-place seriously. 


(Or, who can afford to stay home.)



That spike in posh Marin County is due to an outbreak at San Quentin prison.



Looking at these two graphs, the death graph looks kind of hopeful. New cases are going up, but not deaths! And then you adjust your perception of the bottom one, sliding it over about three weeks to the left, the amount of time it takes to become a statistic, and suddenly you're looking at the one on the top and the one on the bottom, and you see what's coming next, and you say, oh shit.



And you vow to keep ringing that bell at 8pm.



Fortunately, our governor tells us there are currently plenty of hospital bed available.



Because unfortunately, it looks like we may need them.


But at least there's a chance of finding out if you have it now.



And the percent of positive tests is still in the "not too scary" zone.



And national statistics are telling another story.




RIP, you crazy old bar.


The sad news about SF, in one realtor-beige paint job.


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