1455 Market Street

This is a note to John King, who has the architecture beat for the SF Chronicle. I sent him this note last week after he wrote a piece about 1455 Market Street: 

In 1996, when it was still Bank of America’s building, the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement used 1455 Market as a vantage point to surveil (and probably to video) the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, which was directly across the street at 1444. Dennis Peron’s office was on the mezzanine overlooking Market St., and his desk was close to the window, so the narcs had an excellent view of him and whoever came calling.

When I was covering the Proposition 215 campaign in 1996, Dennis remarked the contrast between the scene at his club and the B of A’s “back-office” site across the street. “You know what they do all day?” he asked as if it was unbelievable. “It’s like a sweatshop but they’re not making anything. They’re just keeping track of who owes how much to B of A. Down to the penny!” One of the workers was a club member and had filled him in.

Dennis would have appreciated your noting that “the floors of the tower are more than half an acre, designed to pack as many workers inside as possible.”

The building that housed the club at 1444 Market was uniquely shaped and far from ugly. When it was Zack’s Electronics, back in the day, you could enter on Market and exit with your vacuum tubes on Grove (or vice versa).

It was pessimistic of you to declare, “That’s how cities work. In boom times, economic tides rise so far and so fast that it seems as if they never will stop. Then comes a recession or worse, and those same forces recede.”

That’s how cities work under capitalism.

Attached is a photo of Dennis outside his club. The fortuitous cross is a reflection from the B of A building across Market Street. You can make it out in the photo by Santiago Mejias that accompanied your piece in the Chronicle.

Autism Afflicts one in 25 US Boys 

 “Autism Rate in Children Rises Again, to One in 36.” So read the headline over a one-column story on page 20 of the New York Times March 24. Data just published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows that autism spectrum disorder now affects one in about 25 US boys, and one in 100 girls. Reporter Emily Anthes does not try to explain the disparity. 

Deemed more important by the editors than the US Autism epidemic was the news from Ukraine. “Zelensky Visits Kherson as Report Puts Rebuild Cost at $411 Billion,” filled the top half of page 5. The bottom half was given over to “Tank Crews Impatient for New Gear From West.” The story was illustrated by a five-column photo of a tank in a snowy wood and a two-column photo of middle-aged men in uniform ostensibly kvetching about the slow delivery of promised gear from the West. The caption laments that these soldiers were trained in tank warfare “decades ago.” 

Across the top of the next page ran a hed reading, “As Dreams of Peace Wither, Nightmares Flourish in Ukraine’s Sleep.” Three photos illustrated the tragic but hardly surprising corollary of war. A young Caiucasian dad reads to his daughters. A boy covers his eyes with his hands as if in terror, while a grown-up’s hand lies on his shoulder. A mom reads to a boy of about six scrunched up nervously on his bed. The Times has showed this level of editorial support for Zelensky and Ukraine daily since Russia attacked (and even before). The only other time the Gray Lady promoted a cause on a daily basis for more than a year was in the wake of the 911 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They were running obits of Central American busboys who worked at the eateries. 

As for the increased incidence of Autism. Emily Anthes cited the latest CDC report. “The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in American children rose between 2018 and 2020, continuing a long-running trend... In 2020, an estimated one in 36 8-year-olds had autism, up from one in 44 in 2018. The prevalence was roughly 4% in boys and 1 percent in girls.”

Catherine Lord, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA medical school thinks the obviously worsening epidemic is due to better detection! The Times quotes her saying, “The question is what’s happening next to these kids, and are they getting services?”

Services, of course, is what she’s selling. 

The Times’s summary of the CDC data re Autism continues ominously, “The rise was especially sharp among Black, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander children. For the first time, autism was significantly more prevalent among 8-year-olds in these groups than in white children, who have traditionally been more likely to receive autism diagnoses.”

“‘That is good news,’ Dr. Lord said. ‘It means we’re finding kids younger’.”

The authors of the CDC report acknowledge that their findings “might reflect improved screening, awareness and access to services among historically underserved groups.” Translation: “the sharp increase in autism diagnoses conferred on non-white children reflects a decision by Psychiatrists to expand their catchment area.”