John Hathaway

This is a message I originally sent out to friends on April 11, 2008. With the Olympics just underway, I thought that today would be a good time to repost here:

Chris and I went to try to see the Olympic Torch yesterday. McCovey Cove, where it was to start, is only a couple blocks from our condo. It was quite an experience!

The first photos are from the assembly area at McCovey cove. Then we went across the bridge to the ballpark where there was much more protest action. As you can see in the photos, the China and Tibet factions were very intermixed throughout in fairly small groups. The most heard chants were “Free Tibet!” answered by “Liars!” from the pro-Chinese. We saw some heated discussions, but no violence. The San Francisco police had a huge presence and seemed to be doing a good job at keeping order without really interfering. We only saw one person taken away. (From later news reports I don’t think he was actually arrested.)

Eventually, it became clear that the torch was not going to be going along the original route. The most popular rumor at the time was that it went by boat to the Ferry Building. (Which turned out not to be true.) So thousands of people started walking there down the Embarcadero. We stayed there for a while and then headed home. By the time we made it back to the ballpark, traffic was flowing again and it looked like any normal afternoon.

The impact of mobile communications technology on the event was really interesting to me. Everyone had cameras and many had video, so certainly absolutely nothing was going to happen that the world wouldn’t see. People were on phones and laptops trying to get information on what was happening and where the torch was going. I posted more than 15 updates to my Twitter (http://twitter.com/johnhat) while we were there. And it was fascinating to read what others were seeing, hearing, and doing right in the same moment.

You can see more photos here:http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=15rd3izb.5wq0wfz3&x=0&y=nzn1i0&localeid=en_US

Well, looks everything is set to sell the condo!

The stagers (Arris Design) did a nice job. The place looks great. We had a minor drama over cleaning and window washing, but our agent, Judy Rydell at Zephyr, sorted it out. I was there when the window washers came. One of them used to be in the Navy and did bombing practice here on Vieques. What a strange coincidence!

Judy had all the Zephyr agents through on Wednesday and consensus was that we have it priced right. The first open house is this Sunday.

Mission Bay has become very popular with rich Asians who want a place in San Francisco as a second (or third or fourth) home. It’s a big part of what’s keeping the market there fairly strong. I’m betting we sell to someone from Hong Kong or Singapore.

Wish us luck!

                         

We had a great time at SF Gay pride this year! Ended up with good spots to watch the parade at Market & 6^th . Chris and I met up with Marko and Fernando there. Parade seemed to move along well this year without the annoying gaps of previous years.

 Went on to the festival at Civic center. After 2 weeks of smoky, crappy weather, SF finally had a gorgeous afternoon. Sat on the grass to enjoy a corn dog and beer. (Although we didn’t get the anatomically “correct” ones we’ve seen in previous years.) Definitely doesn’t get any better for people watching. Always refreshing to see a bit more diversity than the typical white 30/40s Castro queens. Look! 20 year old Latina dykes!  

 More photos available here: http://johnhat.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=5288450&AlbumKey=uQsoj