This is one of those must read books by anyone who has an interest in the context of San Francisco. Solnit does an amazing job reading the contours and context of San Francisco. This is not a traditional atlas. This is a book that maps the past, present and future and overlays them in what is known as a palimpsest where the history of the past is interwoven with the present. Her thesis is that it is impossible to have just one map of a city. There are infinite maps depending on the lenses you use to look at your city or neighborhood. Where I live and work in the Tenderloin people often think of the word homeless for this neighborhood. But the Tenderloin has the highest density of children out of all the neighborhoods in San Francisco. It is not just homeless. It is immigrants, Arabic speaking people, there are two mosques in our neighborhood and the police station last time I checked was operating in 12 languages. There are maps written over maps and knowing a neighborhood goes way beyond knowing the streets but understanding the rivers that have passed through, as well as the present streams that move it today.
Solnit gives us 22 maps that attempt to contrast and define the colorful and intriguing contours of San Francisco. Some of the maps are Shipyards and Sounds which traces the migration of African Americans into the Bay area for building ships and the music that was produced by such artists like the Pointer Sisters, Edwin Hawkin Singers, Sly Stone, Otis Redding and others. The map Monarchs and Queens contrasts the queer public places of San Francisco and the numerous exotic butterflies that inhabit some of the hills of San Francisco. The Right Wing of the Dove maps the conservative war machine industry of San Franciso though the city is known as a place of peace and compassion. Companies like Bechtel, Lockheed Martin and Lawrence Livermore labs are a few of those that have supplied and manufactured weapons for our overseas wars. Names before the Names maps the native American tribes that once inhabited the Bay area that made up about 17,000 people and which parts of the Bay area each tribe inhabited.
Solnit also goes away from factual history and does a fun map called Phrenological San Francisco. Phrenology, a 19th century pseudo science study of facial features was used to define peoples talents and character. She turns the map of San Francisco into a person's face and gives names for different neighborhoods that are characteristic of them. The Tenderloin is named Cautiousness while SOMA is named Love of Sex. Presidio is Sublimity and the Mission is Desire for Liquids while Noe Valley is the Love of Family. Each map is done in beautiful color and doesn't concentrate on street names like a traditional map. Beyond the maps, Rebecca Solnit provides lots of history and insights into how San Francisco developed its deep undercurrents of compassion, tolerance, ingenuity, liberalness, and other values that SF is known for around the world. Her ample writings around each of the 22 maps are filled with history and insights.
For those of us who are studying how we as faith leaders influence and interact with the city Solnit gives us a tool that can be further expanded on. She contends that her 22 maps are just a beginning and that with 800,000 inhabitants there are an infinite number of maps waiting to be made from those of us who live and work in the city of St. Francis. Her work inspired me to complete a map that helped me understand the city through the eyes of the religious and sacred places that dot our city. With over 650 religious places of all faiths in the city San Francisco is anything but unspiritual.
Not much these days is spoken about a "Theology of Place." San Francisco, out of any city that I have come to know is a city of neighborhoods. It is a city with no exact center or location that defines all of what it is. With over 117 neighborhoods each location has a special characteristic about it. San Francisco has attempted in some ways to be a city built without the automobile (though not very successful) in mind and therefore has created neighborhoods with mixed uses of both businesses and residential and each neighborhood trying to have its own center. With over 4000 restaurants, 1200 murals and a healthy resistance to chain stores San Francisco has developed multiple personalities so that each micro location takes on its own personality. For those of us who minister and work in our neighborhood understanding context or developing a Theology of Place is essential if we want to relate to the people around us. Rebecca Solnit does a great job in attempting to do this on a large scale for the whole city of San Francisco by studying the parts (neighborhoods) that make up the whole.
I have only lived in San Francisco for 8 years and have been searching for tools, conversations, friendships, prayer paths, churches, people and places that would help me understand the city and have had many helpful encounters. Rebecca Solnit's book is a read I would highly recommend as we journey together in understanding this city of that is a wonderful kalidiscope of colors.
Tim Svoboda
YWAM@357 Ellis street
September 2015