Love this town

I attended a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Biotechnology Forum today. It was an overflow crowd of people wanting to hear how the expansion of biotech at Mission Bay will bring business to the city. They went away assured it will. They project that during the next 10 years life science employment in the city will increase from 35,000 jobs to 85,000! (For each PhD, 5 to 8 other jobs are created. For every one of those jobs, 2.5 other jobs in the city are affected.) Even the guy from the local office supply was excited. (How many yellow pads is that?) Between the Mission Bay development around UCSF and the Prop. 71 stem cell research, the region is expecting to become the very hub of biotech in the nation–that is, if Palo Alto or San Diego don’t get the stem cell research center.

I love a visit across the Bay. The CA Division Office used to be on Market St. down which streetcars like this one rumbled. The windows of the office were always open (no air conditioning in breezy SF) and the singing of steel-wheels on rails was part of the ambiance. The city took the streetcars off Market for a few years. Biggest, dumbest mistake they ever made. Market was as silent as a cemetery for years. Finally they rebuilt and repainted the streetcars and even imported some antiques from Europe and around the US. Worth every penny.