By RJ Bardsley
You know what they say about the road less traveled? Boy, are they right. This morning I switched up my walk to work because I was a little bored of taking the same two or three streets that I always take. I wandered up through Chinatown today, and it was a new and strange experience. I’ve been to San Francisco’s Chinatown many times, and the streets are normally bursting at the seams with thousands of people, but this morning they were silent. As I sauntered up the hill from my apartment on the Embarcadero I passed the Portsmouth Square park where a few elderly people were exercising, slowly jogging in circles and reaching up to the sky in big broad stretches. An old man sat on an upside-down bucket, playing a lonely-sounding stringed instrument, and in the distance a couple of cars rumbled by below on Kearny Street. The normally packed side streets leading up to Grant Street, the central artery through Chinatown, were deserted. I expected that things might pick up when I turned onto Grant, but they didn’t. The summer morning fog clung to the tops of the buildings and there was an almost Robert Frost-like silence over the whole street.
I had never noticed before how hilly Chinatown is – it’s always so crowded that I 
can’t notice anything but the people. The plastic bags and brightly colored coats hanging out for sale were not there this morning; the crates of fish and vegetable were absent from the sidewalks; and the sounds of that strange (to me) language was gone – there was only the silence and the fog as I walked on towards my office.
At the Chinatown Gates, the quiet faded and the normal hum of the morning city picked up again. I ducked in to Starbucks and grabbed a coffee and continued on my way, feeling like I had somehow made a secret discovery that vanished as soon as I walked away from it.
I’m guessing you didn’t stop for breakfast….? Very cool walk, sounds like fun – I always love the times when a city street is empty, something magical about it….
I wonder how Robert Frost would have written “about stopping by the streets” on an early morning in Chinatown….something like…. whose streets are these I think I know …their language set to only those few….
Stopping by Chinatown on a Foggy Morning
Whose streets are these I think I know,
Within the city a village, whole
They will not see me crossing here
As on my way to work I go.
My Nike sneakers must think it queer
To walk without the buzz of commerce near
Between the Bay and Presidio
This August morning, mid year.
Off in an ally two cats awake
And yawn and stretch and start to shake
The only other sound’s the hum
That the iron wheels of street cars make.
These lantern-clad streets are lovely, quite and steep
But I have appointments to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
You’re good, RJ -;)
I wish I could have been with you. I love Chinatown with all the bustle and how the generations mix together there. Rare…I always thought I would like to see Chinatown at night…(which I never have), but after reading the blog, I think maybe I should see it as Rj did and appreciate the stillness. Great poem…you are a multi-talented man.
Great job Rj! Gram – come back after Europe and we will take you to Chinatown again….maybe we can even get Rj to eat there!
Eating in Chinatown is not so bad once you get past having to pick out your own chicken…lol