Dogpatch - My SF by Mathew

What a pleasure it was to meet up again with Mathew here in San Francisco. We first met at Becky's in Williamsburg at the start of my trip.
Remember the scarf chain? He had one for me when we got together.
- Thank you so much! -
Originally from a small town south of Washington DC, he is 25 years old, is a bookseller in Berkeley, and has been living in SF for a year in the Mission. He is thinking of moving soon to Oakland, where it's off the beaten path and cheaper. He chooses to show me Dogpatch, an industrial district on SF's east side with its old buildings and abandoned warehouses.

He explains his choice: “I like the Dogpatch because it is so expansive and empty, like the Wild West. Abandoned industrial sites are beautiful, a trace of what San Francisco used to stand for, a glimpse into a forgotten memory. I also like the Dogpatch because it is one of the few parts of San Francisco that hasn’t gentrified [although the gentrification is coming on strong]. I get the feeling when I come here that in the Western USA humans have no control over their surroundings. On the East Coast the land is very orderly and controlled by society. In California the land seems to not answer to people, it does its own thing, and humans are just along for the ride. And that is a really refreshing feeling.”