Such influences and emotions are acute in San Francisco, as well. Even as the city booms, it must deal with inflation and the impact of growth on the poor and the homeless. People in the sophisticated and sometimes cynical city were ga-ga over the opening of Pacific Bell Park. The boutique-like baseball stadium for the Giants seats 40,900 and is near China Basin south of Market Street. You can arrive by ferry from across the bay.
Some home runs go into the water.
You could feel the vitality it adds in a city that has seen its ups and downs. Also intriguing for someone from Honolulu is San Francisco's newspaper situation, where the afternoon Examiner has been living on borrowed time and a pending court action. A group going to federal court in Honolulu last year blocked the planned closing of the afternoon Star-Bulletin. The Hawaii legal activism seemed to spur people in San Francisco to demand greater efforts to save the Examiner. All this so Hearst can look better buying the prosperous morning Chronicle.