Meet the new loft, same as the old loft
Thursday, July 3rd, 2003
When we moved to New York City at the start of the year, Christina and I swore we would never pay rent again, and would never live in another fake live-work loft. Well, here we are in San Francisco again, in a much nicer fake live/work loft right behind the Chronicle building at 5th and Mission (for conference-going types, that’s another block west of the Moscone Center where Steve does his keynotes). Rents haven’t gone down much since the bust, but you can get a lot more loft for your not-so-tall dollar these days.
We’re here because we decided that what mattered most was proximity to Christina’s office, since her hard-charging job is the whole reason we’re back here. Still, the building is much better built than most of the places we looked at. I have a wide-open view to the south from the balcony, and a wonderful wraparound setting on the roof complete with a free Wi-Fi network. You know who you are, hackdojo - thanks.
While moving in, we decided to ban the following 20th-century artifacts from the new place:
- Computers with CRT monitors and/or clunky CPU boxes - we just use our laptops now.
- Compact discs - 12″ vinyl records are retro DJ chic, but 300 jewelboxes are just clutter. One iPod replaces them all.
- Guitar amps - face it, the 70s are over all over again. The neighbors will thank me.
- A telephone land line from any of the Soviet-era phone companies. SBC is a literal credit risk - they accidentally assigned a billing error for collection rather than sending me a refund. I had to call their head of corporate PR to get it fixed. Then they sent it to a second collection agency - lather, rinse, repeat. To update Lily Tomlin’s line: They don’t care, but now we don’t have to.
- Fax machines!
Best accidental benefit: We’re on the 3rd and 4th floors with no elevator. I needed the exercise.
