The black and white tile is the ancient pavement outside a bar on 16th Street where I now wait every weekday morning for MUNI's 22 line to carry me from the Mission over to the Fillmore. Then from there I can either catch the 5 up to the library near Golden Gate Park where I work, or else walk there.
To witness absolute emptiness on 16th Street seems pretty apocalyptic. At any other hour this street is bursting with overlapping cultures and and modes of transport and lives. Then too, it is only in the summer that all this emptiness is truly visible. Most of the year this is a pre-dawn hour, but just at present it is a dawn-occurring hour.
After getting off the 22 this morning I walked several blocks up McAllister before a 5 came along and took me the rest of the way to work. Just that short walk revealed a respectable number of wonders that I wouldn't have seen at any other place or time.
