Another day, another visit to a doc in UCSF-Mission Bay’s brand new medical complex. After my first visit a few weeks ago I characterized the architecture of the place as straight-line and right-angled, enclosing expensive, wasteful soul-sucking vacuity. Still one goes where the docs are, and thee docs and other personnel at UCSF-Mission Bay are unfailingly courteous and helpful and mildly subversive. My first doc wore well-used outdoor gear instead of blue scrubs & stethoscope. The chip on my shoulder is laser-focused on the soul-deadening built-environment these people work in. As my pal Al says, Nature abhors a (pun alert) strait line as much as She abhors a vacuum (and perhaps a uniform). Straight lines and uniforms constrain her curvaceous self. Too many straight lines, too long. signify Man’s war on nature.
My appointment was on the 4th floor of a building whose exterior looks just like all the other unnatural, right-angled medical buildings on the site reclaimed from abandoned shipyard, rail yard, golf driving range, and—in the way back—marsh and aquatic life. No straight lines there. I was requested to arrive at 9:15 for a 9:30 appointment. If more than 15 minutes late your appointment will be reassigned. At 9:14 the receptionist was skillfully & pleasantly chatty as he confirmed my insurance coverage (primary and supplemental), identification card, place of residence, referring doctor. He also had time to laugh at my answering the d.o.b. question with “I don’t remember the event, but I have it on reliable authority—accepted by DMV–that I was born on…“.
Like most of you, I’m accustomed to long waits to see Doctor. I had prepaid for 3 hours in the 8-story parking lot and brought along a novel (Percival Everett, James). No need. In at 9:31, out by 10:02. There’s no refund of parking overpayment. I decide to invest my surplus 2 hours in a walkabout.
Not a cloud in the sky & 65 or so degrees, yet as I pause in the median at the right-angle intersection of 3rd and 18th streets matters don’t feel right. To the north on my right there’s a weary small building sporting (wrong word!) a faded red sign: Carpenters Union Hall/Local #22. Looking north toward the 4th Street bridge, I watch a two-car light rail T-line train emerge from the tracks’ vanishing point near Oracle Park, along perfectly straight tracks aimed at Dogpatch hidden behind the slight rise…No one gets on or off at the UCSF stop & the train appears to be empty as it passes. The effect is sounding silence.
There’s almost no one walking the 3rd Street sidewalks. The few who do are far away and dressed in black. They look like stick figures in an architectural model. Hungry, I walk back to 520 Illinois Street. There’s a snack shop in a corner there. I order something with egg & bacon on an English muffin. In 3 minutes I’m sitting and take a bite—it’s good food—and look out the window at a straight concrete walkway, empty and clean, as though not many people have as yet walked on it.
A fellow appears, stage left. Black is the rare pedestrian’s color of choice hereabout. This fellow wears gray-green trousers, a very used and respectable jacket… his body moving through various contortions which are semi-circular but directional & suggest intensity and certainty that he’s up to the task at hand, which is lighting a cigarette. Task complete, he rewards himself with a deep inhale and with his interpretation of the straight path delineated by spotless concrete. He rigamaroles out of sight, and as I turn back to my eggwich I see another fellow, dressed in Duluth work trousers, Target blue workshirt, cleated boots. He’s plugged in his computer & worked his earbuds through his touseled locks.
I watch him for a few moments, then interrupt, then say, “Excuse me, sir, are you a doctor?” “Why yes, I am …”. “I thought so. You look dressed for work.” He looks at me for a moment, says “But I don’t work here. I’m a patient.”–Give Mission Bay another 25 years and there may be a there there.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Another Voice: Watching for people )
Also on site :
- Wyndham Clark Loses Temper, Goes Berserk in U.S. Open Locker Room
- This 'Forgotten' Blood Test Can Catch Cancer Early
- Macy’s Is Selling ‘Very Comfortable’ $80 Adidas Sneakers for Just $48, and Shoppers Say They ‘Look Great With Any Outfit’