Knight Ridder

I live in an apartment that, if I were to actually purchase it, would cost $2M dollars. It is a two bedroom apartment. Now this is not a braggarts tale, but just a seemingly “normal” fact of San Francisco. SF is one of the most expensive cities I’ve ever lived in and I’ve lived in NY, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

What amazes me about this fact is that where I grew up there is so much land available. I was reminded of this seemingly obvious fact whilst reading the ML Star Gazette the other day. There was a classified ad which read:

For Sale:

“69 Firebird, needs motor, tranny, $3,800; parting out 81 International dump truck, 14 ft. box; 90 Freightliner FLD; 66 Allis 7 yd. loader; log loader, 18 ft. reach, complete without bucket, $200; Case diesel backhoe, needs crank, $2,800; 88 Chevy 4x4 $600; Cedar Rapids Roll-Jaw rock crusher, $11,000; 85 limited edition H.O. Trans Am, $2,200; 87 H.O. Trans Am, make offer; 83, 84, 85 clean Firebirds, make offer; 18 ft. heavy duty flatbed, $600; 84 Ranger 4x4, 5 spd., $500 or offer. 320-233-0074 1/7/chg”.

Now to actually “own” this much broken equipment, you have to have a large parcel of land and a very, tolerant wife or partner.

But I’m guessing that this Firebird-owning (three for sale, plus two Trans Am’s), International dump truck vending, Freightliner offering, Allis loader selling, crank needing, rock crushing, flatbed-owning, guy is not familiar with the SF-politically-correct term “partner.

Maybe I can sell him my Malibu?