It is hard to leave San Francisco when it is warm and sunny; going back to the winter and cold of Stockholm. Here are some photos of beautiful Rodeo Beach in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, on a warm January day.

I have been a lot of places this last year, and in each place, people have complained of the same thing; traffic.   Vilnius is overcrowded with cars. Bogota and Belo Horizonte. Rio, Delhi and Istanbul, Cape Town, Cartagena, Lima, Stockholm and San Francisco. It is bad in Geneva, one of the richest cities in the world. I can only imagine Moscow or Manila. People are trying to get around, but there are just too many vehicles. Think about how much steel and vinyl, rubber and petroleum it takes and then multiply that by billions. If I were to rule the world, I would ban the automobiles and have people take bikes, buses and subways. I would also ban meat consumption and I would encourage a one-child policy worldwide. There would be no borders or nations. There is a book that I read a long time ago, Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach. My society would be somewhat like that, but perhaps more extreme, because right now, the biological world is losing.

Besides the automobiles, San Francisco is an exceptional place. The neighborhoods each have a distinct flavor. The Mission has changed the most in the last 10 years, and I could have predicted that it would be the most desirable neighborhood for young people working in high tech – the hipsters. I had dinner at Gracias Madre tonight, with its delicious organic hand made corn tortillas and vegan cashew cream on cauliflower. This food is not easy to find anywhere else besides San Francisco.  For vegans, I think it is the best in the world.   Be sure to visit Just for You in Dogpatch, excellent vegan squash risotto, and if you were there on Friday, you would have heard some lovely chamber music for oboe, viola, cello and bassoon (with this blogger on the bassoon).