INTRODUCTION TO NATIONAL ELECTIONS SAN FRANCISCO STYLE

A crowd had formed in front of City Hall in the Civic Center by noon. They had a small, portable music box and a dozen or so from the group were dancing to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” and other songs, moving into the street towards the other side when the light turned green, then return to their side of the street when it turned red. Very proper. Another group watched from across the street. As time went on, people from the group of onlookers would merge with the dancers in front of City Hall. Cars driving by often honked their horns, drivers and passengers stuck their hands out the windows raising them in celebration, sometimes waving flags. A man driving a municipal truck pulled over near the crowds to photograph the celebration. A USPS truck driver joined in the honking as he went by, and a fire truck rang its bell as it drove between the crowds on opposite sides of the street cheering them on. Over the course of an hour or two the crowd easily doubled in size. Champagne bottles were opened and ceremoniously sprayed into the air.

A couple blocks away at Franklin and Grove, couple women walking in the direction of the Civic Center carried a large horizontal cardboard sign reading “Thank You Pennsylvania,” because the 20 electoral votes which were forecast to take the Biden-Harris ticket over the 270 votes needed to win the election came from that state. Throughout the City, individuals celebrated the Biden-Harris electoral victory quietly walking with small flags in hand or wrapped in larger ones as cars passed by honking their horns.

By 4pm, as the sun already began to fall, a large, festive crowd of several thousand had gathered in the Castro. A man was delivering a speech from the side of a bus covered with slogans at the heart of the celebration for a short while before a DJ took over to play heavy, pumping music to the joy of the crowd which started dancing. Smaller crowds gathered around music at other areas of the Castro. People mostly wore masks, taking them off now and then to drink, smoke or otherwise imbibe intoxicants while they celebrated the fall of Trump. Others walked around with signs that spoke for all. The party scene initiated by the joy of Biden’s victory provided a reason to put aside the pain and suffering of the year yet courted disaster as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on.