»In which the third world is just around the corner

Since cities developed in the industrial world, became the urban accumulations of filth, pestilence, and illiteracy. I know that begging, thievery, and distrust are part and parcel of a city, and yet I still shudder to see legless men frothing at the mouth, asking for something to eat or some change.
The Lower Haight has at least its fair share of begging, thievery, and distrust: a walk along Divisadero, the western boundary of the street, shows it as sordid as Laguna or the 300 block of Haight itself. Drug deals take place at mid-day, day labourers await a scrap of work, and beggars sleep in doorways covered with graffiti tags. Storefronts are perpetually shabby -- did Victorian shops really have a sheen to them? -- and the sidewalks are dirty, uninviting.

Cyril Wecht, who first came to my attention when he was sarcastically voted for City Dogcatcher in Pittsburgh Magazine, faces yet another indictment on federal fraud etc. charges. Wecht, has been part of the dog-and-pony show at several circuses, including the Kennedy assasination, JonBenet Ramsey, O J Simpson, and, of course, the Fox Alien Autopsy.