You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
San Francisco, which packages and sells its past with the best of them, conveniently omits the Barbary Coast from much of its history. An area world famous for drugs, prostitution, violence and liquor is commemorated with . . . a pastry shop that isn’t even in the Barbary Coast: instead it’s just off Union Square.
It’s tough to pick just one or two things to say about how the coast was, but Asbury once again rises to the challenge with this:
The crime and debauchery of the early days of the Barbary Coast was accompanied by the gurgle of enormous quantities of liquor . . .
He goes on to point out that, in 1890, there were 3,117 legal places selling beer, wine, and booze, one for every 96 residents of the city. There were an additional couple thousand unlicensed speakeasies bringing the number to one for every 60 people or so. Thirty years later, when prohibition went into effect and the city’s population had more than doubled, the number of licensed alcohol sellers still did not exceed 3000.
They were some drinking, whoring, violent fools back on the Barbary Coast and their bawdy history is commemorated with . . . a pastry and coffee shop. That’s just not right. On the upside, it is supposed to be a pretty good coffee shop though.
