As part of the move, I relocated to Hayes Valley. Hayes Valley is a neighborhood that has been the focus of a massive re-birth effort. For years the Fell Street off ramp from the 101 freeway dumped off traffic in the neighborhood. The high speed traffic exiting the freeway and a large overpass combined to dull the desire of most San Franciscans to reside in the area. In response, the city decided to do away with the offramp and prioritize urban redevelopment in the area, which included the development of a new urban park, Patricia's Green, which currently hosts the Ecstasy sculpture from Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito, a triumph of metal reclamation. Where city planners point, developers, especially during boom times, follow. Sure enough, Hayes Valley is now the home of several new mid-rise residential buildings, including the in one which I reside.
Change moves slowly. Despite the fact that many fashionable shoe stores, a macaroon store and some fancy bakeries and boutiques have moved into the area, adjacent to Hayes Valley are still parts of the city that are unpleasant.
Recently, our building has been victimized by a number of burglaries. In one successful operation, all captured on film while our security guard was away from his desk, a man entered behind a resident who opened the door, attempted to use the elevator to access one of the residential floors, discovered that one needed a fob to access the floors, returned to the lobby to look around, discovered the door to the garage is not locked, walked into the garage, cut several wire locks, and marched out of the garage with several bikes to add to his collection.
The discovery of the theft, and video, provoked outrage amongst the residents. Besides calling for the guard's head (which ultimately remained on his shoulders) the security committee was convened to brainstorm solutions. Some of the recommendations the committee came up with were to build a fence around the bike area, invest in high resolution pan and tilt cameras, expand the security hours or, a personal favorite, park a security van in front of the building at night. As these suggestions were considered, more bikes were stolen.
After contemplating the the thief's methods, it appeared to me that our thief now understood that he could enter the lobby behind a resident and proceed directly into the garage to load up on that day's bicycle supplies. To counter that strategy my idea was to simply lock to door to the garage. That idea was floated, met with widespread acclamation and building management is now in talks with the Fire Department to ensure that we can lock the door to the garage without violating any safety codes. In the meantime, residents are advised to prevent people whom we do not know from piggy backing in behind us as we enter the building.
As someone who takes security seriously, I have been diligent in making sure that people I do not know, which is pretty much everyone, do not piggy back behind me into the building. The first time was last Saturday when a man was standing idly in front of the building and then began to follow me in when I opened the door. I inquired as to whether or not he lived in the building, he said he did not, so I instructed him to check in with the the security guard and thought nothing of it. The next evening I returned home late in the evening and encountered a man talking on the phone in front of the building. When I entered the building, he began to enter behind me, at which point I informed that, I was sorry, but I couldn't let him in without seeing his fob. He had a look of shock on his face, told me to go in and that he would let himself in, opened the door and entered behind me and then started loudly complaining that I wouldn't let him in.
The security guard on duty, who happened to be the same one as the previous night, stopped me and asked to speak with me.
"Why aren't you letting people into the building?" he asked.
"What?"
"Yesterday you didn't let a Filipino guy into the building and just now you didn't let Alfonso into the building."
"I don't know either of them."
"Yeah, but you didn't let the Filipino guy in yesterday either, do you remember that?"
"Yes, I remember that exactly. I asked him if he lived in the building, he said no and I told him he needed to check in with you."
"Well, he lives in the building and so does Alfonso."
"You do NOT ask me for MY fob. I have LIVED here for OVER a YEAR," Alfonso muttered in the corner emphasizing random words for effect.
"Ok, but I don't know them. Wait, do you think that I should be letting people into the building that I don't know?" I finally questioned the security guard, amazed that I was having a debate over whether or not I should be following our building's security measures and deciding that perhaps I should find out this man's security philosophy, especially given that he was the one not at his desk when the video was filmed of the bikes being stolen.
"People don't like it when you ask them for their fob," he responded, not directly answering my question.
"I didn't mean to offend anyone, but, given the security issues, my understanding of the policy is to not let people into the building I don't know. I'm sorry if anyone was offended."
At that point I exited the scene, dazed from the Seinfeldian situation. Here I was being reprimanded by our building security guard for not letting people into the building whom I don't know and, to top it all off, there was a suggestion that perhaps I was racially profiling! All this for following the building's security policies.
Welcome to the new Hayes Valley.
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