The Financial District is a sanitized environment. Our culture's passions for expediency and opulence are on magnificent (contrasting) display. Corporate advertisements decorate buffed granite landmarks.
The seriousness of the pursuit of money is interrupted by the California-Powell line of cable cars. They're jammed with tourists. They chime as they rumble.

Wall Street had suffered its worst day in seven years the previous day. Montgomery Street, though, still looked carefree, although it may have been the gentle breeze that reminded me of the beach.

On September 16, 2008 I walked the length of California Street in San Francisco. It's 5.2 miles. The camera that I brought along I got last year in a parking lot on Clement St (a block south of California) in an illicit deal through Craigslist.