The ephemeral city

San Francisco has lost its middle class, become a 'theme park for restaurants,' and is the playground of the nomadic rich and restless leeches living off them

San Francisco Chronicle

Joel Kotkin

Sunday, May 8, 2005

San Francisco today represents the ultimate expression of a new kind of urban area -- the ephemeral city. This urban form, dominated by the nomadic rich, the restless young and those living off them, has emerged across the advanced industrial world, but perhaps nowhere more clearly and arguably nowhere more successfully than in the city by the bay.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/08/INGFACJGS51.DTL