Recession

It's too bad I don't get to blog as often as I would have liked. My fear that I'd find the US unrecognizable after the recession turned out to be unfounded. At least, the main downtown (read: touristy) areas of Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego seem the same as always. The majority of my favorite stores and businesses are still there. True, a few have shuttered up, like La Vache in Hillcrest, San Diego (yeah I miss that one) - probably there just wasn't the clientele for $20 lunches and $35 dinners. On the other hand, it may be just normal turnover. I am so glad that Khyber Pass, another of my favorite restaurants in the same neighborhood, seems to be doing fine.

A walk around the Pearl (Portland) proved a bit more sobering. The Puma and Adidas stores have closed (yeah, I'll miss the Puma one - it was great place to buy good stuff, tax-free) - European goods seem increasingly out of reach for the American pocket. In one sense, that's not a bad thing. One does get tired of European prices and there are plenty of new American brands to satisfy a price-conscious fashionista. The Diesel store is still around and Powell's in fine fettle (well, we'll have to see how it coevolves with Kindle and the iPad), as are pretty much all the wonderful restaurants in that neighborhood. Blocks away in Chinatown, a heaped plate of salt and pepper shrimps (eaten guilt-free with Alli capsules) is still under 10 bucks, as it's been for the last ten years.

So, yeah, there have been changes and I would have felt them more keenly if I lived in America. But it's still the good old US of A, and the bottom has very much not fallen out.