Given that I live only a few blocks away from the San Francisco City Hall, I do my best to follow up on news reports on what takes place inside that building. This morning I read an online San Francisco Chronicle article by City Hall Reporter J.D. Morris in which Mayor Daniel Lurie announced “that $40 million has been raised by the Downtown Development Corp., a coalition of business, labor and philanthropic leaders that formed with the mayor’s blessing this year to help the city revitalize its ailing urban core.” The objective was explained more specifically as follows:
The money will fund initiatives that make streets safer and cleaner, help small businesses thrive and breathe life into public spaces, the mayor’s office said in a news release, adding that the corporation also plans to “collaborate with civic groups to raise tens of millions more.”
Associated Press photograph by Julio Cortez of drone delivery in Frisco, Texas (from a San Francisco Chronicle Web page)
There is no question that this is a laudable effort. Ironically, this article was posted at roughly the same time as another one by Reporter Laura Waxmann, who covers business news. The “business” in this particular story is DoorDash, which, in Waxmann’s words, “is preparing to take on-demand delivery to new heights.” Mind you, that is not a metaphor! Here is the elaboration on the plan:
Last month, the food delivery platform quietly leased a nondescript Mission District warehouse where it plans to test the future of logistics: deliveries by autonomous flying drones that can zip through the sky at 65 miles per hour while carrying the equivalent of a six-pack of beer.
Personally, as a long-time believer in Murphy’s law, I do not think that the streets of San Francisco will be made safer when there are drones carrying six-packs overhead!
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