The new millennium started off well enough. The initial fallout in the market and the stability of previously well-funded companies was expected; everyone cashing in on the new economy knew the situation was too good to be true. Venture capitalists began holding onto their funding with both hands rather than doling it out freely to anyone with an idea and a ".com" suffix. The business community figured the scale was finally balancing, with sound companies outweighing the less-concrete ideas on the bandwidth bandwagon.
By mid-2000, investors began to shy away from companies with high valuations and no profits. The billions of dollars of funding that poured into the Bay Area had dried up. Dot.com obituaries and layoff notifications grew longer and grimmer, until finally, by early 2001, it seemed the entire industry had collapsed. Fancier dining rooms braced themselves, while on the bright side, there was finally no shortage of restaurant staff. Whereas apartments had been scarce for the past 5 years, they were more available, while those who were paying absurd rents negotiated reasonable decreases with landlords. SoMa became SloMa with perhaps more commercial FOR RENT signs than surviving dot.coms. And many of those newly arrived returned from whence they came.
The events of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks coupled with the recent war as well as economic uncertainty made matters that much worse. The tourist industry disappeared for a while, business travel dropped off, hotels were nearly empty, and restaurant closings were announced almost daily.
It's been a wild ride since the late 1990s, during which time the city was too crowded, too successful, too rich, and becoming too ruthless. After the burst of the dot-com bubble, September 11, 2001, and the continued economic downturn we denizens became more humble, more appreciative and supportive, even more in love with our comfortable, friendly, and provincial city. Tough times gave us a chance to look at where we came from and to move forward at a more thoughtful and reasonable speed to where we'd like to go. Today, despite ongoing economic gloom, the City by the Bay has rebounded. Restaurants are now opening faster than they are closing, new hotels are being constructed from the ground up, and home sales continue to have analysts scratching their heads and asking when the proverbial bubble will burst. It's likely that for San Franciscans, the answer is never: With such stunning surroundings and a truly exceptional quality of life, most residents feel that even during the darkest days of stupendous home prices and salaries that cannot support them, we are truly blessed.
