It felt like that this winter for positive. I took a springtime stroll to see for myself early within the week, when the solar got here out. I noticed an indication outdoors a Valencia Road retailer that mentioned “Get Sprung.”

However downtown, many shops had indicators that mentioned “For Lease.”

And on Second Road, simply off Market, the Alexander Ebook Co. had indicators, too: “Closing Sale Save 25%.” That was notably unhappy. The Alexander bookstore had 50,000 books on the market, three flooring of books. All types. They all the time had a reliably broad number of discount books: final 12 months’s nearly bestseller, marked down. Additionally the standard new fiction and nonfiction, youngsters’ books, cookbooks, obscure volumes: a biography of Metternich, one other of Wendell Willkie. There was additionally a big number of African American books, not simply the classics however books individuals learn for pleasure.

I used to browse the Alexander retailer once I labored downtown often. I’d sneak out at lunchtime on a gradual information day, or when the editor was distracted, misplaced in a world of books I meant to purchase and generally did. If anyone requested, I mentioned I used to be doing analysis.

Michael Stuppin, one of many retailer homeowners, instructed The Chronicle that foot site visitors on Second Road is half of what it was. “The town’s modified,” he mentioned.

The Alexander Ebook Co. has reached its final chapter after 32 years in enterprise. However Paul’s sidewalk flower stand has been a fixture at Powell and Market streets for 108 years. It’s a modest road flower stand, however tens of millions of holiday makers have seen it proper subsequent to the cable automobile turntable. It was well-known in its manner, a small gem. “I consider this because the heartbeat of town,” Harvey Nalbandian, the operator, instructed me years in the past.

Paul’s flower stand was once open daily of the 12 months. Valentine’s Day and springtime had been greatest within the flower enterprise. Nalbandian as soon as instructed me April was his favourite month. He died in 2014, and the stand stayed open for some years. 1000’s of individuals walked by daily till the pandemic. Now the little sidewalk stand is closed and empty. Perhaps it can reopen. I hope so.

But it surely’s springtime, in any case. The 12 months has barely begun. The town’s modified. Or possibly I used to be wanting within the unsuitable locations.

Because it turned out I used to be an hour early for a lunch date I had within the Monetary District, so I walked down Market Road. It’s cleaner than it was — and quieter, too. Most of the road companies had vanished: the nice ones, flower stands, little meals joints, had been gone. And so had been a lot of the road beggars. So it was a combination.

I ended at a kind of sidewalk road park the place Sutter, Sansome and Market all run collectively, sat at a road desk within the solar and skim the newspaper. There have been others sitting round as properly — staff on a break, possibly. The town rolled previous: Muni buses, the funky previous streetcars, vacationers with cameras. A fireplace truck. The town appeared quieter than I bear in mind. But it surely was fairly nice.

A few days later, I used to be a visitor on the semiannual lunch of the Irish-Israeli-Italian Society in North Seashore. It’s an old-line San Francisco establishment, that includes three of San Francisco’s many tribes. Everyone that day appeared to know everyone else.

A priest and a rabbi supplied prayers, however that day the group was honoring town’s most important religions: consuming, ingesting and soccer. Mark Schachern, who has run dozens of bars and eating places, was one of many two honored. The opposite was Phil Ferrigno, the longtime soccer coach at Abraham Lincoln Excessive College.

Ferrigno talked about his staff. They gained the state division championship in opposition to Crenshaw Excessive, the champs from Los Angeles. Crenshaw had gained seven straight video games, averaging 50 factors a sport. Lincoln beat them 54-6 in a muddy, wet sport at Kezar Stadium on Dec. 10. It’s all the time good to beat L.A.

Ferrigno mentioned his staff, all San Francisco public faculty youngsters, was as various as town. A few of them had been undersize for soccer, he mentioned. “However, , they got here in daily, they knew the performs, they lifted weights, they had been fast and quick, they usually labored arduous.’’ Nonetheless, no one expects a lot from a staff of metropolis youngsters.

“I hear so much how we don’t have the gamers in San Francisco,” Ferrigno instructed a prep sports activities web site after they gained. “However we’ve athletes. We aren’t afraid to play anybody.”

After I heard the coach speaking like this I believed possibly we’ve been worrying in regards to the unsuitable individuals in San Francisco.

Perhaps the long run and the prospect of a doom loop isn’t within the fingers of the techies, or the enterprise individuals or the politicians. As a substitute it’s the 17- and 18-year-old youngsters who, one among lately, will inherit San Francisco.

Carl Nolte’s column seems in The San Francisco Chronicle’s Sunday version. Electronic mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com