It was (probably) a Halloween prop (or something)
In perhaps the most San Francisco way to start the workweek nearly two years ago, then-Twitter on Monday, February 7th, 2022, was flapping with videos and images of a large, beige coffin sitting idly out on an SF curb, waiting to be collected by a Recology garbage truck. Eventually… that’s exactly what happened when the brown elongated rectangle was pictured and filmed being tossed into said trash-collecting vehicle.
However… the casket didn’t go without putting up a limp, albeit personified fight.
“There’s a casket on the sidewalk at California and Funston,” posted Ben Nash Monday morning on a now-deleted post on X after spotting the casket on a Richmond District sidewalk. “I can’t, I just can’t handle this place anymore.”
(Granted: If witnessing an empty, presumably decorative casket on a local sidewalk served as a breaking point for one’s relationship with San Francisco, perhaps they should look more inward — or veer their gaze toward downtown — to take inventory of their privilege inside a metropolitan that has some 9,000 residents experiencing homelessness.)
But as 48Hills publisher and arts editor Marke B. pointed out, this wasn’t the first time a casket (that was, at some point in time, likely a Halloween embellishment) found its way on a San Francisco sidewalk.
He retweeted Nash’s then-shareable post with a picture of a black coffin put on a curb in the city about a decade ago.
“Lol way this poor blanched soul would have survived the ‘free and fun’ days of SF in 2012,” B. replied. And honestly, we share the same sentiment.
At one point, it looked like the Recology worker responsible for helping dispose of the coffin was having a bit of a “WTF” moment. Eventually, the casket was gobbled up by a hydraulic lift system that slung it down into the belly of the on-site Recology garbage truck.
San Francisco, you’re so fucking strange. Please don’t ever change. (But yes: We do have quite a long way to go in regards to restoring its humanities around the most vulnerable among us, no doubt.)
Photo: Courtesy of X via [at]markdietrichsf
