The Covid Wheel in Golden Gate Park

Fleeing an overheated apartment on Saturday, we headed to Golden Gate Park and found an empty picnic table...

...in a shaded glade that was perfection.

After lunch, we walked to the Music Concourse and were greeted by a 150-foot ferris wheel which had been partially installed at the beginning of the pandemic to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park.

To our surprise, the installation finally looked complete, though the wheel wasn't turning.

Investigating online, SFist and Ryce Stoughtenborough at the SF Examiner have passed on the PR release from SF Rec & Park that the ferris wheel will be open for paying customers starting this Wednesday, October 21st.

This strikes me as borderline insane, since the traveling SkyStar Observation Wheel from St. Louis doesn't offer traditional swinging seats but tightly enclosed gondolas.

To add insult to injury, it will cost $18 for adults and $12 for kids/seniors, effectively shutting out poor families.

It has taken months to evolve, but pandemic behavior with distancing and masks has become second nature to the vast majority of San Franciscans. That is probably why our ratio of new COVID-19 cases as a percentage of population is so low.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country, according to the daily, color-coded, United States county map at the NY Times, is exploding with new cases again. C'mon, Midwest, get it together and stop listening to the right-wing nonsense machine.