Manny Kagan

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A few weeks ago, 63 million Irish people who live in Ireland, plus an estimated 50 to 80 million people around the world who have Irish forebears, as well as millions of those who do not, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. I wrote about the reason for this tradition recently, but what are the rituals to make this event special? Some of these rituals include, wearing green, and visiting pubs and bars (some celebrate St. Patrick’s every day). There is a story about St. Patrick, that while staying at an Inn, he was given a cup of whiskey that was not full. To teach the innkeeper generosity, he told him that the devil, who lives in the cellar, made him greedy. Since then, to keep the devil away, the cups were always filled to the brim. The custom became known as Pota Phadraig or Patrick’s Pot.

It turns out that Irish people are not the only people who celebrate the holidays with drinking alcoholic beverages.

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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At the beginning of the 20th Century, Havana, Cuba was a place where Americans would go to have a good time. The last time a US President visited Cuba, prior to President Obama and his family’s trip there last Sunday, was in January 1928, when Calvin Coolidge attended the Pan American Conference. The good times ended with the Cuban Revolution, which lasted from 1953 till 1959, and the establishment of a socialist state and Communist Government led by Fidel Castro, began. As a response, on October 19, 1960, the Eisenhower administration imposed a trade embargo on Cuba. This in turn led to many Cubans to cross 90 miles distance and move to the United States. By 2008, more than 1.24 million Cuban Americans were living mostly in South Florida. I visited Cuba twice in 2013, and loved the people I met there. As a result I produced my first photography book, “Soy Cubano”.

I was happy to find out about our President’s decision to renew the relationship with Cuba and to take a trip there, 88 years after the last presidential visit. But why not lift the embargo? After all, the Ayatollah in Iran and Communists in China persecute those who oppose them, and there are no embargoes. Why punish good, hard-working people in Cuba? It is about time to figure out that almost 56 years of the embargo did not change the Communist Government. But not everyone agrees with this idea; especially those who left Cuba, and disagree with Mr. Castro and his government. And then there is the U.S. military prison, located in Guantanamo Bay, which Mr. Obama promised to close. Apparently, the United States has been leasing the area from Cuba for $4,085 per year (the lease started in 1903). It is also not clear what the new president will do. After all, President Obama used the Executive Order to renew the U.S.’s relationship with Cuba, which can be repealed by the new President of the United States. As they say in Cuba, it is complicated.

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

On March 22, 2016, the world is going to celebrate “World Water Day”.  It was first observed in 1993, after the United Nations General Assembly Declaration.  After a prolonged draught, California finally got its share of rain.  But even this might not be enough. On January 13^th, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: “How much El Nino rain needed to end drought?” While California has had a drought, some other parts of the United States and other parts of the world have had flooding issues.  It seems that in spite of all the progress humans accomplished, we cannot control how much water will fall on us from above. Water is one of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, which is mentioned in the Torah at the beginning of the creation of our world “and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the water” (Genesis 1:2).

On December 14, 2015, water.usgs.gov reported, “About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water.  Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture, and aquifers and even in you and your dog.”  The amount of water on Earth did not change from the day of creation.  According to H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, #158, the human brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water.  The skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even bones are watery 31%.”

Most of us (at least those who read my “Encounters”) live comfortable lives.  We have a roof above our heads, cable television, and transportation to get us around.  We easily travel from one place to another, often without thinking that life can be different.  For those who came to San Francisco after discovery of gold in 1848 it was.  Since the city is surrounded by water, the way to get from here to there, regardless of the destination, was by boat.  As the population grew, some settled across the Bay in Marin and others on the Oakland side of the Bay.  Ferry service actually started much earlier, in 1826, to get to the other side of the Bay.  But the first recorded system on the Bay was established in 1850.  By the end of the 1800s, twenty-two passenger cross-bay ferry companies were in operation, and another five companies carried only automobiles (You can read more in,   “A Brief History of Ferries on the Bay”.  Among many personalities who lived in San Francisco in the early days, was Emperor Norton, who was considered to be eccentric, visionary or simply crazy.  On the 6^th of January, he proclaimed the need to “bridge the Bay”.  Two months later, on March 23^rd 1878, the Emperor made a second proclamation, “That a suspension bridge be built from Oakland Point to Goat Island (Yerba Buena Island), and thence to Telegraph Hill, provided such bridge can be built without injury to the navigable waters of the Bay of San Francisco.”  He suggested that the Central Pacific Railroad Company be granted the right to lay down trucks to connect two destinations.

Then on the 15^th of June, 1878, Emperor Norton envisioned the possibility of an underwater rail tunnel to connect both coasts.  It took some time for his visions to come to life.  The construction of the Bay Bridge started on July 8^th, 1933 and opened on November 12^th, 1936.  About 240,000 cars cross the bridge. daily.  In 2002, construction began to replace the East Span.  It was completed on September 2nd, 2013 with the estimated cost of 6.3 billion dollars.

Interested? Have a referral? Please contact Manny Kagan at Manny@Pacbay.net /415-225-7920 today! 

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While my first book in the series “42 Encounters in San Francisco” is being printed, I needed more images for the next one, “42 Encounters in San Francisco with Couples”. A friend of mine told me about an upcoming Chinese Parade in Downtown, San Francisco. I usually do not purposefully go to events, in order to photograph. Nevertheless, I took the Muni underground over the weekend, with the intention to photograph the preparations for the parade. When I reached Powell Street, even before getting to the street level, I could hear people shouting, “Justice for All!” There was a huge demonstration of Chinese-Americans carrying signs that read, “Accident Not Crime” and “Justice for Peter Liang”. Online, I found out that the demonstrations took place in more than 30 cities in support of former NYPD police officer, Peter Liang, who was convicted of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, in a housing project stairwell. The 28 year-old Liang, who could be sentenced for 5 to 15 years, testified that the shooting was an accident.

Many of the demonstrators are probably descendants of the Chinese immigrants, who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, which started in 1849. After the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill thousands of laborers came from China to work in the gold mines. At the beginning everyone was happy, but soon white laborers felt threatened by the hard working and cheaper Chinese. As a result of the protests and demonstrations, the Chinese had to leave the gold mines and settled in the area of San Francisco, which is now known as Chinatown where about 70,000 (about half of the total Chinese-American population) is still residing. In the early days, the area was known for the opium dens and exotic women.

Over the years that followed, many laws were passed in San Francisco restricting Chinese immigration, which eventually led to the United States Federal Law, “The Chinese Exclusion Act” of 1882, the most significant restriction of free immigration in U.S. history. Only in 1943, the Chinese immigrants residing in the U.S. were given permission to become U.S. Citizens.