Friday, October 30th
7pm-9pm
Tickets available at the door or online: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/199365

James "Sunny Jim" Rolph's election in 1911 - the year that the Perrine mansion was built - marked the beginning of an era for San Francisco that led President Taft to dub it "The City That Knows How." Under Mayor Rolph, San Francisco hosted a spectacular world's fair, built the Civic Center and numerous fine schools and libraries, created the Muni, and launched the Hetch Hetchy water and power system.

Its sobriquet "The Paris of the Pacific" was also code for an open town where everything was available for a price as long as it didn't spook the horses too badly. Gray Brechin will discuss why the vice behind the city's glittering facade was so widely tolerated that San Francisco remains to this day a place well apart from mainland America.