Which is what I'd have done but gave up even trying to put my thoughts down. I'm glad you managed it ultimately. It (f4t's) was a very insensitive post but I guess the basement isn't known for sensitivity, is it. Still.

You’re right, of course.

A fine distinction.

Not "Northern" California, but Mammoth cancelled all lodging reservations, presumably until Sept. 17th. I really feel bad for the local businesses, because skies are clear there and the weather is beautiful.

I think the point of the closures is that they want the skies to remain clear and avoid fire.

Do you have a link for "Mammoth cancelled all lodging reservations?"

I know the National Forests are closed, including Inyo but your post implies that all of the hotels and AirBnBs in Mammoth Lakes cancelled everyone's reservation? I assume you meant that the campsites in the NF are closed? To me, lodging = hotels, motels, condos etc., not campgrounds.

I can make a reservation for the Motel 6 Mammoth Lakes during that time frame.

For what is open see here:

https://www.facebook.com/Mammoth-Times-132219606813425/

"Nevertheless, I think it might be prudent on a travel forum not to disseminate misleading and/or biased information about a place without having actually spent a significant time there oneself. Of course, experienced Fodorites know to take things with a large grain of salt (were one to believe everything one reads here about pickpockets in Barcelona, food in England, or disorganization in Italy, one might be afraid to leave one's couch!) The problem is that "newbies" who come here for information can be easily misled by somebody whose opinion about a place is based on second-hand information."

But we also shouldn't sugar coat things either. The last time I walked out the door of the Sir Francis Drake headed down Powell -- I stepped into a pile of human excrement and the smell of urine was overpowering. My friend who lives about 2 blocks north of the park close to Park Presidio has had his car broken into twice in the last 3 months. San Francisco is not what it used to be.

Sorry for the confusion and misinformation about Mammoth. I was told by a friend who lives part-time in Mammoth that lodging reservations had been cancelled, but it was only lodging sitting on leased national forest land and, of course, all camping and back-country permits. Everything else on national forest land is also closed, such as the Mammoth Mountain and Bike Park, the gondola, most trailheads and lakes.

I"m not sure what that even means. I don't know anyplace that is "what it used to be."

E.g., I started going to Tahoe as a child decades ago, well before it was jam-packed with people and well before it was the summer destination for everybody and his brother...and to say that place has changed exponentially is an understatement. Same with Yosemite. But they're both still spectacularly beautiful places.

I'm sorry you've had unpleasant experiences in San Francisco. As somebody who has known SF well for my entire life, (my parents owned rental property in SF; my father had several stores in different neighborhoods in SF; my mother went to art classes 2x/week, often taking us with her to explore the city afterwards; and my son has lived there for the past 15 years), I can honestly say that I've never once stepped in human excrement. Maybe that's a very real problem for tourists, though. To be fair, I've had my car broken into, but that was when I neglected to remember that I was in a real live city, not in a cozy little village adjacent to the city!

Don't get me wrong; I'm not one of those people who idealize SF, any more than I idealize California or the USA or any other place or person (though I do have kind of a crush on Nicola Walker.) It's just that the old "it ain't what it used to be" thing is, for my money, a fairly meaningless statement.