28 Barbary Lane

When I was in high school, I dreamt of the day I would eventually live in San Francisco. This dream was kindled by the magical view of lights from across the Bay, the rare BART trips to Union Square and Chinatown, but most fervently by the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. At age 16, I tore through each of the books in days, drinking them up like six pack of Dr. Pepper. All six were captivating, although the first one really captured for me what living in the City was all about. I wanted the lives of the fun and fascinating residents of Mrs. Madrigal’s building on Barbary Lane. One problem, the books take place in the 1970’s. It was a San Francisco I could never live in.

Still, when I finally moved to San Francisco at the end of 2003, ten years after I first read Maupin’s novels, I could still sense the feeling he described in his books. I had an interesting experience one evening, running with my running group down Macondray Lane in Russian Hill. I had moved to the city just a few weeks prior, had never spent anytime in Russian Hill and yet the place felt strangely familiar. I felt like I had visited the adorable, tree-covered narrow pedestrian lane sometime before.

“You know what’s interesting about this lane,” I overheard the girl next to me explaining to her friend. “This is the street that Barbary Lane in Tales of the City is based on.”

That is why I’m overjoyed to hear that Maupin just came out with a new novel. It’s from the point of view of my favorite character, Michael Tolliver. And what’s even more exciting is that Gavin Newsom has declared tomorrow, June 12 "Michael Tolliver Day in San Francisco." I’m not kidding. All the details are here in this article.

For those of you living in San Francisco, you can go see Armistead Maupin sign his new book tomorrow. If I were there, I would definitely go shake his hand.