BERKELEY – Outside a yellow bungalow in West Berkeley, some have dealt with their election day anxiety by making a trip to Kamala Harris' childhood home to take selfies, hoping they will turn into precious memories of the day the nation elected its first female President.
“We're very proud,” said Diana Shapiro, 53, who lives a block away from the apartment where Harris spent part of her childhood. Shapiro's front yard is decorated with Harris posters; inside his living room is a framed picture of the vice president. Shapiro predicted that the area, dubbed “Poet's Corner,” would explode into an automatic street party if Harris won. “It would be amazing to have our first female president,” she said.
But first, he had to wait. The sun went down on election day and people all over the country seemed to be holding their breath. They were waiting for the polls to close, so that the election results could start coming in. We are waiting to find out, after one of the most brutal and expensive political campaigns in American history, who will be president.
Thousands of Oaks Elementary School students walked past a mural depicting prominent women and alumna former Vice President Kamala Harris last month in Berkeley.
(Peter DaSilva / For The Times)
Perhaps nowhere in the country was the wait more intense — or the excitement and anxiety higher — than in the Bay Area.
Can home girl do well? Could Kamala Harris, a self-proclaimed “Oakland girl” who spent part of her childhood in Berkeley and began her political career with a narrow victory in a 2003 San Francisco district attorney's race, win the highest office in the land?
Photo of Kamala Harris, Maya Harris and their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, found in Kamala Harris' book “The Truths We Hold.”
(Courtesy of Kamala Harris)
Another Poet's Corner neighbor, Joanie McBrien, 59, said she went out and into the streets trying to get over her anxiety. “It's very stressful,” she said. “It's a close race and you know what's going to happen.”
Others in the Democratic stronghold of the Bay Area, however, decided to throw caution to the wind and start the parties early.
Across the Bay Bridge at John's Grill in downtown San Francisco, the streets were closed and already filled with afternoon crowds of election day revelers packed in for a traditional election day lunch. The George Washington High School Marching Band played, and longtime San Francisco politicos, dressed in their election day best, worked the crowd and took pictures.
“He won,” insisted former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Harris' first mentor (and briefly, romantic partner). Although polls were still open for about eight more hours, Brown, dressed in a stylish maroon suit and top hat, said he was so confident in the outcome, that he was “referring to this as the first celebration of his victory.”
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown speaks outside John's Grill in San Francisco in 2023.
(Eric Risberg/Associated Press)
Nearby, Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny's, a restaurant and social gathering place in the city's Mission District, busied himself showing off his “patriotic nails” painted red and blue and decorated with glitter. “I am very happy to have Kamala Harris as my next President,” he said, saying he was sure it would be “the beginning of a new era in our country's history.”
The local news sites were full of excitement published they direct to the community election parties, where Bay Area residents can go to celebrate or — though no one dares to say it — mourn the results.
Back in Oakland, many voters left the polls saying they felt the weight of history.
“Kamala is a woman of color, and she's from Oakland,” said Sophia Lewis, 24. Although Lewis was critical of Harris' policies, she said she preferred him to Trump. “A lot of people feel proud.”
Casting his vote in Oakland, Kasper Dilmaghani, 35, said even thinking about voting for a Black woman from Oakland for president surprised him. “I'm starting to get cold,” she said.
Times Staff Writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.
Source link
