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The Bird Man of Noe Valley
I was walking to 24th Street to catch the J-Church to downtown San Francisco when I saw a man on his knees in front of a two-story house. He was crying. He wore a silk shirt with khakis, polished black shoes and had several rings on his fingers. He didn’t look homeless.
As I neared the man he turned towards me and cupped his hands in front of him. He was holding a dead sparrow.
“You okay, sir?”
“It’s so cruel,” he answered.
He pointed to a 1960s convertible Skylark in the driveway. Several dead birds were on the ground beside the driver side door. “He electrocuted the car,” the man said. He pointed to a car battery on cinder blocks. Attached to the battery was a cable clipped to the steel chassis of the car above the front left tire.
“Why would someone do that,” I asked.
“People were stealing his stereo. He wanted to scare them away. But he killed the birds.”
“You know this guy?”
“He’s my landlord.”
This is how I met my neighbor Mike Hunter. We later encountered each other at the San Francisco Coffee Company on 24th Street. We chatted about politics, the 49ers and the latest books we were reading. Mike was an accountant who worked out of his apartment. He grew organic vegetables in the backyard…
