SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Whether you're new to California like me, or you've spent your whole life around them, the bridges and cityscape of San Francisco are a marvel to witness. But I knew there was more to the city than just what ends up on postcards.
So I took a walk, heading up a few steep hills and down a couple more. And I wandered into a bookstore. Not just any old bookstore - City Lights.
City Lights Bookstore was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was a bookstore that broke the literacy rules of a post-World-War-II society and helped launch "The Beat Culture," defining the San Francisco hippie movement of the 1960s.
Books about experimentation with drugs and alternative forms of sexuality even led to obscenity trials that would liberate publishing in the United States.
A banned books section still exists today, along with some book titles that are likely hard to find in other places.
With so many bookstores out of business because of modern-day online alternatives, customers at City Lights say it's a good thing the store and all of the history that comes with it continues to survive.
"There are fewer and fewer of these, and yet they deliver an experience that is very fundamentally human and no website can provide," said Fyodor Urnov, who was visiting the bookstore for the first time.
City Lights Bookstore is on the list of San Francisco's designated landmarks, protecting the building from any significant structural changes.
News10/KXTV