JEFFREY BROWN:

One example close to home, the George Krevsky Gallery in downtown San Francisco, which had shown Ferlinghetti's work for two decades, was forced out of its building to make way for a cloud computing start-up called MuleSoft. Krevsky now sells most of his artwork online.

Of course, Ferlinghetti's is not the only view of San Francisco these days. When a version of this story was posted online recently, he did draw support, but there were a few strong blasts as well.

"What a crank," wrote one person. "The city is still as vibrant and creative as it ever was, except, now, young ambitious people are in tech."

Another wrote, "In 60 years, I'll be complaining about the new crop of San Franciscans. Fogeys gonna foge."

Still, Ferlinghetti himself continues to find his own way forward through poetry.