Why San Francisco Sucks

san-francisco
I was inspired to write my opinion on why San Francisco sucks by this post, written by a Twitter Programmer named Alex Payne.

I don’t like  San Francisco, because as a city, it’s dishonest.

We’ve heard about the free-thinking liberalism, the summer of love, the open-mindedness, the marvelous gay influence on the city’s culture— and how well they are integrated into the rest of the city; the overall notion that San Francisco, at it’s core, is good.

I do not believe there is any goodness at San Francisco’s core.

I don’t believe that any of the above notions were, are or will ever be true.

Decadence vs. Exiguity

One thing that will strike you about San Francisco is the young, rich, politically liberal people living and behaving decadently while intentionally, veiling it only slightly.

This thin veil is in line with the politically liberal majority, and in a sense, even defines it.

There is something about San Franciscan liberals that seems to say:

Hey, i’ve paid my share of taxes to help all of you, I deserve this.

Alongside this very decadent living is one of the largest populations of homeless people, per capita, in the nation. I could be surveying the homeless situation completely wrong, but again I’ve never witnessed such a disharmony between the homed and the homeless than in San Francisco. Arguments, fights, confrontations– all very common, and San Franciscan’s seem to love to tell you about it.

Look what I have to deal with to be this open-minded.

Homeless people are the untouchable lepers, and because the macro do-gooders believe that they have bigger fish to fry, and everything they (the homeless) could possibly need is readily available, it releases them of all liability. I’ve never seen a group of homed people setting up tables with food or passing out blankets or sleeping bags; i’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but i’ve never seen it.

Another thing that leave the leaky bucket of compassion empty by the time it reaches the homeless or very poor is that everyone in San Francisco already has a cause to attend to, and again, usually a very lofty one.

Also, you’d think that Germany, Sweden and Brittain were impoverished developing nations with how diligently San Franciscans strive to support their respective automotive industries.

Modern Antiquity?

San Francisco has, within it’s city limits, probably one of the highest concentrations of designers, computer programmers and other assorted tech folks.

This said, the city is embarrassingly low-fi.

I think this is held in place on the surface by some nebulous spartan, Steampunk “it’s-cool-because-its-old” sensibility but in actually only amounts to laziness, apathy and nobody actually believing they’ll live in San Francisco past their 30’s.

If you’re not familiar with San Francisco, it’s pretty much victorian houses from one side to the other. If you’ve watched Full House you’ve seen em.

san francisco victorian, full house

Now these are built to hold more people and room in a small space than say a craftsman style house, but are by no means efficient by modern measures.

This liberal (?) preservation of the city’s inefficient past should be appalling to actual liberal sensibilities, yet knocking down a half dozen of these dinosaurs and building a jumbo, mid-income, utopian live-work complex would probably make most San Franciscans place their Ferragamo handkerchiefs over their mouths in horror.

Let me tell you something: it gets really cold in San Francisco in any given month. These old victorian houses are not cheap, green, energy efficient or anything else to heat.

Imagine what kind of Green heating, cooling, water renewal, recycling and computer controlled systems these nerds could design? Every apartment could have a fucking trash, recycling and compost chute!

The addition of 10,000 units would decrease the price of rent, making social equality more possible.

What are these assholes doing instead? Paying $4,000 per month for an old victorian house. You fucking hypocritical losers. These houses are the Hummers of houses. Get that through your heads.

Also, if you think BART is some state of the art subway think again. I mean just the cars themselves are rickety, dirty, ugly and probably inefficient.

Must Be A Friendly City, Right?

As Alex mentioned in his post, San Franciscans are not friendly, yet loathe those from Los Angeles as being “fake”.  “Fake” is the local dialect for “good looking” and “suntanned”.

Those who live there think they are adventurers traversing some kind of concrete jungle and you need to cut your own teeth. If you’re from out of town they’ll tell you how tough it is to live there, which vis a vis means they are tough.

If you’re a tourist, they pretty much think you’re a worthless piece of unwashed trash.

In Conclusion:

There is some good about San Francisco– a lot of good– but the things i’ve mentioned are so unbearable to me that I could never have a long term relationship with San Francisco.

Unless I was gay. Then i’d be all over San Francisco like hobos on ham sandwiches.

Comments

comments

98 thoughts on “Why San Francisco Sucks

  1. I read this article cause I thought it might be interesting or funny but it was simply a sophomoric, shallow tantrum by someone confusing their pedantic intake and personal experience with actual phenomenons and physical realities.

    The author asks questions that are easily answerable and takes flagrant missteps that show the he is neither a native nor a local to the city. Ironic how he has addressed only the stereotypical and famous notions of San Francisco to counter its value.

    A very small amount of regional knowledge or research would reveal that one of the many reasons San Francisco has so many homeless people was that the city had (before Reagan and subsequent Bush and state cuts) more shelters and soup kitchens than any other place in the United States. Many other cities and states have literally exported their homeless to the city including some from Guiliani’s clean up of NYC.

    The author also makes the arbitrary and random connection that some how techies are in government and lobby positions and have any power or capacity to effect city planning. The legislature of San Francisco is actually notorious for being outdated and obtuse and would have made a great subject for the original article had it not been a childish rant about superficial personal prejudices.

    The last portion of the article is laughable but not funny. It further exemplifies the author’s lack of depth or insight into life in general let alone San Francisco. He reveals his ignorance particularly in the part about Asians saying they are all “packed into chinatown” which is ludicrous and hilarious in its stupidity. Inherent in that statement first of all is that all Asians are Chinese. Further showing the author’s complete lack of sense for ethnicity or geography.

    You sir… are just a hater. And there is nothing original about that. Don’t quit your day job… if you even have one.

    • Your reply to the article proved its point more than anything else could have within it! First off, what’s with the aloof, smugness you’re espousing?… your writing like it’s a book report for English class when the forum is just some online article that was written about someone’s perspective about SF… why are you talking like your nose is so erected that if it were to rain you’d drown?… exactly the kind of attitude about SF that inspired the South Park smug episode. Your here writing to random people on the web, not your English Professor from your English 405 class, Critical Writings from the Jacobean period.

      First, you criticise “the author” because he basis what he is saying from his personal experience?… as though it’s not valid?… because it departs from some objective analysis of a place’s likability?… are you a robot? What else do you base likability on other than how it hits you, and your overall experience? For example, I don’t go to a restaurant and have a horrible dinner only to say that, “despite my grotesque tasting food, and food poisoning, not to mention horrible service, I have done extensive analysis through yelp.com, and the County’s food inspection reports taken from the past 20 years, and the Michelin restaurant guide, and I surveyed 1,000 dinners of the restaurant, and I consulted with an expert in Indian cuisine to determine that the evidence is contrary to my experience… so my experience is invalid, the restaurant is good, so I will refrain from critisizing it … see what I mean douche?… If his experience of The City was such that he didn’t like it, that was all his own experience, and opinion. And liking or hating a City is as subjective as liking or hating Indian food… some people like it hot, some not. His opinions are as valid to him as your own experiences are to you.

      And about why there are so many homeless… first of all, who cares, because having such destitution in the streets only serves to bring down the mood of the place… but if you must, have you ever considered that the explosion of homeless in SF resulted to the city’s expansion of homeless programs and shelters? In other words, your getting the cause and effect confused. The city attracted, and created by way of its hippy drug happy culture, a slew of schizo drugged out homeless people… and all the soup kitchens are just a responsive measure to all that.

      There’s so much more that I could say to deconstruct each and every single syllable and make you eat back all–but I’ll leave you with that… because I could only argue with a fool for so long before I become his / her co-conspirator.

      BTW… fuck San Francisco!

  2. I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out the problem.

    [Since I’m an Asian chick I fall into the highly prized category. All I need to do is find a rich brother so we can afford to heat our old Victorian.]

  3. @ pepe.. let me get this straight, a republican mayor from new york city shipped his dregs of homeless people across the country to SF? You know thats a lot of $700 plane tickets right? Tell me how this was done, the logistics would be really interesting to me.

    Techies aren’t interested in politics. Ok first I think thats not true and your excuses are bad, secondly, if they don’t and they certainly can doesn’t that make the spirit of the city sort of selfish and rotten like I was saying?

    Re: my knowledge of geography and ethnicity, I happen to be living and working (wont quit the day job, thanks for the career guidance!) in China and if i’m not mistaken Chinatown is the only real asian enclave in san francisco. Oh wait no you’re right, I forgot about little italy. Ok so there’s two ethnic asian enclaves.

    I better hit the geography and ethnicity books!

  4. I have to say I agree with Pepe. Usually I think your funny if a little bit misinformed on occasion.
    This is just a whole lot of unfunny BS.

    The issue about the anitquity of the buildings is to do with heritage preservation concerns. I understand that they are more expensive and less environmentally friendly but to be honest the legislature on buildings of historical importance is similar in every state in America. Perhaps this needs to change but the time for this sort of legislation change has not come in any country in the world yet let alone America and just because SF is ‘progressive’ does not mean they don’t balance some concerns identically to others. Legislation takes years to make. And to be honest I’m not sure that the ‘knocking them all down’ is a extremely clever answer to this considering the affect it would have on the environment just to build new houses(regardless of whether they will be more environmentally friendly).

    As for your breakdown of the social climate. I mean that was just a whole heap of stereotypes that I don’t even think are true as someone who lived there for 4 years. And yes I am gay and no I don’t know anyone who thinks straight males are a waste of space. Also I have a great deal of Asian american friends that I went to Berkley with

    Also I really disagree with your observation that homeless people are ignored or treated like shit. The reason a lot of homeless people have moved from say San Diego to SF is that the city and its residents(not all but a lot of them) have a more caring policy towards them.
    Lastly I don’t think Pepe meant that techies don’t have an interest in politics just that they do not have a major affect on the law as a group of people.
    One thing I will agree with is that it takes a long time for SF to change anachronistic laws as a liberal city but a lot of that has to do with the CA state itself.

    • I understand that they are more expensive and less environmentally friendly but to be honest..

      Less environmentally friendly? Wait a second, suddenly that isn’t a big deal to you hippies? It seems like when other people are doing things wrong you have all these great ideas, when you’re doing something wrong you throw excuses.. sheesh.

  5. Yes… you should “hit” all and any books you can get your hands on. I certainly hope you are not in China teaching English.

  6. The SF mash-up of historical tradition and irreverence succeeds in some things and falls short in other things. SF sometimes congratulates itself regardless; that sort of pride is admirable on one level, but contains the potential to leave shortcomings unfairly unacknowledged. Look at how much indignant “Hmph!” appears to run through several of the responses above.

    In my view, I enjoyed living in SF and could live there again. I currently prefer slightly more convention because I’m intellectually lazy when dealing with the world. But I’m loyal. I’m a California native, and I’ll take our SF dandies, Auburn rednecks, LA bronze gods, South Bay defense workers, and Humboldt weed-heads, to name but a few of our state’s stereotypical sub-cultures, over most any states’. And, since we’re all people, I dislike each of us.

  7. You hippy assholes are so full of shit, ragging about this article. I’m from San Francisco, and all of the above statements are 100% true.

    I’ve been all over the U.S. and never have I seen a more self-congratulatory, contradictory, faux-liberal-as-fashion, willfully enslaving populace as I have in SF. At least in LA people are honest about their fleeting socio-political whims and inherent self-centeredness.

    Pepe and friends would probably know this if they could tear their eyes off some dude’s groin long enough to actually look around them.

    • Agreed. There is so much rampant and completely unjustified smugness in this place. You can spout all the multi-syllabic huff-puff you want Pepe. To me, all you sound like is a typical SF smugtard with your nose to the sky, your head up your ass, and too much to say (with nothing really relevant to be heard).

      Everything I’ve read in Andy’s post is true about this place. Period.

      The government is backward, social programs and infrastructure are half-assed. The place is dirty. There are homeless everywhere. I avoid piles of broken glass on curbsides every day on the way TO and FROM work. We are in the tech hub of the world people, and the fact that I can’t get mobile phone reception in over 40% of the city is just pathetic!

      Everyone prides themselves on their spankin’ new EV or hybrid yet everyone lives in archaic old overpriced homes that are energy inefficient enough to make rolls of insulation cry (if they could).

      Public transportation here is a joke. ClippedCard? Not ready for primetime–How many years have New York City, D.C., and Chicago had a reliable magnetic/RFID card based transit access system?
      –or transit system PERIOD? EVERY day I get delayed on the bus or the rail b/c a driver has to take a 20 min piss or get a turkey sammie from god knows where. $70 per month for this? you gotta be kidding me!

      This place has a lot of potential–but it’s the self-congratulatory tin foil hat wearing flakes who can’t decide on which social issue is important enough to lend their support (in order to impress their neighbor). I’ve been here 7 years. It seems more and more each day like people here just don’t give a shit.

      There is REALLY no leg that you people have to stand on when it comes to defending this place (esp. with the sharp comments that I’ve read here). Maybe SF was wonderful at one time, but to me this place is second rate for first rate prices.

      /rant

  8. Sitting in San Francisco right now where I have lived for the past year.

    Having lived in 5 states and 3 countries, I can safely say that San Francisco is, simply, pathetic. There are countless better places in the third world. Any random small town in the midwest is better, New York City is better. The entire Bay Area region is an abomination.

    Anyone who thinks it is a nice place either hasn’t lived anywhere else or is very deeply confused about life.

    • so you have been to menlo park? you have been through san mateo? you have been through? sonoma? napa? san rafael? marin? santa clara? santa cruz? pacifica? half moon bay? you have been to every city in the bay area? highly doubtful but ok rather live in my gated mansion in menlo than sf thats for sure, but to say all of the bay area is crap….give me a break bud

      • I grew up in the bay area, so yes i’ve been to every city there. I dont think SF as a city sucks or the area, actually, I mostly just hate the people there.

      • it’s true. the bay area is whack- no wait it’s just the people and their shitty attitude. santa cruz is awesome I have to admit, but according to most of the self absorbed, self righteous, provincial Bay Aryans, santa cruz “is not the bay blud!” And I’m actually happy that it’s not(?) because it’s the better and more genuine city of northern california.

        for the record. in the bay area I’ve never heard more white kids that have never met a gang member in their life call me “blood” or “cuz” and asians that have no black friends and in fact are shamelessly racist towards black people call me “nigga”. SMDH.

        pathetic.

    • the greatest at being the shittiest. and with all the human feces lying around you can take that literally.

  9. I agree as I recently took a business trip to San Fran and only a few days was enough. Different, lots of culture, and lots of liberalism…. but what else do you expect from SF? How does the saying go… if you aren’t gay or willing to be lead astray, don’t stay… something to that affect?

    Check out http://www.weirdlawsuits.com for weird and dumb lawsuits.

  10. I’ve been to San Fran about 5-6 times for business/pleasure. My most recent visit, just a couple weeks ago, was disheartening. I don’t know how much of the OP’s opinions I can comment on, but I did notice a couple other things while there:

    1) The city is dirty! Yeah, I know, there are lots of tourists and it’s a sizable city. Come on though, a few street sweepers and a little more garbage pickup would have it looking ten times better. It really wouldn’t take a lot of resources or effort.

    2) The supposedly progressive wifi availability is rubbish. I expected to have decent wifi access while there. I had to go to Starbucks (grrrr) just to read/reply to my daily business emails and so on. My Market District hotel charged an arm and a leg for wifi, the Moscone had simply awful speeds and dependability, and most businesses I stopped by had it locked down or charged for it unless you spent a fair amount of money, i.e. more than a cup of coffee. So, I spent several hours in a great cafe city like San Fran sitting in Starbucks of all places. It was disappointing.

  11. Bang on analysis ! I lived in SF for 5 years and couldn’t agree more.

    I would also like to add that although the Sf cops themselves are almost tolerable the surrounding bay area is close to fascist.

    Follow the dream…follow the myth..and go to SF at your peril. Find out for yourself.

    If you want friendly ppl SF will disappoint you. You will, however, find plenty of social pretenders and an over priced cup of coffee.

    Just to give you an example : the guy that lived next door to me had a surf board permanently attached to the top of his van ( wonders what that does to gas mileage ) . In 5 years I NEVER saw him go surfing yet alone go to the cold ass beach !

  12. I just came back from San Francisco and literally googled “I don’t like San Francisco” to find if I was the only person in the entire world that didn’t like my time there.

    While my reasons are probably less founded and definitely less political than yours, I just really, really didn’t like it there. I am an “LA girl” if you want to call it that, in that I’m from Manhattan but loved Los Angeles mainly because it was the total opposite structurally of NYC but still had that great Southern California vibe for someone looking to escape the concrete grand of Manhattan.

    And in the end? I still find people from LA TEN times friendlier than anybody I met in SF. The people are airier, kinder and had much less angst. SF, to me, was just a hippier, less glamorous, smaller, and dare I say it, more pretentious version of NYC. And I get enough of that here!

    Mainly, I don’t understand the hype. If I’m going to do California, I would 100% do Los Angeles before SF. I want a laid back atmosphere with nice people, accessible suburbs, and a healthy vibe. I watched as several people got in brawls on public transportation in SF, something I think I’ve seen a handful of times in my years in NYC.

    Also, THE HILLS! AH, I can’t! 🙂 I’ll take flat NYC over that any time, but that’s just the lazy in me. I also don’t like the way the city is geographically divided. I like a city that has residential and shopping all mixed in together so that you don’t need to travel too far to get what you need. I didn’t find that in SF.

    Overall, I see no reason for me to go back. Though I’ll be doing my visits to LA frequently, as I still love it there. 🙂

  13. San Fransisco Sucks… perhaps it is because I let my expectations get too high before going to SF, I’ll entertain the idea that I might be biased, but after spending my childhood in DC, and my college days in Boston, I found it SEVERELY lacking in several important ways. Besides, SF is always in all of those History and Discovery Channel shows about disasters past and present. who wants that hanging over their head? Highways built over landfills, residential districts made of wood, has several major fault lines near or UNDER IT… not for me. Then there’s the people, but we’ve already addressed that.

  14. San Francisco is full of pretentious pricks, so many rude people. They are love talking sarcastically and always think they are more “aware” of everything.
    After wasting most of my childhood and early adulthood there, I finally moved out of the city, to a better one. And I have been happier for it. San Francisco and its people sucks!

  15. I moved to San Francisco to attend university. When I first moved here, I thought my life would change for the better. In many ways, it did. But those things that improved were completely isolated from what the city had to offer.

    Being an Asian, what I do appreciate is the abundance of other Asians that are in the city. What I do not appreciate, is how ethnically divided the entire city is. The truth about San Francisco is that there is a race war going on. Whites, Asians, Mexicans, Russians, and many other races are not getting along. Everyone sticks to their “own kind”. I saw this in my university, in the bars/clubs, on the streets, and in the overall culture in San Francisco.

    White people in the Marina will dog Asian males that haven’t assimilated. Asians in China town will dog whites for being in their territory.

    The majority of the people that I’ve met in San Francisco aren’t truly driven people–nothing compared to the people I’ve met in New York City.

    My overall rating for SF on a scale of 1-10? 3

    People might not be able to understand this, but I’ve lived in San Francisco for 5 years. That is a long fucking time. As each year progressed, I found myself getting more and more depressed.

    San Francisco is a funny place. When I first started out, I lived in the Sunset. My goal was to get closer to downtown. That is seriously a lot of peoples goals when they first arrive in San Francisco.

    Well, 4 years later, I have an office in the financial district and live in downtown. Guess what? I am totally miserable. The grass is always greener? People who live in downtown are complete SNOBS. They act as if they are MADE. We pay thousands to live in 500 square feet boxes.

    Of course, these prices are expected. But I’ll tell you one thing. None of it is worth it. You won’t be happy. You will not find what you are looking for in San Francisco. This city spawns and morphs people into a weird thing… a shallow and pretentious people.

    Think it might get better? Take a look at SOMA. They are driving everyone out that can’t afford to pay 2500-3000 a month for rent. Seriously?

    I’ve already made plans to move out and have absolutely no regrets. Oh, and, can’t forget the lovely DPT.

  16. 06-01-10

    I went to SF this Memorial Day with my entire family; I really didn’t want to since my car got towed in this miserable city when I was on my first year wedding anniversary but my wife’s cousin was from Minnesota and really wanted to see the golden gate bridge, so I also tagged along. Just as we parked and was crossing the stree, two cars come barreling down the street not caring if they will hit us or not. My wife’s cousin is five months pregnant. Nice, really nice. Let’s hit a pregnant lady from out of town and show them what us San Franciscans really are like. Even for me, I’m SHOCKED!!! No police presence, dirty ass street, stupid rude people, over priced food and drink. You know what mayor gavinusiance, you and your fellow SF people can stick it where the sun don’t shine. Unless I can help it, I will never set foot upon your crappy city and I’ll make sure not one of my friends or family set foot on your shit city.
    Your whole damn city is nothing but a hypocrisy in action.

    Oh, by the way, the aholes in the car honked as they zoomed past my family. Sometimes, you really wish you actually bought a gun but wait, normal citizens can’t even arm themselves.

    • While I agree with many of the comments here about S. Francisco, this clown is clearly braindead. Please don’t come back to San Francisco.

  17. Well….having lived in New York (Manhattan) for 15 years I was looking forward to house-sitting for a friend for one month in SF and getting to know another city other than NY if even for a short time. Conclusion: Huge disappointment.
    1. Rude people
    2. Terrible weather
    3. Ridiculous Hills/poor public transit
    4. Pretentious liberals (I am a hard core Democrat but found a guilty until proven innocent attitude w/ regards to politics/beliefs) who wear hemp but drive Bavarian
    5. No style fashion wise (Must be the weather but can any of you SF girls bother to put a little make-up on and/or dress in something other than fleece)
    5a. Unattractive Women
    6. Tons of Lesbians who hate men
    7. Tons of men who love men (Unless you are in said category then please add to plus column)
    8. Boooooooring nightlife – everything closes @ 2am ??????????????????
    9. Painfully Provincial ( I had thought SF could be considered a world class city – ABSOLUTELY NOT) 10. Homelessness/Crime – Never felt as worried in NYC as I have on BART/Muni or close to the numerous skid-rows in SF.
    11. It’s just plain a small city

    All in all I have to say SF sucks when compared to NY. I am hoping to try LA at some point just to see.

    • Boooo- hooo! Too many gays…waaaah! Too many ‘fleece
      wearing women’..waaaah! Perhaps you should have pre-screened and pre-ordered a female escort. Any wise and intelligent woman knows that it is more important to feel good and comfortable than to dress to please a man. She knows that a man who won’t look past the surface is not worth having. Not all of us can be ‘beautiful'( according to the societal norm)so please excuse thousands of years of genetics. Remind yourself that your looks will fade one day and you will realize how shallow and empty you are.

  18. Smug provincial hippy-dippy doofuses. I couldn’t believe that anyone would list this ongoing failure of a “city” to actual world class cities like Paris and Tokyo.
    On the plus side, scenic beauty and cool summers. The minus side, the people and their attitudes, their politics, their smug, snide cretinistic pompousness.
    No city I know of needs to be neutron bombed as deservedly as San Francisco. The planet’s full of assholes, that’s a given, but SF is a magnet for them.
    Shoddy, decaying infrastructure, everything’s overpriced, an infuriatingly undeservedly smug populace–just read Yelp SF, and you’ll wish San Franciscans had one neck so that you could more efficiently strangle them all.

    If I had my way…well, you’re all very lucky that I don’t.

    • As a native San Franciscan, I don’t know about the whole neutron bomb thing but this post made me laughly. While a little extreme in language, sadly, it was right on about many of the traits of San Franciscans.

        • I’ve lived in San Francisco for 25 years and have been trying to leave for a long time, but that takes major capital. If most of my business hadn’t been taken by other people who don’t have the right to work here and will work for half what I do, I’d have money to get out. I’ve managed to stay off the streets but only just barely. It gets harder for me every year.Please spare me the ‘They only do what others are unwilling to do..’ speech because it is patently bullshit!
          Many people who are on the streets have simply fallen on hard luck. DON’T misinterpret this to mean they ALL have. Many are mentally ill and those of us who have been around awhile know that Reagan cut funding for institutions,etc, so they had to let many patients out. There is virtually no psychiatric care for these homeless , even IF you could get them to go. It’s alot more complicated than all that. Much of the problem lies with the misplaced priorities of the feds and the state; something us locals you so vehemently abhor,and have no control over. If we are in a bad mood it is because we
          have to deal with homeless and filth and high prices every frickin’ day, despite trying to solve the problem by volunteering or donating or writing our congressperson! Lucky you to afford to leave!

  19. I’ve worked in San Francisco for 5 years now and lived in Berkeley and Oakland – the East Bay is your basic, normal area – but SF – oh man: Top 10 reasons SF is a joke.

    1) The people who always talk about how great SF is, generally haven’t spent significant time anywhere else and/or are druggies.

    2) SF is a druggie mecha. If you love to do drugs – come to SF because this place is so “liberal” that they its pretty much “Beyond the Thunderdome” out here.

    3) People here pretend to be “liberal” but really they just vomit up whatever they heard on the Daily Show or read on some blog. They have very little real-world knowledge of how things work or historical knowledge for context (see point 1). They also have no tolerance for anyone who doesn’t share thier POV. If you don’t think 100% liberal, then get ready to be a social pariah.

    4) With rare exception the music scene is a joke. “Hyphy” is considered “crap music” every where outside of SF and the folk/rock/hipster music being strummed at every local venue is a cavalcade of people who can’t sing/play their instruments.

    5) “Hella” This word is used here way too much and is very annoying. “Hecka” is even worse.”

    6) I have never seen so many people with rich mommies and daddies pretend to live so poor and think its cool.

    7) Tight jeans, scarves, flip flops and plaid. People sacrifice common sense for “fashion” – I mean, which season are you in? The more outlandishly you are dressed – the better.

    8) “SF TIME” being 10-20 minutes late for everything is okay here. Mind-boggling.

    9) HAIGHT STREET: Stay away. Stay very far away.

    10) Transplants. To be honest – I’ve met some very cool native San Franciscans – people born here, that moved away and came back and they are usually more down to earth and hard working. Most of them hate the fake, hipster-ish transplants that rule SF with an iron fist.

    Burn SF down and start from scratch.

  20. San Francisco is the most overrated, provincial shit hole in the country. I lived there for a few years and couldn’t wait to leave. Those ‘liberals’ in SF live like Republicans and talk a good game because they smoke weed and shop in a co op instead of a Target. park you car a few inches onto one of their driveways and tell me how liberal and tolerant they are. Also, SF is one of the most racist, segregated cities in America. Count how many black folks you see there–except the ones that are being patrolled 24 hours a day in the 4 block area they let black people live in that cops surround. Culturally, its provincial and produces no or little worthwhile art. Unless you count street festivals that are supposedly progressive that are little more than indulgent pageants for exhbitionist sexual behavior. Wow, assless chaps again this year? how novel! How free we are!

    That city is a joke, its a second tier hipster getaway for kids that couldn’t make it in new york city, a rich class you’ll never see that lives in the clouds and makes sure to keep the negroes and homeless far away from them while they prattle about liberal nonsense drinking 400 wine bottles.

    Oh, did I mention the public transportation there is not really and option, totally run down, usually late, in the case of Oscar Grant a place you might get murdered for being black, and in the end you really need a car?

    SF is Denver by the bay, please give me a break that city sucks ass. Its coasting on a reputation built 50 years ago that has nothing to do with the present state of the city today. The only good thing about it is you can get weed in Golden Gate park and its a nice weekend getaway. Getaway being the key word.

  21. Did someone force you to come here?
    I’m a 50yr old native San Franciscan and have seen more than a few changes over the years. (most for the worse)I also spent years traveling the country and there are a LOT of crappy cities out there. Everybody that hates San Francisco get the fuck out. NOW!! We have an airport, bus stations, you can take BART to a train station, drive away, walk away, just leave and DON’T return. A few suggestions….Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, hell the whole state of Texas (sans Austin)Take your opinions with ya and tell the world!! San Francisco sucks!! We won’t even know you left. They’ll be some other asshole, that has a preconceived notion of what they think The City should be, moving into your over priced home in a heart beat.
    Just remember it’s not just about the city. From my house I can be… in a redwood forest in 45mins, Napa Valley in an hour and change, Monterey and Carmel in a beautiful 2 hour ride down the coast, 4 hours from looking up at El Capatian and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley. I’d love to continue but I’m going for a 3 hour paddle down Russian River in an hour (12:30)and have to make it back for 6PM reservations @ Boulevard. Your right this place DOES suck!!

    • You are an idiot. Texas is a great place. They have affordable housing, friendly people and jobs unlike dumpy sf which is just a cultural wasteland of basically self-pitying lazy people.

      Dont put down Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo. Those are working class towns who have had the misfortune of suffering the effects of NAFTA.

    • Goody twoshoes for you! You can afford to have a car, a place to park it (presumably a garage , thus a house) meal at Boulevard (la-de-da) and your expensive trips, for which you’ll need the car! And please, I’m not jealous of that entree your waiter just spit in and that you may get food poisoning from later because the restaurant employees are too damned low paid,overworked, tired and pissed off to care about cleanliness or good service. All that you probably got because you always had help from mom and dad, as have most any’Native’ I’ve ever met. Most natives or non-natives with homes can only afford that kind of lifestyle because they saved money by hiring cheap gardeners, maids, babysitters,painters, roofers, etc.

  22. I lived in San Francisco for 10 years, under its spell, unwilling to leave. I eventually moved to Chicago. Well, actually, I’m humbled to admit that I was dragged there kicking and screaming. Then I felt my quality of life improve 100%. I look back at San Francisco in my rear-view mirror like some sick condition from the past. The city is a beautiful loser who charms and beguiles but is nothing but bad news. I saw the signs everywhere – rude people, overpriced cost of living, shoddy transit, shitty weather, crime, trash and homelessness – yet I LOVED the physical beauty of the city and my sweet little coffee shops and my walks in the park. Never mind that there was no way I’d’ve been able to survive there long-term financially. I was living paycheck to paycheck because the “City” demanded all of my money and gave me nothing but stress and disappointment in return. Like a fool, i hung on for ages, hoping things would change. I just wanted SF to stop being selfish and difficult and love me back as much as I loved her. Sigh. I go back once in a while to visit and always remark about how much I love it and miss it, but secretly I’m glad those days are behind me.

  23. First off, where are you from if you think San Francisco is cold all year? I am from Boston and people in SF don’t know what cold is. They think below 60deg with some fog is cold. It is “cool” not cold. So the author must be from Southern CA. I also think the summers are better in SF because there is no oppresive heat and humidity.

    However there is alot of bad parts, some of which the author mentioned. Here’s my list:

    too many homeless
    too many crackheads
    too many freaks
    too many awful drivers
    too many Mexicans that think they own the place
    awful sports and sports teams and fraud fans
    lousy public transportation
    way too congested, takes an hour to go 10 miles during the day
    awful roads, and they don’t even get cold or frost heaves
    any place away from the water is crap
    did I mention too congested and awful drivers?

  24. I would suggest moving to SF but don’t plan on living there forever. It’s a great transition City and singles City but once you have gone through what it socially has to offer….Move to a nicer location and get a he’ll of alot more for your money. The housing is stupidly overpriced for no reason!

  25. @SFNative: You just proved the greatest knock against SF.

    I lived there for four years before moving on to NYC, and while the issues others have cited are all relevant – faux liberal policies, serious class and race segregation, a flat-lined art scene – the biggest turn off of the city is how highly it thinks of itself. You talk to a NYer, and they will talk your ear off for hours about the things that can be fixed in NYC. Yet no one would ever accuse a true NYer of not having pride in this magnificent place. It’s just that a bit of humility in a town, like a in a person, is rather charming and more honest. Just like the arrogant jerk at the party, SF has been drinking it’s own Kool-Aid for far too long.

    Yes, it’s a nice enough city. No, it’s not the *best city evar*. SF’s serious infrastructure, cultural, and class problems will only be addressed by an honest, sober assessment, and that can only happen when everyone there takes off their blinders.

  26. @SFNative: You just proved the greatest knock against SF.

    I lived there for four years before moving on to NYC, and while the issues others have cited are all relevant – faux liberal policies, serious class and race segregation, a flat-lined art scene – the biggest turn off of the city is how highly it thinks of itself. You talk to a NYer, and they will talk your ear off for hours about the things that can be fixed in NYC. Yet no one would ever accuse a true NYer of not having pride in this magnificent place. It’s just that a bit of humility in a town, like a in a person, is rather charming and more honest. Just like the arrogant jerk at the party, SF has been drinking it’s own Kool-Aid for far too long.

    Yes, it’s a nice enough city. No, it’s not the *best city evar*. SF’s serious infrastructure, cultural, and class problems will only be addressed by an honest, sober assessment, and that can only happen when everyone there takes off their blinders.

    And don’t worry, SF Native, I left. Thank god.

  27. I lived here years ago, and come back every once in a while for business/personal. I am at Oracle World today and I just got to the hotel and thought… you know, I hate it here, not sure why I keep coming back…

    Like the people on this thread I thought I was crazy and googled to see if others felt the same way… they do. Its official, I hate it.

    My main reasons are that its dirty as all get out, the people are rude, and its not the homeless people, its the fake homeless young gypsy assholes everywhere.

    Cheers!

  28. Not only does San Francisco suck but so do the San Francisco 49ers. The two deserve each other. Horrible city and horrible football team.

  29. I see both sides, but yes SF does suck. they have a lot of gays from what I hear, and being gay is wrong! (and no I’m not a religious nut, I just have common sense). so all of you SF nerds can respond with some intelligent response, make yourself feel good, but fact remains being gay is wrong.

  30. I recently took a trip to San Francisco and i must say that i loved the city as far as scenery and activities went. The people make the city a bad place basically IMO. Everyone I met that was a native was a walking contradiction. It’s like they forgot how to just be and its made them harsh people who judge and try to act way too cool and fashionable. Everything becomes kind of regular for them and nothing remains exclusive. They’re culture is a perversion, They have spoiled themselves to the point that they dont even realize it and they are scared as hell of everyone who isnt like them. Im not saying every single person is like this, but i didnt meet anyone who asked how i was doing until i got on haight st…

  31. Dude LA is just a bigger and just a bit bit faster than San Diego it’s about equal in living actually depending where you live its fast but in most cases SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA from SD to LA all the way to Santa Barbara is laid back but crazy at the same time. As for No Cal they are some of the friendliest people I have met I like you northern Cali people you are well what I as an urban SAN DIEGAN living in South Bay of this county call country style people

  32. Both SF and LA are cesspit of pretentious poseurs. Both cities are an infestation of transient lost soul seeking a new start and anonymity. I have never met such a sorry group of contrived personas who project arrogance (insecure) to mask the feelings of low self esteem. It never fails, people in both cities are so quick to judge and label others, hoping that doing so, will make them exempt from being perceived in the same way. Everytime I here somebody say “I really hate people who….” I just cringe, cause it’s themselves they hate.

    • Nothing like criticizing others who are “so quick to judge and label others”, by quickly judging and labeling others. Thanks for the input.

    • SF and LA are completely different. might as well be different states. LA people will admit the city’s and its resident’s shortcomings, depending on which part of L.A. of course e.g. fake, ghetto, boujie, etc. LA people are actually humble in that regard in that they know they aren’t perfect, they know there’s always room for improvement, and if they are fake won’t pretend that they’re not. so don’t lump the cities together. SF is a Godless cunt.

  33. San Francisco outright sucks. There is no denying that it sucks. It’s a classist and racist and segregated as any city in the USA, there’s just a lot of left leaning monied kids that say the right thing from their 2000 a month rented flats. You can talk about how diverse SF is but how often to races integrate there? Um, not that much if you’ve lived there. Go to the Marina on a Saturday night and tell me how many Asians, Blacks, or Latinos you see there. (Blacks are quarrantined to a small 4 block area just off Market St which is patrolled like a prison, and or “Oakland”.).

    The MUNI is a freaking joke–at best its slow as hell and useless and at worse you’ll spend an hour having to fend off some insane meth addict. The buses don’t even stop at the right stops half the time.

    White people in SF are about the worst white people alive. You want to see how liberal and tolerant they are? Park just a little bit too close to their Lexus SUV with the Yoga sticker on it and see how blissed out their reaction is.

    That brain dead wanna be city f-ing sucks. it rains 80% of the time. When it’s not raining its cold. The people that live there are second tier posers like a giant post college club med for provincial pseudo intellectuals.

    • As an evil whitey, who has lived here a VERY long time, and who has tried to embrace people of all colors and cultures, I can only say that I have experienced more racism from our ‘diverse and color-blind’ city than is believed possible. I have found that most people whatever their class or race seem to SEGREGATE THEMSELVES and choose NOT to accept others who are different. I get called a racist at least once a month for any reason BESIDES racism that you can think of, yes I am judged negatively according to the color of my skin. And they don’t even know I have Native American ancestors. This city isn’t any more liberal than any other, unless you mean that people without any class, civility, civic responsibility or courtesy are liberally allowed to get away with ‘IT’!

  34. Well, I lived in San Francisco for about a year. I didn’t not fall in love with the place. But, having lived in Portland, Oregon for 7 years prior to that, it SEEMED wonderful, at least at first. If you think people in SF are awful, try Portland, Oregon. The people of Portland are even less friendly than in San Francisco. The weather is even worse. I still think the weather is great in SF compared to Portland. The public transportation is much better in SF than in Portland. It’s just better over all. But, if you are not liberal, hip, in, groovy, rich and swank, then I’d recommend not living in either place actually. Portland is like a poorer, meaner, wetter, more depressing wanna-be San Francisco.

    • I’m from a small town in Minnesota, and I’ve been to both San Francisco and Portland on separate occasions and I have to say, I tend to agree with most of the things said against San Fran, but Portland was a beautiful place. Maybe my view was skewed by the fact that I was visiting for a wedding, but the nature there was some of the most gorgeous I have seen. And I saw all over San Fran, Nappa Valley, and the surrounding areas there, too. They did not compare.

      I’m a small town man, but I enjoy big cities when they have all that beauty going for them. San Francisco though, seems like a beautiful place that was exploited like a rainforest for minerals.

      • Yah, exploited by the tech industry and real estate prospectors. Out went most of the artists who made this city fun and great in the 80’s and early 90’s.
        Now it’s just rich ladies pumping out as many babies as possible and looking down their noses at the less fortunate and childless. As if!

  35. Probably alot of what is wrong with San Francisco stems from it’s far left politics. If you don’t work for the government, or work in some established tech company, you can basically forget it. Move to Berkley I was told.

    On the other hand, what’s good about liberalism is being torn out. Due to Gavin’s new sit/lie ordinance, they pushed the homeless people out of Haight Ashbury, which ironically, helped to remove much of its authentic character. I thought that most of the homeless kids and hippies and friendly drunks down there were not so much of a problem. Go somewhere and live a fantasy for a little while if you have nothing but a dream? Nope. The headshops and import stores do add some color and a bit of authenticity, but in the end the whole thing just winds up being a tourist zone and you want to only visit but not stay there. It’s not a paradise.

  36. I live in Portland but have never been to SF for whatever reason. It doesn’t sound like the kind of place I would ever bother with except to visit for a few days. Kind of a cheesy California rendition of New York City with none of the charm and mystique is how I’ve always had it pegged in my mind.

  37. I once vistited the place now i wouldnt stop these for gas It dserves to fall into the ocean and take its entire city council and jerk mayor with it

  38. I’ve worked in SF for about 3 years now and I have to agree with a lot of the sentiments in this blogpost.

    SF really doesn’t have a lot. Art galleries, clubs, museums, parks? Wow. Please take my money for an over-priced apartment even though pretty much every other medium sized city as all that and parking.

    Its not the worst little town ever created, but there’s nothing realy special about it either to justify the inflated cost of living.

    • How about some genuine American traditional food?
      I’m all for variety and trying new things, but sometimes I just want an unadulterated grilled cheese sandwich and IF I find a place that does have them, they don’t know how to make it because they never learned how!
      Why does everything have to have frickin chilies hidden it it? Much of the food here is overrated, overpriced, not what you ordered and a downright
      food poisoning risk.

  39. I lived in NYC for many years, and kept hearing that SF was somehow “better”. But after seeing this blog, and hearing from many others, I don’t think I’d want to live in SF. And just because I’m gay doesn’t mean that I should live there either.

    I knew a gay guy who hated NYC after a while, moved to SF, and within 3 months was back in NYC! LOL…he said he hated SF. I don’t think I’d want to live somewhere that could experience a major earthquake any day, where bottled water and plastic shopping bags are banned (duh, if you look at the environment impact, tap water is way more environmentally destructive than plastic water bottles – just look at how SF gets it’s tap water), where composting is now required by law for every home and business, where dangerous-type homeless people are literally everywhere (I had enough of that in Portland, Maine), where things are so liberal that nothing gets agreed upon and done, where it’s just about as expensive as NYC, where no one is motivated, where most young people are trust fund bunnies, and where the HIV infection rate among the gay male community is the highest of anywhere else in the country (and where there are tons of “bareback” gay porn companies). I don’t think I’d want to deal with all of that on a daily basis. Also, in comparison to NYC, the bad areas of town in SF are waaaaay worse than the bad areas of NYC. For a vist, it’s different. But I really don’t think that I’d want to live there. And just like in Portland, Maine, I’m sure to get a lot of flack for not liking it!

  40. “My city is better than yours.” “Nah uh… isn’t.” “Uh huh.”

    All your cities suck, so shut the fuck up.

  41. Being a Chicago native, I was excited to take a small sabbatical and venture out to visit San Francisco. I had dreams of walking around in a quaint, beautiful, well-adjusted city and seeing a little utopia.

    Boy, was I wrong.

    First thing I noticed was how bad the air quality was. I mean, it felt as if I had asthma for pity’s sake and the supply of Benadryl I thought I’d need for hiking turned out to be a nightly thing. And for a city to boast how “green” they are, I was sure shocked at how dirty the streets were. I mean I’ve seen Chicago streets cleaner than that – and those were in bad areas!

    The transportation was lousy and the BART outdated by far. None of them on time and the use of the card was ridiculous with the paying AFTER you make it to your destination. And Jesus, when was the last time they cleaned those things? They smelled like my grandmother’s carpets from 1963.

    Berkeley blew my mind. All the students would go about their daily business (as that seemed to be the population) but MAN I don’t think anyone was happy. I never saw campus life like it should have been – college kids hanging out and having fun. Barely anyone smiled as I ventured around. I heard about the “silent rage” where everyone suppresses their negativity they may feel and finally someone would just snap and start yelling which freaked out the people around them. And at night? WOW, it blew my mind that all the scary people came out and started screaming at each other, picking fights… what kind of college town was this?

    Oakland was a strange town as well. Parts of it seemed nice, parts weren’t so great. My hostess had some sort of street fair to sell her hand-made stuff at (and most of the people there had homemade overpriced junk for that matter) so we have one street where everyone was a bunch of hippies and on the next street it looked as if a gang fight was going to break out – all these men yelling at each other and throwing bottles each way. The hippies didn’t even seem to notice them, nor did I see any cops show up to break anything up. Blind eye?

    Ooh! Organic food! Everywhere is organic markets, foods and grocery stores and plenty of people who will tell me that my food back home was so bad for me. Well! It would be nice to leave my job and venture over to the farmer who sold his grain for you to mill at home and make bread, but back home “organic” usually means incredibly overpriced. The irritating part about this was the fact that people in SF didn’t really care that organic food was expensive for us in the Midwest, we should buy it anyway! Gee, with what money?

    The naivete of the natives was amazing. Seemed everyone was oblivious to the rest of the world problems and stuck in their own bubbles. They cared more about eating organic and driving fuel-efficient cars than any crisis in the rest of the world. “We don’t need a television!” said my hostess with much glee. Okay, what about reading the news? “Oh, that can be so negative!” What a load of ignorant crap.

    No sense of humor, either. I told a few innocent jokes at dinner and no one knew how to react. Nothing horrible or outlandish, it just blew my mind that everyone was so serious all the time that polite laughter was the best they could do.

    Getting hit on: well, that might have been fun when I was younger, but when I said the phrase: “I’m married,” the response was: “Well, I don’t see him anywhere.” Don’t know if it’s a usual thing in SF for married people to date, but it happened enough that I found it strange and really disrespectful.

    Getting in everyone else’s business was the worst. I smoke cigarettes and back home we’ve got the laws, too. I abide by those laws, mind you. I go in areas that are designated for smoking. But for some reason, people still felt the need to come over and bug me about it: “That’s bad for you!” or “You shouldn’t do that!” All with an authoritarian voice as if they were responsible for my actions. I found this quickly remedied when I pulled out my Chicago attitude and yelled: “MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS, ASSHOLE!” and lo and behold, not only were they shocked but ran away. That worked three times in a row. Wow, they can dish it out but not take it!

    Last but not least, transplants are NOT immune to the effects of San Franciscan attitudes. My host/hostess obviously picked up plenty of habits along the way. My hostess who does everything “natural” chided me for taking Benadryl despite the fact she uses a topical steroid on her face for eczema for the past 20 years (and mind you, long term use of her type of steroid will cause blindness, I found out.) She also ripped into me for eating meat and the benefits of staying away from animal protein. Oh please. This woman would neglect getting her proteins and get absent minded constantly until I said: “Did you have any protein today?” Which consisted of a can of some tuna fish. Depriving yourself of protein is what cult leaders do to followers, okay? She’s so “healthy” that she has to be 30 lbs underweight and has eliminated whole food groups out of her diet and stresses when she gains anything. Size “0” of course. It’s called orthorexia. Look it up – it’s very interesting.

    Her husband wanting to buy “a little house” somewhere in Berkeley for the two of them. He pointed out one for sale that was a whopping 1 bedroom/1 bathroom and asked me how much I thought it was worth. Of course, I replied: “Oh, an easy 1/2 a million,” and he was shocked and argued that I was wrong. Later on we’d look it up and lo and behold I was right. Did either of them realize how screwed up California is due to the housing crisis? Nope. That’s that whole “the news is negative!” thing coming back to bite them in the butts.

    My host and hostess are poor, poor, poor and barely scrape by with bills let alone rent. They have a couch and a mattress and that’s it. “We like it that way!” they’d say to me. Well, that’s cool when one is in their early 20s starting out, but when you’re pushing 40 I think it’s okay to buy an extra spoon to have in the drawer.

    I was shocked how much I did NOT like San Francisco. Sure, it has it’s beauty, but it’s outweighed by stupid attitudes, ignorance and outdated hypocritical systems that don’t work. The paint peeling on the old Victorian homes was disappointing, China Town was nothing more than an awful tourist trap, everyone’s heads were stuck up their asses about anything else going on in the rest of the world because “it’s negative.”

    Anyone wanting to see culture, acceptance, excitement and life to it’s fullest should move to Chicago, period. I expected San Francisco to out-do Chicago with it’s arts, cultures, ethnic varieties and I was very much corrected. San Fran demonstrates a bullshit attitude with a strong dose of hypocrisy on top of it with the racism, snobbery and “head in sand” attitude towards glaring problems. Chicago is definitely more open-minded than San Fran by far.

    My parents used to tell me how much they loved California and I was expecting so much when I went there. Then again I realized it was in the 60s when they went and it was in San Diego. All places change. Let’s hope San Francisco changes as well because otherwise Matt and Trey of South Park are right: San Franciscans like to smell their own farts, they’re so pretentious!

    • Well articulated!

      Chicago is beautiful in many areas. I’ve also met plenty of friendly Chicagoans–although they are a little more “blunt” than I’m used to. It’s a sort of strange cross of the straight talk and road rage of NYC and the laid back friendliness and sprawl-on-the-prairie of Houston. …if that makes any sense.

      Nonetheless, if not for the nasty cold winters, Chicago would be catapulted to a top three city on my relocation list.

      And I’m sorry you didn’t like SF very much. I think you might be a better for for SD. It seems like half of SD is from Chicago, including former SD Mayor and California Governor Pete Wilson!

  42. I’m from SF myself – but please don’t automatically think I hate all of the people who have visited SF and had an unpleasant/horrible time, even though I don’t fall into the category of hating SF myself… (I don’t LOVE IT LOVE IT OMG THE BEST CITY EVER either.)

    I agree with the article and the negative posters on a lot of points about issues this city has that could be vastly improved (but aren’t being taken care of) and often provide frustration for anyone who lives or comes here. (cleanliness, treatment of the homeless problem, etc…) What I don’t agree with is the massive generalizations about the people here. We don’t all think the same, act the same, and care about the same stuff in the same ways. Which is true of almost anywhere. There are snobs here, there are rich people with agendas here, there are those who are concentrated on health and environment purely because its good for their social stature to be interested in those things… HOWEVER there are also a ton of genuine, kind, and active-towards-change people here, and not all of them are the “hippies” living on the street or piled like dogs into victorians in the Haight.

    So no, SF is not the best city in the world. It needs a lot of improvement. There are plenty of misconceptions that certain people and travel/tourist agendas push that I believe should not be believed. However – not all the people are snobs, not all the people are hypocrites or hipsters, not all the nice people are gay. And residents/visitors seeing the good things that this city has to offer, despite of/along with the crap it throws at us, does not make people automatically blind or fake. Its just that every single thing in any place or situation in the world is multifaceted.

    I encourage people who see issues around them to do research and support/join others to try and educate and work towards the change they see potentially healing these problems – instead of fleeing the scene and writing about how much they hate the problems and how much the area sucks.

  43. I lived and worked in SFO for a year after living in Seattle and I prefer the Emerald city hands down. SFO proper is dirty, overcrowded, concreted in with very few trees and grass. The place literally stinks and a million dollars for a “crack” house in the mission that needs to be gutted? ( and thats a rare find in the the city, a house under a million!) Please, what a pathetic joke of a city. I spent the summer there when I was 16 yrs old and it was less crowded, cleaner, greener and still a magical place. Overall, the gentrification has ruined the city. Smug is an understatement. If you are an alcoholic and like bars and don’t mind living in an overpriced run down closet its perfect!!! If you work in the High tech field and are overpaid you might like the elitist vibe and shop at “Buy Right” but still buy your staple foods at Trader Joes. Very snobby place. Compared to Seattle its a very boring place to live and believe me I gave the city a chance. Can you say provincial? There are beautiful areas around the city for vacationing but to live in the city is overpriced and romanticized from a time past.

  44. I moved here last summer from the upper Midwest.

    I will be perfectly honest: My job search and interest in relocation strongly gravitated toward California south of Santa Barbara–basically from Ventura and Bakersfield to the Mexican border. I had more personal interest in SoCal, anyway, and not influenced by the media because I really watch very little television and very few movies.

    Furthermore, I used to work in customer service (okay, a news stand at an airport). This was at a major airport with numerous connecting flights daily to the major cities of California. Generally, my SoCal customers were fine; in fact, many were quite friendly. NorCal, on the other hand, seemed to spawn residents with sub-zero personality. Not mean, not bad, but certainly not friendly. Even while vacationing in Northern California a while before I moved out here, it seemed like hardly ANYone even attempted to be friendly and polite, even though that’s who I am by nature. Hell, some guy in Starbucks in the SF Financial District just walked up, placed his empty coffee cup on my table, grinned, and walked out of the restaurant. W-T-H?! I was even met with sharp-cutting sarcasm from a state park employee when I had a simple question about Big Sur–and I’m a guy that does my geographic research, such as the lay of the land and attractions along the route, before I take off for some place. The friendliest soul I met was from…yep, IRVINE, California!! Meanwhile, when I have vacationed in SoCal on three occasions, away from parts of L.A. and wealthier parts of O.C., I found that I enjoyed it more.

    Obviously, vacationing is different from living in a place. Most of the time, anyway…

    However, I interviewed numerous times for a job on the SF Peninsula here in the Bay. It seemed like a good fit; the bosses and office environment seemed very nice. I would’ve been a fool to not accept the offer. So, I uprooted my life to start over. I was fired four months later in a “removal” that was borderline illegal in its procedure, and my replacement was hired less than two weeks later. This whole situation came as a shock to my co-workers and me. I worked hard, was punctual and accomplished a lot in my short time; my office partner was hired at the same time and is a great guy but hardly showed up on time. He got to stay. Hmmmmmm… And the bosses, behind the veneer of friendliness and “oh, we’ll help you adjust” were straight up b*tches with a 100% “do it completely our way and we’re going to micromanage you mentality.” But they sure knew how to “seal the deal” and be all sweet and stuff in outside interactions. Just a crappy place to work.

    I’ve landed some temporary positions since then, some with cool and not-so-cool workers and generally cool bosses, although my current boss has more emotional swings than a rollercoaster at Six Flags.

    Bay Area drivers are admittedly more polite and just as “skilled” as L.A. drivers, in my opinion; however, I laugh when I read and hear them comment about how they are less materialistic and more enlightened than Southern Californians. Hmmmmm…I don’t mind people owning nice things and taking nice vacations. I’m not one of those Occupiers; in fact, I’m pretty conservative. (That’s not something I wear on my sleeve, however, since the “liberals” in the Bay aren’t true liberals, if you know what I mean.) However, when you see every third or fourth car on the road is a luxury car, driving well above the speed limit and sometimes commuting long distances, that “less materialistic” notion gets put to rest. So does the whole “I’m eco-conscious” idea.

    Look, I’ve been to San Francisco proper quite a few times (quick train ride) and after about four hours, I’m ready to leave. It just doesn’t compel me like NYC, LA and Chicago do. Cold, windy, foggy days in August, surly residents that make Parisians seem smiley, poor service in restaurants, and not-so-friendly locals in professional interactions. And don’t get me started on the women… The peninsula is noticeably better than SF in every regard, but not enough to make me want to stay here.

    L.A. might have more road rage and “lead foots,” but the Bay Area altogether has just as much impatience and overall douchey-acting drivers. People love their horns here in the Bay; it reminds me of a large East Coast city!

    I’ve done Downtown San Jose, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, most of the downtowns along the peninsula, the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, Golden Gate National Rec Area, Golden Gate Park, the Great Highway, many of the SF touristy cheesy things, Berkeley, and Skyline Boulevard (CA 35). I love the fact that you can escape the urban congestion and be in serenity in ten minutes. I love the little beach towns that have greatly restricted their development. The coffee shops around here are numerous and pretty awesome! There is a LOT to like, also.

    I say that the Bay Area would be a DAMN near PERFECT place to live with everything it has to offer. The cost of living doesn’t bother me. It’s just that the people almost ruin it–SF is the worst, followed closely by the Outer East Bay (Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Danville), followed by much of the peninsula. It’s truly a shame.

    In closing, I am making plans now to move down to the San Gabriel Valley, Inland Empire, Orange County, or San Diego within the next year. Which is what I was aimin’ for all along, anyway, dontcha know. I’m just gonna find things I enjoy, stick with them, and check out what I want to finish checking out before I move on!

    • I forgot to add to the comment of “more enlightened” than So. Californians. Sure, the westside of L.A., Culver City, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes peninsula, Malibu, and even Burbank are full of the vapid and entitled. Much of it is from “trying to be seen” in the entertainment industry and the nouveau riche. Coastal O.C. is much the same way.

      However, spend some time in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, SF’s Marina District, Walnut Creek (and the Outer East Bay), and South Marin and tell me that the Bay isn’t full of vapid, entitled BMW-driving douches and Range Rover-driving stereotypical blondes.

  45. I’ve just returned from a ‘holiday of a lifetime’ in the US which we spent months planning, largely on the strength of recommendations from (English) friends. Having visited the East coast and Mid-West on numerous occasions I was keen to experience new places and the consensus was that San Francisco was a must. As a result we flew to SF and spent 5 nights there followed by a road trip through Yosemite and Death Valley to Vegas and the Grand Canyon before flying via St Louis (to visit friends, why else?), to NYC and home.
    SF – what a disappointment, it seems every English person whose been there is in thrall of the place, but I vow to do my best to explode the myth and expose the Emperor’s New Clothes after our miserable time there. Whist as an ‘outsider’ I’m not qualified to contribute to the socio-political debate on this thread I can offer an unsophisticated, more superficial, tourist take on the city:
    1. The place is dirty and litter-strewn, and more disturbingly with a level of homelessness worse than Philly when I first visited in ’89. Yes, really!
    2. Unbelievably unfriendly locals: on many previous visits to the US – and indeed elsewhere on this trip – I’ve never been found my American hosts to be anything less than utterly charming and helpful. But in SF….from taxi drivers through waiters and bar tenders the attitude was an arrogant ‘we don’t have to try, and we really couldn’t give a toss whether you take it or leave it.’ Incredibly nonchalant and up themselves. The only exception was the waiter in the cafe on Pier 23 – and he was an Aussie! At this point (and for balance) I should emphasise that as visitors who didn’t have need to engage the services of a plumber, TV repair man or attorney, we weren’t exposed to a particularly broad cross section of SF society, but wouldn’t you expect those in the tourist industry to try a little harder?
    3. Fisherman’s Wharf – again forgive me for choosing a soft target but ours was a short visit and this was billed as one of the ‘must see’ attractions. Well, anyone vaguely familiar with British culture will know what I mean in comparing it with Blackpool seafront (for those not, Coney Island works): tacky, cheap (yet grotesquely overpriced); makes Chicago’s Navy Pier look like Madison Avenue in terms of style and quality. Vendor stalls were repeated every 50 yards, but after the first 2 or 3 we found ourselves becoming strangely immune to the allure of fake jewellery and badly stitched $30 tee shirts. Just nasty….
    4. Everything is so expensive, from the cable cars (though I have to admit they are cool) at $6 a ride, through bicycle hire to eating out. We didn’t once – with the exception of Alcatraz – find ourselves saying, ” Yes, that was worth it”.
    5. Haight Ashbury – false, tired, jaded, run down, soulless….a fitting metaphor for hippie movement then I guess.
    6. The weather – it’s just rubbish.
    To summarise, we are left with the overwhelming impression that the city acts like it’s doing us a favour just by being there for us. Well, I have news for it….it won’t last, the bubble will burst when people wise up to the fact that the few decent selling points it has – Alcatraz; The Golden Gate Bridge (we preferred the Bay Bridge, at least it’s visible some of the time, AND it gave us our escape route out of SF); and the Aquarium (let’s face it, any half-decent city nowadays boasts a ‘world class’ aquarium) – are lost in the sea of cynicism, indifference and sleaze that define San Francisco.
    For the record, should anyone be interested, the remainder of our trip was fabulous….if only we’d had the benefit of hindsight and cut down our time in SF to 2 nights (actually 1) in favour of the magnificent, beautiful Yosemite….

  46. Very glad to say we are leaving after 4 years of
    trying really hard to like it here. SF is totally
    useless, pretentious and just gross. Oakland and Berkeley well…as
    another poster put it… least tolerant places
    we’ve ever experienced…racially segregated…hateful.
    if you’re not an extreme
    leftie…I’m liberal but it’s like a liberal dictatorship.

    we found out the hard way…
    The Bay area is a BIG LIE.

  47. I was born and raised here. So, S.F. will always be my city. I moved out years ago because it’s not the city it used to be growing up here back in the 1970s , 80s, and 1990s. I miss the 1980s lol.

    Pros: Weather, scenic, diversity, and access to the Bay Area. Food is okay, but Tokyo has better food. LOL.

    Cons: Libs, costly, dirty, homeless crazies, moody people, rich transplants, gay men hitting on me, dykes hating on me, MUNI, bad drivers, and stupid Hippies.

  48. I have travelled to many places in the world, (including most of the large cities in the U.S.) so here’s my take on San Francisco.

    Pros:

    1) Great mountains and forests, Pacific Ocean and the air is quite decent as well compared to other large cities I’ve been in.

    2) Lack of “gangster” culture. Seems mostly to be on the liberal/free/non-violent side of things.

    3) A good mix of ethnic people from all over the world. Lots of diversity.

    4) The poor and oppressed are given a chance to voice their opinions. (to a point)

    5) Laid-back and peaceful lifestyle (and it also had somewhat of a European/Mediterranean feel)

    Cons:

    1) $20 to travel on the BART train from almost any location to downtown and back.

    2) Too many aggressive homeless and some of the strangest people you will ever see anywhere.

    3) Too much paranoia and tension between the rich and the poor, (but not so much on racial lines)

    4) It’s really not a great place for middle class people. If you are not rich you’ll most likely never be able to afford a house.

    5) Not enough emphasis on just living a decent and normal life. (The unusual and bizarre is championed)

    SF is not a perfect place, but has good and bad points like anywhere else in the world…

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