I like to think of San Fran and the valley down to San Jose as this new robber baron paradise. It seems like the stories I read about San Fran make it out to be this extreme high contrast (race, income, wealth, education, etc) metropolitan megacity - more so than all other US cities.
I like San Francisco in general. But I visited my father there a decade or more ago. These are my recollections. People are generally snooty and rude. I was staying with my father south of the city itself, and a bunch of the kids in his place started to call me "Tex" for no reason. I'm one of the least identifiably "Tex" types out there. He also lived in on landfill called Foster City. If I lived on a landfill, making fun of other people's origins would be at the bottom of my list. It was amusing more than annoying, but showed an aggressive meanness manifest at a young age that I've never seen in Texas. Also had several kids ask me to buy them cigarettes at the quickie mart which has never happened in Houston. I said "Thank You" to a lady at the counter and smiled at McDonalds when she handed me her food. She genuinely looked scared, like I was about to rape her on the counter. Distressing. Next time I'll be grumpy and rude. At night in the city people are snooty. Went to City Lights Books before they closed and felt like everybody in the room was looking down on me because I wasn't dressed like a beatnik in a tight fitting black turtleneck. Most importantly, when you are up in the hills above south San Francisco, kids on motorcycles are the mother&($#)ng worst. One guy zoomed by me helmetless splitting lanes on those twisty, winding at about 70mph faster than me with a leather jacket with "**** YOU!!" blazoned in giant letters on the back. I almost shat myself because I didn't see him coming, and I'f I'd have been in Texas with my CHL I probably would have hunted the ********er down. I actually liked Marin county a whole lot more. Me and my dad at at the Merry Pranksters cafe. I got a thrill knowing he had no idea where he'd just eaten. Marin County is a lot more like my trips to Portland Oregon in terms of trees and nice people. I'm sure that behind the scenes the "pot farmers" are a little less friendly, but on the surface they were great. Oh, half moon bay down to Santa Cruz is one of the best drives out there, and everybody you run into will be a mellow, laid back surfer type. Worth the drive. I'm told Redwood City is where all the meth is made up and down El Camino Real. I had to go into a Fidelity Investments in Palo Alto, and I felt like the guy behind the counter was going to offer to suck my dick. With all the money in the area they must train the employees to kiss some serious ass. If it comes down to it, I'd avoid the urban wasteland between San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco proper, and find another out of the way place to live. It's like a giant ghetto strip mall punctuated by beautiful hills and occasional nature reserves.
nah austin has really changed. i been going there since the last 15 years and loved how laidback, chill and different it felt from beaumont and houston. now the traffic is insane, its become so expensive, and a lot of out of towners have moved in from east and west coast and brought their snootiness with them. my family is very conservative but we had this one blacksheep uncle who became a cool hippy. rides a motorcycle, smokes weed, became buddhist. told me a lot about austin in the 70s and said he hates the place now and is moving to colorado.
i used to live in SF. one summer it was so cold i wasn't able to play bball outdoors until mid-august. i moved after that.
The Muni is a modern miracle. It is supposed to be an efficient transport system but as it is, it is not only an effective argument against further rail development in the US, but against public transportation in general !
I think this is just a problem with people in general. It seems like everyone in big cities is extremely inconsiderate to one another. It is ****ing pathetic when there are people speeding on small streets. They'd chance killing someone to save 5 seconds of their miserable lives. Yesterday someone almost ran me over by not stopping at a stop sign when making a right turn at an intersection. His car skidded to a stop two feet in front of me and I gave him two thumbs up like "nice job mother****er !"
SF is just a snooty area. It is suppose to be a liberal heaven, but racism still very much exists there. It is just very subtle. If you are a minority (other than Asian obviously), you have to show that you belong, or you'll be mistaken for a cab driver or janitor or something. People hate on LA, but it is a better city. People are more watchful for pedestrians, much better weather than SF, etc. I feel like LA is the most normal city out there. When you are hated by the left of the left in the SFs of the world and are also hated by right wing places, then maybe you are actually normal. Sucks about your experiences. I never clicked with SF either. Great scenery though. Or just not rely on light rails and trolleys in the middle of the street.
Not sure where the weather complaints are coming from - this has been an abnormally warm year due to the drought. When it does get foggy, just throw on your fleece vest or Patagonia jacket and you're good. The parks have been packed just about every weekend this year. So many good day drinking Saturdays. My group's preferred spot is the meadow at Fort Mason. But Dolores, Alta Vista, Washington Square, Duboce, etc have all been busy this year. So much so that Recology has had to have continuous trash collection on weekends at the parks. Agree that downtown reeks of piss - I work in the financial district, but live in the Marina. My advice for you would be to get a place in a different neighborhood - Pac Heights, Marina, Russian Hill, North Beach, etc. Your experience would be very different since no crazies and no piss. Just nice views, fun bars, and good restaurants. Join a sports league - I made tons of friends through kickball and coed softball when I first moved out here in 2008. Easy way to meet girls who like to party too. On public transport, sure Muni sucks - in fact I read this thread while on the bus. That being said, you can Uber pool anywhere in the city for $7 or Lyft Line for $5 so not sure how valid that complaint is anymore. Also, part of what's great about living here is the weekend trips within a short drive such as: - Tahoe - Napa/Sonoma - Healdsburg - Big Basin - Santa Cruz - Big Sur - Carmel - Yosemite - Russian River, Lagunitas breweries
There's a bunch of them - just sign up online and pay your fee. Nobody really takes it seriously - just an excuse to hang out and play flip cup after the game. www.kickballsf.com - my buddy is the founder, now retired from the game due to getting married, moving to the burbs, and having baby www.playinthebay.com - parent site of kickball sf - for dodgeball, softball, flag football, etc playrecess.com - founder is a UT guy, they pick a different game/sport every Sunday https://www.kickball.com/sf (WAKA league, not as good IMO)
traffic was always really bad my friend but I still loved the place. Maybe because I always avoided rush hour traffic. If I could turn back time I would have never left the place. Here is what Austin has to offer : 1. Amazing weather, at least for me. I come from Pakistan where the average high from March to November is in the 90s. Austin and Houston are like a godsend. Austin's weather is like Karachi's without the humidity. When I see some people complain about the weather in Houston/Austin I just shake my head. 2. It is really beautiful. Very green and hilly. Not on the level of San Francisco, but still much better than Houston because Houston is poorly planned and sometimes just seems like one colossal strip mall after another. 3. The people are generally really nice. 4. Absolutely gorgeous women everywhere. 5. Tons of **** to do. I.e. go hiking, go to concerts etc. Not on the level of San Francisco again, but enough to keep most people happy. 6. Homeless are kept on a leash it seems. I know it will seem cruel, but I have absolutely zero empathy for the homeless in this city. They are always drunk, injecting drugs, and creating a general nuisance. The sad thing is there are so many tourists here and they always come and throw money at these people not realizing what a headache they are creating for the rest of us actually living here. You only appreciate what you had when it's gone.
As with any city, it 100% depends on where you live in the metro. I lived in Berkeley Hills for a while last year and absolutely loved it. The weather was fantastic since it was slightly warmer than San Francisco and just seemed to hover in the 60s. Plus Berkeley Hills is just a fantastic area to live in. Additionally the BART led me straight to work so I didnt have to bother with the MUNI system. Its still crazy expensive there and California's water shortage and earthquake issues will probably never attract me to live there again but I really enjoyed the experience. The Bay area is such a unique place and there really is a lot to see. But there are parts of SF where it would just be a chore. Also, I'm used to public transit (I use it where I currently live as well) so long commutes are fine by me. I do agree about the people there. But that's not limited to San Francisco. That's more of an issue with California as a whole. You'll find the same attitudes in LA as well. Its definitely irritating. Bottom line, I think your neighborhood probably sucks. Look around the metro and find another place to live. And consider the east bay. I actually preferred it to San Francisco.
I don't know if I'm the strongest Houstonian, but I can slap you if you need me to. I visited San Fran once. The city was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, and we had a great time. But, I could tell I wouldn't want to live there.
Austin in the mid 90's doesn't exist anymore. Whole different vibe/town. Of all my good friends in Austin, around ten of them have already moved out or are talking about it.
Surprised about the weather! I thought CA weather was like great year-round, for the most part. Point 3 is a major reason why living in CA is quite ridiculous. But I thought SF (and CA in general) was a more liberal / accepting place? Surprised it's so bad.
yeah, sister stuck around after UT for more than a decade and finally said screw this place. Austin has become an overplayed town that has become overwhelmingly frustrating. Its now just another 'great place to visit', okay place to live. Still beats the hell out of a lot of cities but definitely not the same even in the early 2000s
The benefit of living in a place like Houston is the fact that you can afford to go visit all these places, give yourself nice accommodations during your time there, and then come back to your 3500 sq ft. house where the mortgage is half the price of the 600 sq ft. apt you would've had in the city you just came from. Cities like San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc are so strapped for space that real estate markets are completely ludicrous, and you always have someone coming in willing to spend whatever it takes because they work for a big financial corporation, tech firm, or consulting firm. Living in the ghetto is any of those cities would be a nightmare, and I don't envy the OP in the slightest. Good luck and best wishes getting out of there as quickly as you can.
