I have read on this forum how this city is a hellscape. I have traveled to many places in California but have never been to San Fransico at all. So what's the deal?
@B-Bob When I last visited 10 years ago, much like most cities, it depended on the street. Some areas were picturesque like this, and then there were streets with homeless lined up shoulder to shoulder for the whole block. Pick your routes wisely if walking. I think it's a disservice to ourselves to pretend like it's all sunshine/flowers or all trash/homeless with random youtube videos or tweets.
SF is pretty dense. There's good blocks and bad blocks. He walked through the touristy areas where rent when i lived there 10 ish years ago was around 3k/month for a one room apt. It's probably 5k or something ridiculous now. Marina district is where crazy rich yuppies live. It would've been nice for him to walk inside a store and look at some price tags If he biked ten more mins south in some streets, the "bad blocks" like civic center, tenderloin, or patches south of soma had that stereotypical feel con air has been blasting. SF is a great place to live if you're young and have a lot of disposable income.
SF and NYC are the 2 most fun cities in the US to just walk all around and stumble upon interesting things. NO is right up there too, I suppose. And DC.
I think it's a great place to live in middle age, but different strokes. It is definitely expensive. The basic deal is this: 1. the 20th century shopping and tourist segments of the town are on hard times and not primed to necessarily bounce back without a substantial rethink / redesign / repurpose. 2. the work-from-home / shop-local phenomena have meant lots and lots of residents stay in their neighborhoods, and therefore the neighborhoods are mostly thriving like I've never seen in over 25 years. Bernal Heights, NOPA, the Richmond, the Sunset, Castro, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch... all these areas, and a fairly new one like Mission Bay in particular, are just totally hopping, even with nightlife. Families with strollers, oldsters like me and the Mrs, all just walking around spending money in little mom and pop shops. Kind of idyllic. 3. we def have a big city governance problem and the next mayoral election is getting a lot of attention. People are sick of the slack, for lack of a better word. And we still have (kinda like Portland) the reputation of "oh hey come here to use drugs! Yeah, people are cool with it, and you can even like, die miserably on a sidewalk from an overdose." This is a serious problem and while you don't see it day to day in the neighborhoods, we've had nasty outcomes in mid-town and the old shopping districts, etc. But yes, the Mrs and I deadpan "our unlivable hellhole" to one another and to friends and family all the time. It feels great and safe to us, but the media and the internet have built quite a cottage industry of busting our chops. And meh, the pendulum swings. We have a very doable mortgage and meanwhile live rent free in millions of heads, apparently.
Of course people never exaggerate or engage in overheated rhetoric online. If someone posts a thousands tweets about SF being a hellhole surely it must be true.
This is a more efficient way of saying what I tried to say, and I agree. I did laugh when someone posted some long column from the east coast comparing homelessness in California to, like, Maine. Haha. Sure, good comparison. The weather in SF is incomparably unbeatable if you want to live outside -- there are no two ways about it. Little chilly this morning maybe, about 60 F, but it'll get to about 70 and sunny for most of today.
I'll admit that the "doom and gloom" talk regarding the city has kept me from visiting over the past few years, and I also know this is totally irrational.
It's rational if you are planning to stay in Union Square and shop in midtown. But it's irrational for anyone wanting to do, like, eight minutes of research before they visit. Or hell, just contacting B-Bob! It's honestly never felt safer and the stats seem to support that for violent crime. I did talk with a tourist the other day and she was feeling so stupid for delaying her trip for so long. "I can't believe how irrelevant all the media hype is to this city," she said. But yeah, if you want to find the one McDonald's that has an incident or two per day, I can guide people to that one place too. Haha. We can record a video for tinperson's ongoing fetish.
SF and California do have some major problems, the cost of living is too high, petty crime is too high and homelessness is high. It’s also still got a lot of things going for it with a lot of wealth, very highly educated population, vibrant culture and better overall weather than most of the country. Like things like sports it’s easy to fall into over the top assessments and exaggerations. For example “this Astros team is doomed and will lose over a 100 games. Fire the manager and trade everyone!” So it’s far easier to just exaggerate the bad of a place than to consider that there is much more to it.
Very true. A friend of mine visiting Singapore thought it was funny to take pics of litter in. Singapore. If all people saw were just his litter pics it would be easy to think Singapore was a very dirty unkept city.
You ever been here? http://www.penanggarden.com/ I saw the J1 crab dish on some foodie show and I've never forgotten it...I think @Dr of Dunk and I discussed how awesome it looked.
when u actually travel around and don’t just listen to dumbass fear mongering online, it becomes so apparent just how many are full of sh*t trashing places they’ve never even been to I’ve spent a ton of time in places like Chicago and LA…you’d think Chicago is a war zone I just laugh atp
No, have not! I'm actually not a crab guy. I like the occasional sushi, and I love grilled trout, pan-seared arctic char at home.... but otherwise, not much into the sea dwellers as food.
I was in San Francisco in May 2023. It has become political on the right to focus on the very bad in "blue" cities. However, SF was vibrant and busy when I was there. Sure, there is the area by the Civic Center that is a homeless mecca and I was in another part of the city and this guy pee'd in front of everyone on a sidewalk. Hell, you can see that in any city. However, the trip was great and the food was excellent.
