This was a really stupid blog post.
A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#12As someone who lives in San Francisco and works for a startup I have no idea what the value of this is.
The basic premise boils down to, I live my life poorly, boo hoo.
Everything the author writes is of their own doing, no one is forcing you to check Twitter and Facebook 100 times a day, no one is forcing you to use foursquare.
This is like a little kid binging on candy all day and then whining about a belly-ache at night.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#13I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
I lived in San Francisco without a car for about 4 years.
San Francisco is very small. It's possible to walk from the ballpark to Ocean Beach in about 2.5 hours. I often walked from my home in Cole Valley to my office in SoMa, even though I could just take the Muni.
The public transportation is pretty good for a city in the USA but pretty bad compared to Europe and really bad compared to Japan. People who like the public transportation in SF usually live near one of the Muni train lines. People who hate the public transportation are usually in a neighborhood where they are stuck taking the bus (which is most of the neighborhoods).
That said, having a car in SF is nice, too. The downside is parking. The upside is being able to just drive over to Safeway for groceries, or drive up to Marin, or throw a surfboard on the roof and go down to Pacifica or Santa Cruz.
You can get most of the way there with Zipcar, but I found that if you regularly want to get out of the city on weekends, Zipcar was not as cost effective as owning a beater automobile.
I just saw your edit. The public transit is not as good (comprehensive) as NYC but is a little better than Seattle.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#14I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
I've lived in both places - public transit in SF beats the pathetic pants off of Seattle for sure. It won't hold a candle to NYC though, so you may be disappointed.
It's entirely possible to live without a car - very, very much so, but be prepared to pay if that's the case (i.e. neighborhoods well served by transit are expensive, think Manhattan rents... up to $2K for a studio? You bet!).
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#15I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
It's possible, but having access to Zipcar is quite essential for pretty much anything outside of the city limits - rail expansion was severely hampered by some nearby suburbanites who were afraid that the worst of the city was going to take the train out to visit them, so you have to get in a car if you want to visit your classist neighbors.
I suppose I could just Google this, but if you know off the top of your head, is ZipCar subject to the same age rules as normal car rentals? i.e. I think you have to be 26 or is it 24 before you can rent?
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#16I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
I got by without a car when I lived in SF. It can be inconvenient if you make many trips outside the city, but it's not hard at all, and considering the high cost of living in SF, a great way to save some money as well.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#17May be I've become cynical but
90% of the email I get in my personal account is from people/startups/companies selling me stuff.
90% of the twitter stream is people pimping their wares (either blog posts or products they endorse).
90% of my facebook wall is filled with inane things.
May be the only way to be successful is to constantly sell yourself and your products.
I haven't viewed the world this way until I started friending and networking with entrepreneurs.
I keep telling myself, there has to be a better way, there has to be..
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#18I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
It's possible, but having access to Zipcar is quite essential for pretty much anything outside of the city limits - rail expansion was severely hampered by some nearby suburbanites who were afraid that the worst of the city was going to take the train out to visit them, so you have to get in a car if you want to visit your classist neighbors.
It's not "essential" -- there is BART, Caltrain and a pretty extensive public transportation system in the greater bay area, but ZipCar could be a useful additional tool.
As far as your history lesson on rail expansion. You have it completely backwards. The bay area had a very extensive rail system 60-70 years ago. One level of the bay bridge was just for trains. Google the Key System for more information. When cars increased in popularity, most of the train and tram system outside of San Francisco went bust, rail corridors were turned into expressways (a great example on the peninsula is Foothill Expressway that runs from Stanford University to Cupertino).
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's possible, but having access to Zipcar is quite essential for pretty much anything outside of the city limits - rail expansion was severely hampered by some nearby suburbanites who were afraid that the worst of the city was going to take the train out to visit them, so you have to get in a car if you want to visit your classist neighbors.
I suppose I could just Google this, but if you know off the top of your head, is ZipCar subject to the same age rules as normal car rentals? i.e. I think you have to be 26 or is it 24 before you can rent?
you have to be 21
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#20I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
San Francisco's MUNI has the problems of most large urban public transport systems (it can be a bit slow, it's not perfectly reliable, every now and then they'll be some crazy person ranting to no-one in particular), but it's OK; half an hour and two buses (or a train and a bus) will get you most places in the city. San Francisco's also pretty small - about seven miles square - so yes, it's pretty easy to get around in the city itself without a car. Of course, this only applies if you're working for one of those hipster Web 2.0 companies that are actually based in San Francisco itself - if you need to get around Silicon Valley, you'ld almost certainly need a car.