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Move to SF and hate it?

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Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#161

Post by malyk »

michaelhalligan wrote: post #157
evgen wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the Mission is white?!? I think you have been sampling a few of SF's other popular wares if you are this delusional.

I stand by this statement. There is one pocket of the Mission around 16th & Mission that's really diverse, and then say between Potrero and Bryant is mostly hisanic between 14th & Cesar Chavez The rest of the Mission is pretty freaking white, especially since Bernal tends to be grouped into the same "Mission" umbrella.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/4981425631/in/set-721...

Red dots are white, green asian, orange hispanic, blue african-american

The data is from 10 years ago, but honestly it's very apparent that the mission is mostly latino.

Sure...the areas around mission, valencia, guerrero and 16th are the trendy white hipster hangouts. Everything else, especially the 24th street corridor, is very latino.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#162

Post by joshu »

tptacek wrote: post #132
joshu wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had Dim Sum in the bay area that even approaches the best in NYC. Where are you going?

It was all Yank Sing and Ton Kiang when I was there... but I'm Chicago, not NYC. NYC dim sum may very well smite the rest of the country.

I guess Yank Sing is quite good. Just so expensive...

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#163

Post by joshu »

tptacek wrote: post #132
joshu wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't had Dim Sum in the bay area that even approaches the best in NYC. Where are you going?

It was all Yank Sing and Ton Kiang when I was there... but I'm Chicago, not NYC. NYC dim sum may very well smite the rest of the country.

I guess Yank Sing is quite good. Just so expensive...

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#164

Post by _delirium »

rdouble wrote: post #93
michaelhalligan wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By diversity, do you mean "lots of people of different races and ethnic heritages live here in harmony" or do you mean "lots of ethnic food to eat"? Because I would call hijinx on the former, this city is pretty white, at least all of SOMA/FiDi, North Beach, NOPA, The Sunset, most of the Mission, most of the excelsior, and at least 70% of every other neighborhood is white. Having been here a decade I feel this city i…

San Francisco proper is one of the most diverse cities in the country. It is only 45% white. Over 30% of the residents are foreign born. These stats are from Wikipedia.

The perception could be because the traditionally poorer American minority groups are not as common in San Francisco: there are not too many Latinos (14%) or especially African-Americans (7%) compared to other major American cities. Not sure if that's for cultural reasons, or just because SF is expensive, so there aren't as many poor people of any color as in many cities (e.g. compare SF's under-$30k-income population to Chicago's). Might be related to the SF versus East-Bay de-facto segregation as well; it seems most of the Bay Area's Latino and Black population lives in the East Bay (e.g. Oakland is 30% Black and 25% Latino; Richmond is 36% Black and 27% Latino).

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#165

Post by enf »

seldo wrote: post #122
nphase wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his version of "better cab service" is different than yours. You think of better cab service as being able to walk outside and immediately catch one. He thinks of better cab service as easily summoning one from his smartphone. (Seems like a very SF-esque solution to the problem, no?)

Well, I also live in the Mission next to Valencia, where it is ludicrously easy to catch a cab, though I appreciate that it's impossible to catch them in, e.g., Sunset, so I didn't mention it as an advantage. Of course, in London you literally can't catch a black cab outside of the center (they're not even allowed to do so past a certain radius) so you have to call a minicab. So SF still wins.

A map of where in San Francisco people succeed in catching taxis in practice, if you want it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/4956860071/in/set-721...

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#166

Post by _delirium »

tptacek wrote: post #31
kbob wrote: post #26

Arrived in 1992. Left in 2001. Lived in a Sunnyvale apartment two years and a San Jose house (NW of Campbell) for seven years. I moved there for my career, which did very well. I largely hated the valley as a place to live, simply because it's too crowded. I have a low tolerance for traffic. I couldn't stand to drive to the supermarket, let alone go to work every day. So I spent all my time either at work or at home,…

There is no worse place for a 20-something tech person to live than in one of those South Bay apartment hives. If you're new to the area, please, for god's sake, cross Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Cupertino off your list. Read Christopher Alexander; those apartment complexes will make you insane and sad. Live in Oakland, in a shared house in San Mateo, or (if you can) the city.

Santa Cruz is another option, though I'm biased since I live here and like it. ;-) It's actually closer than most of the rest of the livable options if you work in the Cupertino/San Jose/Santa Clara area. You do have to get used to driving Hwy-17, but on a good day it's 35 mins driving, or 60 mins on the Hwy-17 bus (which has free wifi), versus 60-90 min driving to get to San Jose from Oakland or SF. And there's beach.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#167

Post by [deleted] »

tlrobinson wrote: post #42
tptacek wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stay in the (miniscule) center of the city, yes. As soon as you take a job outside the city (say, in San Mateo), drop "easily" from the description. It's always doable, in any US city, to live without a car. But it's not always comfortable. SFBay is not comfortable without a car.

If you live and work near Caltrain or BART stations it's very easy to live in the city and work in the valley or east bay, or vice versa (though if you live outside the city you'll want a car). Or if you're fortunate enough to work somewhere that has a shuttle that's another option. Many of the big tech companies do now, thanks to Google's lead. Off the top of my head: Google, Facebook, Apple, Genentech (I actually k…

[deleted]

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#168

Post by _delirium »

rdouble wrote: post #46
tptacek wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stay in the (miniscule) center of the city, yes. As soon as you take a job outside the city (say, in San Mateo), drop "easily" from the description. It's always doable, in any US city, to live without a car. But it's not always comfortable. SFBay is not comfortable without a car.

San Mateo is not a great example. It's one of the easiest suburbs to get to without a car.

I actually know someone who moved to San Mateo from SF because it was easier to commute to his job in San Francisco from it. Muni sucks compared to BART, so moving Sunset->San Mateo was a commute upgrade (he works in the financial district). Even much of the East Bay is closer to downtown SF in commute-minutes than western SF is.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#169

Post by bfields »

seltzered wrote: post #139
tptacek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent semi-serious time in Portland and have to say that it really seems to live up to the hype. I really like Portland.

Just have to ask: did you spend it in portland, or in a nearby suburb? I spent a week there just to see if I liked the city, couldn't get over the lack of diversity (felt like a lone brownie in strawberry-shortcake city), high income taxes, and seeming lack of a tech scene (unless you're in the burbs). It's a beautifully laid out area though.

> high income taxes

Must have been an exciting week. (Anyway, you'd need to compare the whole tax burden, since there's no sales tax.)

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#170

Post by rmk »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #135
rmk wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently visited the college town where I studied with my wife, and I am considering moving there, because the bay area has become practically unaffordable. I know that the weather is really something to die for, but the financial situation of the state is dire -- that makes for a very bad long-term outlook. Portland appears to be a very nice place, strikes the right balance between sprawl and compactness. If only…

What college town is that? I'm considering moving to SF next year and tidbits like that could be quite valuable.

State College, PA.
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