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Move to SF and hate it?

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Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#81

Post by mattmiller »

johnrob wrote: post #32
tptacek wrote: post #14

Spent several years in San Francisco. Hated it. Moved back to the midwest (Ann Arbor, then back home to Chicago). What don't I like about SFBay? With the caveat that it's been almost 10 years since I lived there, let me make you a list: * It's expensive. What that means is, you have fewer options on where to live, and the options aren't as nice. * Apart from tacos, the casual food options are much worse. Concrete exa…

The biggest problem with SF is that it's in the state of California. A lot of your disappointment resides in that fatal flaw... folks who come from within the state have much lower expectations and higher opinions ;)

SF is the embodiment of what you don't like about CA. In southern CA (read San Diego) politics are a lot more centered.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#82

Post by smallegan »

Anyone have any input on LA? I see lots of people comparing New York, Chicago, etc.. I visited LA last year and I've been to SF a few times...although I have never lived in LA it certainly seemed like a place I would prefer to live over SF.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#83

Post by tptacek »

evgen wrote: post #79
tptacek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Evanston for a couple years and NWU never felt like a "campus" to me; more of a college-y suburb. I actually went to UIC, and went to St. Ignatius for high school, just blocks away from UIC campus. I can't imagine going there for fun. The University of Chicago campus is a destination campus. It's actually pretty amazing. It has every bit as much character as Stanford; you could totally go there just to han…

Strange, as I seem to find that the UCB and Stanford campuses are about as radically different as NWU and UofC. Stanford and Northwestern both have a similar insulated feel -- they existed before the suburban growth that surrounds them and as a student you can go weeks at a time without leaving the campus. UofC and Berkeley are both in the middle of an urban zone that existed before the school and have had to fight f…

It's weird, because I'd say the opposite; UofC feels more like Stanford to me, UCB feels more like NWU.

Hyde Park is part of Chicago, but it's an isolated part; it barely has train connectivity (unlike NWU), and it's walled off from the Loop by housing and light industry that is only now started to be gentrified away.

(I grew up on the south side, lived in Evanston, and had friends in Hyde Park in high school, but I didn't actually go to UofC).

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#84

Post by MC27 »

whakojacko wrote: post #19
MC27 wrote: post #4

What about people who moved from European countries, did you enjoy it? Just something I have considered, but wasn't sure. Like how does the infrastructure compare, such as public transport?

Public transit in SF is pathetic for how small and dense the city is. Fortunately its fairly bikeable... You pretty much have to own a car in the Valley

When reading about a city on Wikipedia etc, I can never tell how frequent public transport is, and whether it's good outside tourist areas. So thanks whackojacko and _corbett for your views.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#85

Post by aubreyz »

I've lived all over the spectrum of "Jesus is my Lord and Savior" to "Venison is the best meat to use for chili." (Guam, Alaska, Florida, DC, and Oregon.) I've lived in the Bay Area since February of this year and nothing beats it for me.

My like list:

The weather. I guess this comes from experiencing temperatures as low as -11 and as high as 102, but my fantasy of finding consistent jacket weather has finally been realized. I actually hate it when the temperature (rarely) climbs above 80.

The outdoors. There's such a glut of hiking/camping opportunities even without bringing Yosemite or Sequoia into it. I can be at the beach with a basket of fish and chips in about half an hour. Mountains (or at least hills) are a constant. Flowers seem to be in perpetual bloom.

The food/farmer's markets. Can't say I'm part of the rampant burrito culture, but I do love the variety of food in SF. I only wish that there could be as much art/culture as there are designer cocktails.

The size. For a big city, San Francisco is incredibly small. I like that I can walk from my favorite fried chicken place in SOMA to my favorite ice cream place in the Mission in a matter of about 40 minutes. Luckily, there are plenty of pockets outside of the parking nightmares and pay-by-the-pound rent to seek refuge (in my case, San Mateo).

Sure, the traffic will make you wish you had a rocket launcher on the roof of your car. And parking is at least a two person job - one to circle the block while the other runs in for the donuts/pizza. It is especially dirty in some places and there are lots of homeless folks but compared to other big cities (NYC and LA, chiefly), I can't really have an issue because there's so much more good than bad.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#86

Post by seldo »

tptacek wrote: post #14

Spent several years in San Francisco. Hated it. Moved back to the midwest (Ann Arbor, then back home to Chicago). What don't I like about SFBay? With the caveat that it's been almost 10 years since I lived there, let me make you a list: * It's expensive. What that means is, you have fewer options on where to live, and the options aren't as nice. * Apart from tacos, the casual food options are much worse. Concrete exa…

Wow. I guess it's all about what you're used to. I've only ever lived in London (and Trinidad), and my experience was mostly opposite. Remember, this is all relative to London:

* SF is super, super cheap. My apartment was the same size for half the price and in a much better area.

* Food is so plentiful and cheap, it is EVERYWHERE. The portion of my budget devoted to food fell by 75%, even though I eat out all the time. The range of cuisines and the quality compares well, too, even though London is 10x the size.

* I don't go out to gigs much, so no claims here.

* Cabs are about 20% of the price, and you can summon them with an iPhone app. Amazing.

* Parking: I've never driven in either city.

* Size: no question that people who live down-peninsula might as well be in another country. See: public transit.

* Commute: this does indeed suck. My solution was to quit and get a job in the city itself.

* Dirty: no question, it's dirty. And very poorly governed in a number of ways. London has much more adult supervision.

* Public transit: hoo-boy is it terrible. Ameliorated somewhat by cabs being cheap. But if you want to get down-peninsula caltrain is ridiculous for somebody used to London-style commuter rail.

* Haight: ...then don't live in the Haight? Every city has bad areas.

* Tourist traps: similarly, every city has these. In San Francisco they are usefully separate from the areas I actually like to visit, so I can ignore them, while Leicester Square/Oxford Circus are both working districts AND tourist traps.

* Neighbourhoods: London is a dense core with hundreds of miles of pointless, characterless suburbs in zones 3 through 5. San Francisco has distinct, self-sufficient neighbourhoods with totally different characters. This was one of the biggest differences I found when I moved. As for block parties... well, we had one two weeks ago, but I don't really see the point of them anyway. I don't hang out with people primarily based on their geographical proximity to me.

* Seasons: it's always spring! I grew up in the tropics, so I always hated winter, and San Francisco doesn't have one, so that's fine with me.

* Tech: the city is full of nerds. But there's also an incredibly vibrant and mostly unpretentious tech-arts scene, which I love.

Finally, as one of The Gays, there's no city more inclusive and open-minded of everyone -- sometimes hilariously so.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#87

Post by defen »

tptacek wrote: post #16
mayank wrote: post #9

I lived there this summer and fell in love with SF, aside from the whole Silicon Valley thing. It's definitely for a certain type of person: you'll find incredible diversity and openness in the people. A couple of small things I noticed that really pleased me: (1) interracial couples are incredibly common, more so than any other city I've visited or lived in anywhere in the world, (2) people are genuinely open and fr…

What's the incredible high-end dining you're referring near the Embarcadero?

It's no French Laundry, but Slanted Door in the Ferry Building is delicious, if overpriced, and has some of the best cocktails/bartenders in the city.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#88

Post by rmk »

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,…

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 it had better weather....

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#89

Post by _corbett »

percept wrote: post #72
_corbett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I'm originally American but have been living in Zurich for the past 2 years (I also previously lived in Denmark for 1 year and Norway for 3 months). I moved to SF just for the summer to launch my startup. SF is great for many reasons, but it nowhere near compares to the infrastructure and quality of life I got in Switzerland, Norway and Denmark. That said, relative to the US SF is one of the few cities where it i…

Anything more you can share about Zurich? I know it ranked in the top three with Geneva in the last Mercer survey . . .

Sure-advantages include a great mixture of being near to much of Europe, a short train ride from the alps (I do lots of hiking in the summer, skiing in the winter), very high salaries, no poverty, great universities, intense work ethic, etc. I don't by any means need a car, and if I did there's Mobility (the Swiss analog to Zipcar).

Disadvantages include having an older population, being small compared to New York, having less of a startup culture than SF, being very expensive, having many hurdles to get a residency permit for an American, and various innocuous cultural differences that simply take getting used to.

That said, I love it there and am heading back.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#90

Post by unohoo »

wtracy wrote: post #66
unohoo wrote: post #36

i moved here 6 months back. live in south bay (sunnyvale) and commute to the city for work. For starters, the weather in the city simply sucks. Its cold, windy and foggy most of the times - on the contrary, south bay remains clear, sunny and quite warm. Even bigger gripe against bay area is the cost of living. Everything from housing to everday stuff to gas is insanely expensive. Paying 1600$ + for a crappy apartment…

Hmm, I pay just under $1500/month for my apartment in San Jose, I have my own washer/dryer, and I can walk to work. As mentioned above, though, the neighborhood is dull and depressing. Still, you might want to look around for another place to live.

i have a 2 bed/2 bath close to caltrain station. depending on where you live in san jose, the rent could be cheaper than sunnyvale.
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