View of San Francisco from a New Yorker's eyes (Oakland: transplants, credit card)

[garfieldlover]

I was born and raised in New York and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the city as discussed by the users here. I am not ranting, I cam going to simply give my opinions on the city from a fresh perspective as a New Yorker. I will put this in bullet points and there is no rhyme or reason to the structure.

1. There is no diversity here. Gays, whites, and Chinese with a sprinkle of Hispanics and Blacks in the outer areas is not diversity IMHO.

2. People are soft here. There is no sense of "toughness" and "strength" as I look into people's eyes in a BART train. I don't see a fiery communal passion as New Yorkers have. It seems everyone is a displant from somewhere else and I don't see or feel a sense of pride other than Asian pride, Tech pride and Gay pride (no knock on them, I participate in them myself)

3. Oakland police have to be the most corrupt I've ever seen. I live in San leandro and Oakland police seem like they could care less. You have prostitutes on International Blvd doing whatever they want and I've seen police just cruise by. In New York, police take action, and you don't see such negligence in even the worst parts of the city.

4. I like the tech scene here, its fine.

5. The BART pay by distance fees are terrible. The BART is a more disgusting train I've ever seen.

6. SF rents are OK compared to the overpriced NY rents.

7. There is no "heart" here other than Asian pride, tech pride, and gay pride. Where the hell are the Trinidad restaurants? Puerto Rican barber shops? West African cuisine? This is not an international city, it is a domestic US city with domestic US values.

Discuss

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by garfieldlover

I was born and raised in New York and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the city as discussed by the users here. I am not ranting, I cam going to simply give my opinions on the city from a fresh perspective as a New Yorker. I will put this in bullet points and there is no rhyme or reason to the structure.

1. There is no diversity here. Gays, whites, and Chinese with a sprinkle of Hispanics and Blacks in the outer areas is not diversity IMHO.

2. People are soft here. There is no sense of "toughness" and "strength" as I look into people's eyes in a BART train. I don't see a fiery communal passion as New Yorkers have. It seems everyone is a displant from somewhere else and I don't see or feel a sense of pride other than Asian pride, Tech pride and Gay pride (no knock on them, I participate in them myself)

3. Oakland police have to be the most corrupt I've ever seen. I live in San leandro and Oakland police seem like they could care less. You have prostitutes on International Blvd doing whatever they want and I've seen police just cruise by. In New York, police take action, and you don't see such negligence in even the worst parts of the city.

4. I like the tech scene here, its fine.

5. The BART pay by distance fees are terrible. The BART is a more disgusting train I've ever seen.

6. SF rents are OK compared to the overpriced NY rents.

7. There is no "heart" here other than Asian pride, tech pride, and gay pride. Where the hell are the Trinidad restaurants? Puerto Rican barber shops? West African cuisine? This is not an international city, it is a domestic US city with domestic US values.

Discuss

Then go back to New York and stop complaining about SF not being exactly like New York.

1) Your assessment of diversity in the Bay Area is false. Hispanics are easily one of the most predominant groups in the Bay Area... you literally cannot go anywhere in the Bay barring most of Marin County and the outer east bay without seeing a significant hispanic population. Blacks are definitely not as prevalent as the other groups, but we're not non-existent either.

And what "unparalleled diversity" is prevalent in NYC? Most of Manhattan is exactly as you just falsely described the Bay Area... "gays, whites, chinese with a sprinkle of blacks and hispanics in the outer areas". Brooklyn and Queens are diverse, but what makes them bastions of "real diversity" when they're the outer areas in NYC?

2) You don't know the Bay Area too well then.

3) Corrupt, yes. Most corrupt? There's plenty of stiff competition to be had across the country. Our PD is far from exemplary though.

7) You haven't been Oakland much if you think there's no West African cuisine to be found.

[ambient]

I was going to start a thread entitled, "View of San Francisco from the eyes of someone who was born in Europe but grew up in the Midwest."

But then I discovered that no one gives a ****.

[migol84]

Originally Posted by garfieldlover

2. People are soft here. There is no sense of "toughness" and "strength" as I look into people's eyes in a BART train. I don't see a fiery communal passion as New Yorkers have. It seems everyone is a displant from somewhere else and I don't see or feel a sense of pride other than Asian pride, Tech pride and Gay pride (no knock on them, I participate in them myself)

Why, or how the hell is "toughness" even an issue? Coming from Texas, this whole "toughness" thing is laughable when people from New York try to give us this "toughness" pep talk. I've talked down to quite a few New Yorkers myself... and guess what, they were all offended, so I doubt those guys were "tough". Why can't you just judge people by how normal they are, or how mellow they are, or how cool and genuine they are, as rational and peaceful individuals? But toughness??? Really?!?

I personally get annoyed when NYers try to give me this "passion" you speak about. There's this one guy from New York... he's a total new yorker, mind you. accent and all. The dude only says hi when he wants to. I imagine if this is how people from New York are, they suck! I kid you not, man. This guy never talks or says hi... he's stiff like a mummy. Yeah, he's got that "passion". But when he's in a good mood and he says hi, and I give him this "passion" of my own (in other words, I ignore him as he does so many times), he gets soooooo offended! haha

But nevermind that... it's just the way you phrase it... "as I look into people's eyes in a BART train... there is no passion." hahahaha So dramatic! That sounds like a line off of a soap opera. get real dude. most people riding the bart have other worries of their own. and trying to impress you with passion is the last thing! haha so funny!

and not to mention that if even you yourself admit they are "displants from somewhere else" why would you even criticize san francisco for it? a lot of people in new york are also "displants", or you mean transplants, duh!

I personally am a transplant... but I'm a mean mother.... as the saying goes, "f* y'all, I'm from Texas." and no i don't care about anyone's pride or passion, toughness, or lack thereof... i just care about me, me, me....

[18Montclair]

can't please everyone....idgaf.

[mayorhaggar]

Damn, if only people in the Bay Area were all hairy guido douchebags like people in NYC.

[rkwalton]

In a couple of weeks I'm heading back to NYC for a few days. There are tons of flights that will take you right back to NYC and Silicon Alley.

Ciao.

Originally Posted by ambient

I was going to start a thread entitled, "View of San Francisco from the eyes of someone who was born in Europe but grew up in the Midwest."

But then I discovered that no one gives a ****.

Thank you.

[dmode]

Clearly you are clueless.

I also liked how you said that we have no diversity here, except for whites, gays, Chinese, Hispanics and blacks [btw, in your eyes all Asians may look same, but the Bay Area has a huge variety of Asians than just Chinese].

Also, I seriously doubt you live here when you failed to mention INDIANS - easily one of the biggest demographics here. Oh, and Hispanics are not sprinkled here and there - they constitute at least 30% of the Bay Area population.

Every time NYer says they are "tough", I laugh a little. My wife grew up in New Delhi and we go there every year. Inevitably, we meet a few people from NYC - scared **** of going into the road by themselves.

[clongirl]

I won't bother with all the other silly assessments since it's one man's opinion.... but, FYI...we don't really have Puerto Rican or Trinidad food because we're on the OTHER coast. We have Mexican, Honduran, El Salvadorean, Filipino, all variants of Asian, Burmese, Russian, Indian, Pakistani, Pacific Islanders/Samoans/Guamanians etc.

I recently went on a little stopover in NYC with my kids and experienced the most rude and inconsiderate people on the train. Train was not full...every single a-hole sat on the outside seat and put their bags/backpacks on the other free seat so my children, husband and I had to split up and/or stand since nobody would allow us to sit down. Tough? You might want to use another adjective to describe what I experienced.

As obvious tourists with little kids in tow we also tried to figure out the subway system...needed to purchase a bunch of tickets.. Stupid machine wouldn't allow us to buy 6 tickets on the same credit card at once so my husband held up the queue. Again, not one person offered to help show/tell my husband that nobody buys tix for kids and usually just push kids under the turnstile. Hardly seems like something to be proud of. As a native San Franciscan I can't imagine behaving like that towards someone visiting my City and needing a little extra help.

This all happened in the same day. I can't imagine what it would have been like had we stayed longer.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by garfieldlover

I was born and raised in New York and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the city as discussed by the users here. I am not ranting, I cam going to simply give my opinions on the city from a fresh perspective as a New Yorker. I will put this in bullet points and there is no rhyme or reason to the structure.

1. There is no diversity here. Gays, whites, and Chinese with a sprinkle of Hispanics and Blacks in the outer areas is not diversity IMHO.

2. People are soft here. There is no sense of "toughness" and "strength" as I look into people's eyes in a BART train. I don't see a fiery communal passion as New Yorkers have. It seems everyone is a displant from somewhere else and I don't see or feel a sense of pride other than Asian pride, Tech pride and Gay pride (no knock on them, I participate in them myself)

3. Oakland police have to be the most corrupt I've ever seen. I live in San leandro and Oakland police seem like they could care less. You have prostitutes on International Blvd doing whatever they want and I've seen police just cruise by. In New York, police take action, and you don't see such negligence in even the worst parts of the city.

4. I like the tech scene here, its fine.

5. The BART pay by distance fees are terrible. The BART is a more disgusting train I've ever seen.

6. SF rents are OK compared to the overpriced NY rents.

7. There is no "heart" here other than Asian pride, tech pride, and gay pride. Where the hell are the Trinidad restaurants? Puerto Rican barber shops? West African cuisine? This is not an international city, it is a domestic US city with domestic US values.

Discuss

Go back to New York! This is San Francisco buddy...