San Francisco vs San Jose

[511pf]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Have you not encountered places like Willow Glen, Rosegarden, or Naglee Park, to name a few? We have our swanky San Mateo-esque areas, too. Caltrain goes betwwen the two cities as well.

Those are all very nice residential areas. I live in one of them, and it's a wonderfully nice neighborhood, but even Downtown San Mateo is at least 3 times as large as the largest walkable area (Willow Glen) of those three.

[miss415]

Size wise, SJ is huge! SF is only 49 sq miles and really easy to get around town. Sf better for young singles and stop worrying about earthquakes! This city (SF) has such strict building codes and after the quake in '89, anything that collapsed has been re-built up to code and the rest of the buildings have been retrofitted.

[tstieber]

One of the annoying things about SF life is the cost and scarcity of parking, the hoardes of people trying to run the same errand as you, and the ensuing lines of people at stores. Day to day life is not convenient or easy like it is in a suburban strip mall. But then, you have museums, restaurants, scenery, architecture, and bustle in a big city. They are truly worlds apart. You might as well compare Manhattan and Phoenix. On a less extreme scale, it's kind of like that.

[04kL4nD]

Nah, that's about right.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

RE: Earthquakes - On average the substrate in SJ is worse than in SF. Hundreds of feet of partially or uncompacted alluvium characterizes the floor of the Santa Clara Valley, versus as noted above, mostly shallow bedrock in SF (or stabilized partially lithified sand dunes in the Outer Lands). Also, parts of North SJ are outright landfill - huge liquifaction risk. Oh, and the other thing, SJ is close to the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras faults whereas SF is merely close the the San Andreas, moderate distance from the Hayward and Calaveras.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by gone down south

If there's a really big one, the bridges will probably go out and everyone will have to evacuate via San Jose (ie 101 and 280).

But check out the odds above, and remember those are over the next 30 years Compare that to the GUARANTEE that the southeast will have a half dozen hurricanes make landfall every single year, the ice storms and blizzards in the northeast that take power out every winter, etc etc etc. Bad stuff happens everywhere all the time.

Evacuation? Very unlikely. In fact freedom of movement may be restricted by martial law. Everyone better be ready to dig in at home. For days - weeks.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Evacuation? Very unlikely. In fact freedom of movement may be restricted by martial law. Everyone better be ready to dig in at home. For days - weeks.

The dawn of the Zombie Apocalypse.

A handy dandy earthquake pack with all the necessary survival goodies is available from the Red Cross. Very convenient. Maybe not for zombies, but definitely for big quakes.

[kguru]

Evacuation is needed for low lying areas right after an earthquake (like couple of blocks of the Outer Sunset nearest the ocean). The evacuation would be to go up in elevation and wait at a community building like a school or library for it to pass. There would probably be some fires after an earthquake which may force some people to have to be relocated. Probably there would be some temporary tent cities setup and some buildings turned into temporary shelters (most likely some schools). A New Orleans Hurricane Katrina scenario is unlikely after a hurricane. Having some supplies is helpful for the aftermath, and probably if anything plan on not traveling much after an earthquake since roads and bridges may be damaged.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by kguru

Evacuation is needed for low lying areas right after an earthquake (like couple of blocks of the Outer Sunset nearest the ocean). The evacuation would be to go up in elevation and wait at a community building like a school or library for it to pass.

That is highly inaccurate.

The faults here in this part of CA are horizontal / strike slip and do not displace the sea floor in the vertical dimension. They don't cause a Tsunami. This is not Chile / Central America / the PNW / Alaska.

Now, if there is a mega thrust quake up on the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the PNW, or on the Aleutian Trench, then yes, evacuations for Tsunami are a strong possibility.