Already tired of San Francisco (Oakland, Berkeley: unemployed, to buy, gated)

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by quixotic59

BTW, have yet to see one mosquito in California.

I'll save some for you. They make great appetizers.

[BayDude]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

Charlotte must have a lot of sexy Southern babes though, the talent in SF has been pretty lacking so far

You've probably never been to Union Square (on a weekend) I take it?

SF has its fair share of decently attractive women. Besides, southerners are mostly fat.

SFers are mostly thin. I'll give them that. Same goes for Oakland.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by rkwalton

Different climate down there.

Got them here in Oakland -- I have a little pond in my backyard and the skeeters just LUV it..... I get free mosquito eaters every year from the Mosquito Abatement people.

[quixotic59]

Originally Posted by DMenscha

I'll save some for you. They make great appetizers.

Thanks anyway but I travel 3,000 miles every summer to get away from the little pests. Refuse to vacation on the East Coast anymore for two reasons:

1) Humidity

2) Mosquitoes


I think if I found them in California I would start vacationing in northern Canada!!!!!

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by quixotic59

Thanks anyway but I travel 3,000 miles every summer to get away from the little pests. Refuse to vacation on the East Coast anymore for two reasons:

1) Humidity

2) Mosquitoes


I think if I found them in California I would start vacationing in northern Canada!!!!!

Yes they are out here but not at all in the numbers you find them east of the Rockies. SF and Oakland being relatively cool have few by comparison but this doesn't mean they're non existent.

[Frankly FJ]

What the N or S Carolina? Aren't there some tech companies out that way?

I lived in SF for many years...loved it! But I lived outside of SF (Lafayette and Martinez) for about fifteen years before I lived there. It was really hard to adjust to cold summers in SF due to my mindset. When I first moved to SF, I really missed those hot, dry summers across the bridge, but I learned to manage my life around the weather. Go to events twenty minutes in any direction during the summer and you can have a great time! Now that I live in Mt. Shasta those summers seem very mild...and I am still managing my life around the weather.

[Frankly FJ]

Originally Posted by andyadhi01

SF bay area is a good place to visit but a pretty bad place to live. If you don't have a good job here there is absolutely no reason to put up with the miserable living environment here. No amount of scenery can make up for the insane cost of housing, poor infrastructure/traffic, ugly housing, high crime and on and on.

I didn't enjoy the driving either, but when you walk around SF early in the morning on a Sunday, it is peaceful and lovely. The only people out and about are the locals...all the bridge people go home and the tourist are still sleeping. Of course, the bums may sleeping, but I didn't live near them...lol. I think it must have been a very beautiful place in the 50s, early 60s. I loved living there, but I can relate to your observations.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by Frankly FJ

I loved living there, but I can relate to your observations.

Beware. Like some others who live in SF, he lives in the fog, complains about the fog, continues living in the fog, continues complaining about the fog, continues living in the fog, continues complaining in the fog,...yet does not leave the fog. Thus chronically depressed, and we get to hear the fallout.

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

It is pretty good when it's not raining. I love it when the temp is between 40-60,.

Jan avg hi: 57
Jan avg lo: 42

Sounds like January is your perfect running month! I prefer 55-75 myself.

[tstieber]

Those are reasonable assessments of the good and bad people here, but you'll find that moving away just swaps one set of pros and cons for another. Plenty of aloof, stupid, annoying, douchey people in SD and OC, along with great ones. The tricks is always to find the people you like in a sea of lame-asses, in any city really.

Originally Posted by EclecticEars

The Bay Area absolutely proves, more than any place I've lived, that the people are truly the very best and very worst attribute of a place to live. Personal examples from my 7.5 months here:

GOOD: The Hispanic migrant worker who loves striking up a chat with everybody on the train; he doesn't care! Me being approachable and not standoffish, allowing people to ask me for directions at the train station (it happens often). My landlord is a very nice lady, very generous. Old-school Bay Area natives can be pretty nice and approachable. The diversity of transplants from throughout the U.S. and world can make for some truly interesting people to cross paths with. Awesome people at professional networking functions in SF. Meeting friendly, drunk, random people at Oktoberfest. The uber-helpful guy at In-N-Out that not only got my order precisely right (and I'm seldom picky, but was this time), he and I exchanged our knowledge of the history of the company.

BAD: The rude, grouchy attitudes on a daily basis on Caltrain and BART. The a-hole that put his empty Starbucks cup on the table I was sitting at. The idiots that blow their horns at me immediately after the stop light turns green. The demanding gold digger-looking woman at the post office. Condescending twits at professional networking functions in SF. Last but certainly not least, pretentious c*nts that would only be 4s or 5s in looks in Lexington or Nashville who wear oversized sunglasses and talk extremely loudly into their cell phones; I rank them right up there with rapists and Occupy anarchists as people I despise most in society.

Even with the intensity of the negative experiences, plus having my first firm be horrible in employee treatment and a PITA boss at my current job, I've considered living in the Bay to be a valuable learning experience. However, IMO, it's best for people that just don't have much personality or, if you're like I want to me, are well-educated, -skilled, can consult and work on their own time, and can hike and enjoy the attractions of NorCal on their own time. If I were in the latter category plus with a great wife with whom I could enjoy it, I'd say the Bay would be a 5-star experience for me. However, if all goes as planned, it looks like I'll be transferring to Orange County or San Diego in September (also for graduate school) and, to be honest, I can't wait!