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San Fran is a great place. i was dead set on moving there earlier this year. Then reality set in with the COL and everything. Its just too far fro my wife who is a native Virginian. I am from Boston and would move to Frisco in a heartbeat. I just wish I lived a few hours away for the research end of a big move. The weather prob makes some people depressed.
I'm totally depressed. I have 2 jobs right now and working on getting a third with all that and the gym I don't have much time for a social life, not that I could really afford anything around here anyway. The weather is completely disgusting, I'm always freezing (yes, I know I say that in every post). My "good neighborhood" is rapidly becoming a dump and I think the people are generally elitist and obnoxious out here. I'm just getting the third job so I can save more money to get the heck outta here!
Just out of curiousity..Where are you looking to go to?
Some people may be happier in a 300 sq foot space because they're cool with that vs. someone existing in a million dollar mansion with no love and empty, cold rooms. You know what I mean?
It's all relative to what you want to experience in life.
Depression runs deeper than high cost of living and working 2-3 jobs.
I worked 3 part-time jobs in college with a full class load and zero loans and zero silver spoon. I wasn't depressed...had goals, was motivated and ambitious. I finally got the silver spoon, but it wasn't all that. I had more fun in college working 3 jobs!
Maybe the next Warren Buffet is living in that 300 sq foot studio, happy as hell to be in San Francisco and loving life, appreciating what s/he has.
Maybe the well dressed person driving around in that jag in Pac Heights with a smile is just driving around in circles, miserable and bored out of his or her mind, lacking vitality and enthusiasm. That person could be the depressed one.
I think there's a weird dichotomy going on in big cities, you hit the nail on the head with the 300 sq foot studio vs the depressed person driving around.
Seems like la, nyc, sf.
You either have the person working 2, 3 jobs just making it. Or the more comfortable person in the mercedes, bmw, lexus. Comfortable, but at the polar opposite of the appreciative 300 sf person. Bored out of their minds, driving in circles. Lack of focus. Lost in self help.
I've met people here in la, sad, 30's, mid 30's....smart and capable, but they live in a blur, unable to put one step ahead of the next. Unable to build anything, lost in media, and jargon. Or they work for their parents company, but don't really do anything.
Vs the hungry 22 year old that just got their first apartment. It's definitely a state of mind. Not everyone in their lexus is thrilled. And not everyone on their last dime is depressed.
I'm curious about those that talk about how depressing the weather is. Looking at average temperatures, it's usually in the 60s. That's not freezing at all. It's only early December and its under 20 degrees over here with about a foot of snow on the ground. Then July and August hit and its humid and in the 90s. It sucks.
I'm curious about those that talk about how depressing the weather is. Looking at average temperatures, it's usually in the 60s. That's not freezing at all. It's only early December and its under 20 degrees over here with about a foot of snow on the ground. Then July and August hit and its humid and in the 90s. It sucks.
If you read my post you will see that I find San Franciscans to be very happy people, but I do understand why the weather can be depressing. I even got annoyed with the weather at times, especially when I am sick or during the summer.
The average temperature is yes in the 60's. However, 60's in San Francisco really feels much colder than in other cities because of the FREEZING Pacific Ocean wind gusts that sweep through the city. The thing that annoyed me was okay, winter is meant to be cold, fog....well it's better than rain okay no problem....then summer comes and it's STILL COLD and STILL foggy. Every city around you is enjoying full sun almost everyday, while San Francisco has a cold patch of fog that strangles the city. It's almost comical, I used to drive to Stinson Beach or San Jose often to enjoy some warm weather, I'd have my top down in the car and as we get closer to San Francisco, the cold air just hits you all of a sudden and you can see the wall of fog. That's why some people find the weather depressing, it doesn't help that everywhere around you is beautiful weather and you ask yourself..."why me" lol. With that being said, you can drive 30 minutes any direction and enjoy the sun.
If you read my post you will see that I find San Franciscans to be very happy people, but I do understand why the weather can be depressing. I even got annoyed with the weather at times, especially when I am sick or during the summer.
The average temperature is yes in the 60's. However, 60's in San Francisco really feels much colder than in other cities because of the FREEZING Pacific Ocean wind gusts that sweep through the city. The thing that annoyed me was okay, winter is meant to be cold, fog....well it's better than rain okay no problem....then summer comes and it's STILL COLD and STILL foggy. Every city around you is enjoying full sun almost everyday, while San Francisco has a cold patch of fog that strangles the city. It's almost comical, I used to drive to Stinson Beach or San Jose often to enjoy some warm weather, I'd have my top down in the car and as we get closer to San Francisco, the cold air just hits you all of a sudden and you can see the wall of fog. That's why some people find the weather depressing, it doesn't help that everywhere around you is beautiful weather and you ask yourself..."why me" lol. With that being said, you can drive 30 minutes any direction and enjoy the sun.
I'd say even less than 30 minutes if you live near a freeway. It might only take 10 minutes to escape the fog/cold. San Mateo/Burlingame/Foster City IMO have the best weather on the Peninsula; when its 105 in Concord & elsewhere it'll be a nice 85-90 in San Mateo often w/ a mix of fresh air from either the Bay or from over the hills. I might be exaggerating a bit on the exact degree in temp, but I love the weather there when it gets too hot everywhere else. And if its too, too hot, you can always run back up to Daly City to cool off!
I think some people out here are might be depressed. Maybe its just the energy that the city has at the time. People need to start being thankful for things in life. Seriously.
I'm curious about those that talk about how depressing the weather is. Looking at average temperatures, it's usually in the 60s. That's not freezing at all. It's only early December and its under 20 degrees over here with about a foot of snow on the ground. Then July and August hit and its humid and in the 90s. It sucks.
I live in South San Francisco, in the middle of that town near El Camino Real. We have this curious little microclimate; the first time I drove north on 280 to see the apartment in March 07, starting around the Black Mountain Road exit in Hillsborough there was this ominous layer of dark, low, low clouds. I had to turn my headlights on. That would become a common theme once I moved in - there would be clear days, but most of the time, it would be grey and dark. This also made it particularly annoying whenever I had to drive to San Jose, because the sunlight would just SMACK me all at once and I'd feel like Dracula, hissing into my sun visor, "I don't remember the sun being THIS bright!"
You want to talk about depressing. I moved to SF from Boston in '82 when I was 20. I left in '03 when I was 41.
When I got here I joined a band and lived in the Upper Haight in a huge flat for $200 a month. I didn't have to get a job until I was almost thirty.
When I was in my late thirties, I decided to become a heroin addict. It was exciting and since I don't share, I never got any diseases.
Long story short.
I decided to clean up and move back to the Boston area. Figured no one deserves a whole lot more than twenty years of the good life,right?
Growing up in New England will do that to you.
Well, I'll tell ya'.
I was healthier, happier, richer, younger, and better looking as a junkie in SF than I am as a clean and sober, responsible adult in Massachusetts.
The weather sucks. The people are retarded. The weather sucks. The people all have some weird speech impediment that makes them all sound like Elmer Fudd.
The racism is astounding for a place that's 99 percent inbred white people. There are about 12 Brazilians in the entire state and they are somehow responsible for ruining the entire economy of New England?
Music doesn't even sound as good here.
The food is poison.
Sushi comes in a can.
Where do I stop.
Someone shoot me.
Be grateful that you're in SF!
Like I said.
It's better to be a junkie in SF(as long as you have a good job, a nice apartment on Twin Peaks and a decent, late-model Volvo Turb-wagon, than it is to even attempt to be a responsible member of society in New England.
SF isn't for everyone. Its also really expensive. The people who don't really love the lifestyle move elsewhere. The net result is that of the people who are left, they really do like the place.
So to answer your question, do I think people in SF are more depressed than others elsewhere? No. But the fact that you have some trepidation about the matter suggests to me, you might be in the category of people who would prefer to live elsewhere than SF.
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