Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The idea that San Diego is a blue-collar city that is lacking in educated professionals is just absurd. Perhaps you're hanging out in wrong areas. San Diego is a big IT/biotech/defense hub and it employs hundreds of thousands of professionals.
Of course, you'd have a hard time meeting many of those, because they don't live their lives in public and don't hang out in bars till 2 AM.
And most people in any city or area would be "blue collar" like you say. Even in San Jose metro, fewer than 20% of all adult residents have postgraduate degrees.
The fact is that SFBA is highly family-unfriendly (unless it's a double-engineer family with 300K combined family income) and it has large numbers of segregated minorities. White blue-collar workers have been squeezed out, educated professionals with families tend to avoid Bay Area, and minorities keep to themselves. So naturally you have a better chance finding what you want over there.
Exactly the reason why I don't think SD is for me. I don't have a family and I want to be in a place full of with singles in their 20s/30s who are educated. Also, to the person who mentioned living a rat race in order to keep up with the cost of living in SF, I think I can handle it given that I came from an even bigger rat race in DC. SF sounds like a happy medium, people actually care about careers (unlike SD) but don't work themselves to death (like DC).
And to the person who talked about the music scene in SF, the fact that there is a hip/hop scene is actually inviting to me. You can hardly find any african americans in SD. It's actually kind of sad. Coming from the east coast, I miss that kind of diversity. In SD, I've only seen the pretentious techno music scene and it's very annoying. All these people trying to be super cool and posh at clubs with VIP tables....gimmie a break, this isn't LA or NYC. The live music scene also sucks. I was hoping to find more hole in the wall music venues in SD with live artists who play covers or original music, sort of similar to the beach towns on the east coast....not so much. I've found a few decent covers but that's it. Definetely not the down to earth vibe I was expecting.
To the person who said to look at LA if looking for a more stereotypical CA, I don't necessarily equate surfering beach towns to CA. By stereotypical CA, I am looking for plenty of outdoor activities, liberalism and open-mindedness, good weather, diversity, people who are health conscientious, great farmers markets, outstanding national parks, etc.
To all the people who said SF has more illegal drug use than even SD, would I not fit in if I don't do any drugs and don't want to hang out with people who do? Can I find a circle of friends who actually care about their health and are not into frying their brains? I've been there, done that, and am over it. I don't mind having a few drinks or the bar scene, but there is so much more to life than that.
Last edited by summertime25; 11-20-2008 at 07:52 PM..
By stereotypical CA, I am looking for plenty of outdoor activities, liberalism and open-mindedness, good weather, diversity, people who are health conscientious, great farmers markets, outstanding national parks, etc.
To all the people who said SF has more illegal drug use than even SD, would I not fit in if I don't do any drugs and don't want to hang out with people who do? Can I find a circle of friends who actually care about their health and are not into frying their brains? I've been there, done that, and am over it. I don't mind having a few drinks or the bar scene, but there is so much more to life than that.
Well, you will find most of what you're looking for here. The thing that I find interesting is the insistance on the "health scene." You will find a lot of people into fitness, natural or vegan foods, yoga, etc... here. You will also find people who smoke like chimneys and drink like fish. As one poster said, lots of the latter. There are still many jobs in SF where drinking lunches are perfectly accepted. And people here love their wine. God how they do.
I guess I've always viewed it as a personal choice. If you're saying you're looking for a place that has more healthy living resources, SF might be it. I do see a lot of it here. (then again, I've never gone looking for anything like that in San Diego, so I wouldn't be able to compare). Now, if you are simply bothered by being around people who aren't into a health-oriented lifestyle, you may have a tough time wherever you move.
By stereotypical CA, I am looking for plenty of outdoor activities, liberalism and open-mindedness, good weather, diversity, people who are health conscientious, great farmers markets, outstanding national parks, etc.
To the person who said to look at LA if looking for a more stereotypical CA, I don't necessarily equate surfering beach towns to CA. By stereotypical CA, I am looking for plenty of outdoor activities, liberalism and open-mindedness, good weather, diversity, people who are health conscientious, great farmers markets, outstanding national parks, etc.
Honestly you seem pretty close minded yourself being so judgmental about a place that is obviously very different from DC but don't seem to realize it. Over 40% of San Diegan's have a college degree so I'm not sure how you can't find educated people unless you work some blue collar job. Myself and my friends are all mid 20's and college educated and don't have any trouble finding people like that.
Stereotypes are also gross generalizations and tend not to be true many times so maybe that's part of your problem there too. Honestly it just seems like you want some DC/East Coast 'light' type place with better weather.
Quote:
To all the people who said SF has more illegal drug use than even SD, would I not fit in if I don't do any drugs and don't want to hang out with people who do? Can I find a circle of friends who actually care about their health and are not into frying their brains? I've been there, done that, and am over it. I don't mind having a few drinks or the bar scene, but there is so much more to life than that.
Just b/c someone smokes weed doesn't mean they aren't living a relatively healthy lifestyle or is frying their brains out at all. This is just another example of how I think you can somewhat close minded about some things; being liberal doesn't automatically make someone "open minded" btw.
Yes, you should move to SF for the sake of both you and San Diego. At one time San Diego was an awesome place; in recent years it has become filled with new college grads or east coast liberals who move there because it has stereotypical west coast weather but it's "not LA" and then complain that it's "not as liberal/diverse/metropolitan/cosmopolitan as LA." These are the people that are rapidly turning San Diego into America's newest doucheopolis (and this is what you see in the Gaslamp every weekend), so I'm glad you have the sense to want to move out of San Diego which will save yourself and save San Diego.
As sav858 wrote, "Honestly it just seems like you want some DC/East Coast 'light' type place with better weather." And that would be San Francisco to a T.
That being said, my hunch is you'll eventually find yourself back on the east coast.
Exactly the reason why I don't think SD is for me. I don't have a family and I want to be in a place full of with singles in their 20s/30s who are educated. Also, to the person who mentioned living a rat race in order to keep up with the cost of living in SF, I think I can handle it given that I came from an even bigger rat race in DC. SF sounds like a happy medium, people actually care about careers (unlike SD) but don't work themselves to death (like DC).
And to the person who talked about the music scene in SF, the fact that there is a hip/hop scene is actually inviting to me. You can hardly find any african americans in SD. It's actually kind of sad. Coming from the east coast, I miss that kind of diversity. In SD, I've only seen the pretentious techno music scene and it's very annoying. All these people trying to be super cool and posh at clubs with VIP tables....gimmie a break, this isn't LA or NYC. The live music scene also sucks. I was hoping to find more hole in the wall music venues in SD with live artists who play covers or original music, sort of similar to the beach towns on the east coast....not so much. I've found a few decent covers but that's it. Definetely not the down to earth vibe I was expecting.
To the person who said to look at LA if looking for a more stereotypical CA, I don't necessarily equate surfering beach towns to CA. By stereotypical CA, I am looking for plenty of outdoor activities, liberalism and open-mindedness, good weather, diversity, people who are health conscientious, great farmers markets, outstanding national parks, etc.
To all the people who said SF has more illegal drug use than even SD, would I not fit in if I don't do any drugs and don't want to hang out with people who do? Can I find a circle of friends who actually care about their health and are not into frying their brains? I've been there, done that, and am over it. I don't mind having a few drinks or the bar scene, but there is so much more to life than that.
I've always lived in SF. I can tell you there's only a handful of world-class cites: NYC, London, Paris, Rome, and San Francisco. Being big means nothing: Tokyo, DC, San Diego, LA, Seattle, Boston, etc. They are big and maybe in some ways close but there aren't world-class for several reasons. I have been to San Diego. It's pretty. Nice weather. But it's not world class. How does it contribute to the world? How is it diverse? San Francisco? Now that's DIVERSE. Asian-Americans. African-Americans. Hispanic-Americans. Homosexuals. Everyone is represented here and everyone is so accepting. Konservatives are almost no where to be found; we don't accept their kind here. There is a strong love of the environment and healthy living here in SF. SF is highly liberal and educated. Look at how we have Berkeley and Stanford here. My only question is are you LIBERAL? Why do you care about drugs? Why do you care about "thugs"? It seems like maybe you are a bit konservative actually. If you are truly liberal, yes, come to one of the greatest cities on earth, San Francisco. If you are konservative or even moderate, you just don't fit here and I don't want your kind here either.
You say you have always lived in SF and that you hate conservatives. How old are you? If you lived anywhere in the Sunset more than 30 years ago, you would have hated all your neighbors! (Or was your post parody? If so, nice work!! heh heh).
Everyone is represented here and everyone is so accepting.
and you immediately contradict your own statement right away:
Quote:
Konservatives are almost no where to be found; we don't accept their kind here..... If you are konservative or even moderate, you just don't fit here and I don't want your kind here either.
I'm not sure what your point was in even bringing up this months old thread besides to just perpetuate another negative SF stereotype.
I've always lived in SF. I can tell you there's only a handful of world-class cites: NYC, London, Paris, Rome, and San Francisco. Being big means nothing: Tokyo, DC, San Diego, LA, Seattle, Boston, etc. They are big and maybe in some ways close but there aren't world-class for several reasons. I have been to San Diego. It's pretty. Nice weather. But it's not world class. How does it contribute to the world? How is it diverse? San Francisco? Now that's DIVERSE. Asian-Americans. African-Americans. Hispanic-Americans. Homosexuals. Everyone is represented here and everyone is so accepting. Konservatives are almost no where to be found; we don't accept their kind here. There is a strong love of the environment and healthy living here in SF. SF is highly liberal and educated. Look at how we have Berkeley and Stanford here. My only question is are you LIBERAL? Why do you care about drugs? Why do you care about "thugs"? It seems like maybe you are a bit konservative actually. If you are truly liberal, yes, come to one of the greatest cities on earth, San Francisco. If you are konservative or even moderate, you just don't fit here and I don't want your kind here either.
I'm embarrassed by your post. You don't speak for me or other San Franciscans. San Francisco, if anything, is very young.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
SF Is One of the World's Greatest Cities, Period
