Thinking about moving from San Diego area to San Francisco..... (Del Mar: to live, restaurant)

[maddball26]

Im a singly 31 one year old man and I really would like to move up to San Francisco. I want to move up there for the open-mindedness and free thinking and culture that the city has up there.

But what is San Francisco like? What is the culture like there? What are the people like there in San Franciso? What is like like there?

And what are the main differences between San Diego and San Francisco?


Thanks.....

Jason

[Joe Bama!]

Public transprtation sux in San Diego. there was a program on PBS channel 13 last night about the tranportation system in Southern California. Most people drive to work cause the system is so bad and unreliable.
Plus some of the people interviewed didn't wanna take public transportation because they didn't wanna be "surrounded by strangers."
They are currently working on developing a better system, but the driving culture is very deep in SD. SF is more efficient.

[Slate.SF]

Originally Posted by maddball26

And what are the main differences between San Diego and San Francisco?

Assuming you're talking about San Francisco proper, versus the SF Bay Area, there are huge differences. SF is the 2nd most-dense city in the US, after NYC. San Diego is a huge spread-out set of suburbs sprinkled with sometimes-cute downtown areas. A lot of people in SF get by without owning a car, which can be good given the hassle of finding parking. There are people everywhere, and it's pretty mixed, racially. San Diego seemed much more homogeneous (whites and Hispanics) when I was spending time down there.

San Diego has a beach culture, SF doesn't (though surfing is available if you want it). The weather is 5-10 degrees colder in SF. San Diego is part of general Southwest culture. SF is definitely Northern California. People wear more clothes here (layers, always layers). I think the biking is better around here.

Politically, "San Francisco Liberal" is a title all its own. San Diego is much more conservative.

It's more expensive to live here (not counting places like Del Mar). There's a real restaurant and food culture here, and in the Bay Area in general. There's more energy here, or, at least, it's packed into a smaller area.

SF has both a pretentious side and a provincial side. The former can be fun if you don't take it seriously; the latter is kinda disappointing, but you can work around it.

I could probably keep going, but... what parts in particular do you care about?

_S