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Durrr sorry, could have read your thread closer. Now it makes sense.
I was over:
1) people automatically assuming I was a progressive simply because I lived in SF. I am not.
2) juvenile friends in their late 30s unwilling to be adults, as in my friends not being at all interested in current events/politics and more interested in going to the bar or who they were going to hook up with that night
3) the homeless/dope fiend population. I remember toward the end of my time in SF walking by a pile of human sh*t on the street and it dawned on me that THIS IS NOT NORMAL. After over a decade in SF, I had to accept the filth as "normal" or it would have driven me crazy. Guys routinely jerking off on the bus or taking a **** on Muni is NOT normal. But in order to survive, you have to accept these things happen. Sorry but that's not normal. In SF, that's every day.
4) the parking Gestapo. I was paying upwards of $300 a month in parking tickets for silly things like not turning my wheels enough toward the curb. I wasn't lazy, there was just NO PLACE to park. They knew they could get me so they'd slap a ticket on my car every chance they got from the office to my house. My car is not a piggy bank. I gave up my car in 2006 for this reason but inherited a car from my mom when she died in 2010 and had a hell of a time avoiding the parking Gestapo once I had it, I hated it. I actually had nightmares about it and to this day I still do.
5) The cost of living is outrageous for what you get. I pay just $200 more per month for a 700 square foot one bedroom condo to myself in DC than I did for a small bedroom in a house in SF with FOUR other roommates. I was too old to live like a 20 year old but that was the best I could afford, I wasn't about to pay $1500 for a studio in Crack Central in SF. At least in DC you can live in "the slums" for a reasonable price, in SF even "the hood" is overpriced.
One other notable thing about SF... people do not talk to each other. It's weird. It's like iPod headphones in, zoned out, don't make eye contact... I hated that. Here I get into random conversations at the grocery store about anything but there people don't even say hi.
I had to step over a dead hooker on my stoop once. People sh*t in the street like no one cares. At first you will be STUNNED by this but eventually it will become "normal" and that's when I realized I had to get out, that is NOT normal even by third world standards.
I try not to rain on anyone's parade if they want to move out there but I wouldn't do it if I were you. 10% tax, dope fiends pissing in your doorway and a higher cost of living? No thanks.
And don't forget the brutal cold in January (with the occasional blizzard) and the stifling heat in the summer (with the occasional derecho).
And let's not talk about the ugliness of the Bay Area's natural surroundings...
Location: the wrong side of the tracks Richmond, VA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clb10
And don't forget the brutal cold in January (with the occasional blizzard) and the stifling heat in the summer (with the occasional derecho).
And let's not talk about the ugliness of the Bay Area's natural surroundings...
Human excrement on the sidewalk > guys whacking off on the Muni > 60 degree temps year round > pretty views
Yeah, still doesn't add up.
I DID love the weather and yes some days I would be amazed that I lived there even after over a decade (I worked by the Wharf toward the end of my time in SF, seeing Alcatraz every day never got old) but it did not make up for the other things. I will take a swampy DC summer over a steaming pile of human crap on my doorstep ANY day.
Human excrement on the sidewalk > guys whacking off on the Muni > 60 degree temps year round > pretty views
Yeah, still doesn't add up.
I DID love the weather and yes some days I would be amazed that I lived there even after over a decade (I worked by the Wharf toward the end of my time in SF, seeing Alcatraz every day never got old) but it did not make up for the other things. I will take a swampy DC summer over a steaming pile of human crap on my doorstep ANY day.
SF has really good weather compared to the East Coast, but it's not exactly ideal.
Lots of bone-chilling Summer days. You pretty much always had to bring a sweater or layers of clothing, no matter what time of year it was. Additionally, the ocean was never warm enough to actually swim in, or enjoy a beach culture - the bikini kind of beach culture, not the surfing in a wetsuit kind.
I do like SF a lot more than most other US cities, but not enough to want to move back there again.
Location: the wrong side of the tracks Richmond, VA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
SF has really good weather compared to the East Coast, but it's not exactly ideal.
Lots of bone-chilling Summer days. You pretty much always had to bring a sweater or layers of clothing, no matter what time of year it was. Additionally, the ocean was never warm enough to actually swim in, or enjoy a beach culture - the bikini kind of beach culture, not the surfing in a wetsuit kind.
I do like SF a lot more than most other US cities, but not enough to want to move back there again.
I agree it is not "ideal" by most people's standards but I actually really liked that part. Hoodie weather year-round. You never had to worry about what to wear or pack away winter/summer clothes. There is a bit of beach culture down south in Pacifica and beyond but that was never my thing, though I did really love hiking out at Land's End - I remember spending December 31, 1999 deep in the woods with a view of the GG Bridge with my boyfriend at the time. We busted out champagne and fell asleep under the stars, perfect way to bring in the new millennium.
The weird part was I lived in the Inner Richmond and worked at the Wharf so I'd leave my house and it would be foggy and 40 and then arrive at work where it was sunny and 65. All within a half hour bus trip.
The only annoying part was the 6 months of rain we'd get. Not exactly easy to grocery shop in a car-hostile town that has banned plastic bags when you need to shlep home your groceries on the bus in the rain.
Human excrement on the sidewalk > guys whacking off on the Muni > 60 degree temps year round > pretty views
Yeah, still doesn't add up.
I DID love the weather and yes some days I would be amazed that I lived there even after over a decade (I worked by the Wharf toward the end of my time in SF, seeing Alcatraz every day never got old) but it did not make up for the other things. I will take a swampy DC summer over a steaming pile of human crap on my doorstep ANY day.
Yeah, cuz all you see around West Portal or St. Francis Circle and Forest Hill is human excrement and guys "whacking off". Meanwhile on the Metro Green Line east of downtown D.C. all you find are quiet schoolkids studying hard on their way to choir practice.
Location: the wrong side of the tracks Richmond, VA
585 posts, read 2,015,123 times
Reputation: 794
Quote:
Originally Posted by clb10
Yeah, cuz all you see around West Portal or St. Francis Circle and Forest Hill is human excrement and guys "whacking off". Meanwhile on the Metro Green Line east of downtown D.C. all you find are quiet schoolkids studying hard on their way to choir practice.
Actually yes. I spent over a decade there. I saw guys passed out with their pants down in Pacific Heights, guys jerking off on the bus at the Wharf, dope fiends destroying bathrooms at West Portal... It is EVERYWHERE and you cannot escape it.
If you were to compare DC - SF across the board, I'm still not sure what is worse: risking being robbed/mugged/accosted just about anywhere in DC or having to walk over broken crackpipes and piles of human crap on the street in SF. Let me get 8 more years here and I'll let you know.
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