Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
 [Register]
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.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 12-10-2011, 10:12 AM
 
6,879 posts, read 8,204,446 times
Reputation: 3867

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by tstieber View Post
In a way, provincialism is the hallmark of any great city. People in all the world's great cities rarely venture out of them, or want to. We're secretly just jealous of their smugness, because it's deserved. Manhattanites are just as provincial, as are people in major cities around the globe. Heck, even San Diegans are obsessed with their city and go on and on about how it's the best place in the world. Provincialism is an attribute of civic pride.
One of my earlier posts:

SF: It's delightfully (and sickeningly) provincial and they don't even know it, or care.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 12-10-2011, 11:23 AM
 
1,348 posts, read 2,849,580 times
Reputation: 1247
Quote:
Originally Posted by 04kL4nD View Post
For me LA is the most overrated city in CA.

I grew up on the East Coast and I always envisioned LA to be like how they depict it in the movies or TV. When I got there for the first time, I was shocked how terrible the air quality is (nasty brown haze and poor visibility) and how awful the traffic was. Maybe it's because I'd visited San Diego first, but I was really underwhelmed by LA and it took me a long time to find anything redeeming about it. After spending more time, it's grown on me, but I expected so much more...
Very true. I lived in LA for five years. I couldn't wait to get out after that.

LA is a great city to visit and see the sights, but its a very stressful and unpleasant city to live in.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-10-2011, 11:32 AM
 
Location: Honolulu, HI
698 posts, read 1,505,790 times
Reputation: 598
IMO San Francisco is the only city worth visiting in California.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-10-2011, 11:43 AM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,720,885 times
Reputation: 5689
My whole single life I kept dating women who wanted to move to San Francisco. I could never figure out how to make it work. Wages would be ~25% higher there and the cost of living 150% higher, housing 200%. Who would do that to themselves. Obviously, I was not loaded.

I have also found many Bay Area folks seem to have a superiority complex which is tiring. We have tons of BA emigres here in my town and my impression is they are fairly overendowed with self confidence, but deficient in charm.

Overrated works for me.

However, for a straight, single guy with dough,like George Clooney, it must be paradise.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-10-2011, 12:45 PM
 
2,311 posts, read 3,493,973 times
Reputation: 1223
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead View Post
My whole single life I kept dating women who wanted to move to San Francisco. I could never figure out how to make it work. Wages would be ~25% higher there and the cost of living 150% higher, housing 200%. Who would do that to themselves. Obviously, I was not loaded.

I have also found many Bay Area folks seem to have a superiority complex which is tiring. We have tons of BA emigres here in my town and my impression is they are fairly overendowed with self confidence, but deficient in charm.

Overrated works for me.

However, for a straight, single guy with dough,like George Clooney, it must be paradise.
A lot of people would be nobodies if they didn't exist in the 'named' city that they do.. They don't maintain the ability to be people of interest outside of it .. So, they become quite emotional to the city which has 'given them an identity' and strongly identify with it ... This is what causes their irrational provincialism and rabid defense of the city against realistic valuation.

Everyone has heard of the rabid praise spread about places and want to flock there.. this isn't new .. Everyone wants to be in L.A and be a star .. They'll suck _____ and all sorts of things to make it a reality ... Meh, there's other bright and amazing personalities that can exist outside of these ecosystems.. I've found them moving to cheaper 'more dull in the eyes of people who are dull' places and making them interesting .. starting a movement .. adding culture ... Some people are cool and can create cool anywhere they go .. Others are willing to pay any amount to be near what people declare as cool ...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-10-2011, 12:55 PM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,720,885 times
Reputation: 5689
Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahthatguy View Post
A lot of people would be nobodies if they didn't exist in the 'named' city that they do.. They don't maintain the ability to be people of interest outside of it .. So, they become quite emotional to the city which has 'given them an identity' and strongly identify with it ... This is what causes their irrational provincialism and rabid defense of the city against realistic valuation.

Everyone has heard of the rabid praise spread about places and want to flock there.. this isn't new .. Everyone wants to be in L.A and be a star .. They'll suck _____ and all sorts of things to make it a reality ... Meh, there's other bright and amazing personalities that can exist outside of these ecosystems.. I've found them moving to cheaper 'more dull in the eyes of people who are dull' places and making them interesting .. starting a movement .. adding culture ... Some people are cool and can create cool anywhere they go .. Others are willing to pay any amount to be near what people declare as cool ...
I think you are on to something, and that might be why so many people I have met from the coolest places are pretty uncool....
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-10-2011, 01:00 PM
 
Location: 112 Ocean Avenue
5,706 posts, read 9,593,636 times
Reputation: 8932
I have no idea why people get upset when someone is critical of a city or state they live in. What a perverse attachment to have...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-11-2011, 01:48 AM
 
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
8,298 posts, read 14,124,165 times
Reputation: 8104
Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahthatguy View Post
Meh', could say the same thing about many things that can't be done in SF.. Those things are fun and great and all and I've done all but surf in the frigid waters under the bay bridge.... You move to a place .. many places have lots of things to do w/ beautiful unique scenery.. No one is knocking on how beautiful and unique the things you are mentioning are .. but many people are saying lots of places are beautiful and unique in their own regard..

So yes, SanFrancisco has a lot of unique and beautiful things to enjoy .. So does almost everywhere else..

I feel like a lot of people don't travel much w/ the way they Drool over SF.
Well I HAVE traveled a lot in this nation, and I completely understand what you're saying ..... but all the same, SF appeals to me more than just about any other city. You really can't break it down and say, "SF has this or that beautiful feature, but Boston has that, Madison WI has some incredible things, NYC has way MORE things to do and see, Mt Shasta has the mountain in its solitude, Montana has the Big ..... uh, the Grand Tetons, Hawaii blah blah ..... " but to me, SF has the best combination of things, it's the gestalt, it's more than the sum of its parts.

And yet I perfectly realize it doesn't have that affect on everyone. Or like you, it was impressive at first then became wearying and not worth the price of admission.

That's ok, in fact it had something of the same effect on me way back when, maybe 20 years ago the last time I lived there ...... after a year or so I needed to get away to a more rural area, the overwhelming activity of so many people around me with no easy escape (I couldn't even afford to take public transportation out to the wilderness areas around the
Bay at that time, only enough for rent and food). I'm like that, sometimes I need a big city, sometimes a medium city, and sometimes a large village. So I go back and forth.

But if I had the big money for rent now, it would be SF again. If not, then Seattle or San Diego again.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-11-2011, 03:40 AM
 
Location: San Francisco
21,450 posts, read 8,650,044 times
Reputation: 64611
Long-time San Franciscan chiming in. I just don't get all the hate in this thread. I first fell in love with the city in 1958 when I was nine years old, not because it was "cool" (except in the literal sense) but because it was like nothing I'd ever seen, beautiful and magical, and there was so much to see and so much to do. I remember ice skating at the old Sutro Baths, going to the Zoo, swimming at the old Fleishhacker Pool (brrr!) and shopping at Union Square with my aunt in an era when ladies wore dresses, hats and gloves. You could ride the cable car for 15 cents and it cost 25 cents to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. If you want to know what San Francisco looked like then, watch Hitchcock's Vertigo.

The city has been through many transformations since then. I came back in 1967 to live, right after the Summer of Love, and it was paradise for an 18-year-old long-haired girl in bell bottoms even though I had no money and no car. Just walking around in the different neighborhoods like Chinatown and North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf was a treat for a girl from the suburbs. I rented a room at a rooming house for women for $19 a week. It was tiny and had a view of a cement wall, but I thought I was in heaven.

I left for a while but returned in the 1970's, another interesting time to be in San Francisco. Again I could only afford a mattress on the floor in a studio apartment on my clerical salary, but I never ran out of fun things to see and do and interesting people to meet. In the 1980's things started to change and like in many cities, San Francisco's poor were squeezed out of cheap housing and ended up homeless. It's a turnoff and we don't like it either, but we accept it, deal with with it and avoid certain sections of the city because of it. We feel genuinely bad for the visitors who see the worst side of San Francisco and think that the entire city is like that.

40 years later, I'm 63 and retired, but I'm still here. My husband and I lived below our means and saved like crazy, and now we're lucky enough to own a modest home in a fairly good neighborhood with lots of trees and a view of the ocean. No, we don't have kids. If we had a family, we might have considered living elsewhere, though our next-door neighbors raised two fine sons in a house that's nearly as small as ours is. Yes, we're liberal, but no, we are not politically correct fascists who want to tell everybody else how to live. Like many other San Franciscans, we think our Board of Supervisors are a clown show, and we don't take anything they say or do very seriously. We have never been to a gay parade and have only seen the outlandish behavior that people like to complain about on the TV news.

I don't think I'm a snob or an elitist, I don't think I'm anything special, and I don't think San Francisco is the only great place on earth. I've lived in Los Angeles and in New York City and I've spent time in Florida and . . . Fresno. We have good friends who live there, and we've been their houseguests. They're conservative Christians (like most of my relatives) but surprise, we love them, get along with them just fine and respect their beliefs. I can understand why our friends chose to raise their families there, and we enjoyed touring some of the beautiful countryside east of the city. I thought Shaver Lake was a gem, like a miniature Tahoe before it got spoiled by development. But the weather is not for us, and we would miss the scenery, the shopping and our favorite neighborhood restaurants.

We don't have a six-figure income and we're not out to gentrify the city or make people from other places feel inferior. We just like being here and wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. Even though DH and I could have a big house, a dog and a picket fence in the burbs if we cashed out and left, we're content to live modestly because it's an interesting city with much to offer and never a dull moment.

Last edited by Bayarea4; 12-11-2011 at 03:53 AM.. Reason: clarity, grammar
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-11-2011, 05:09 AM
 
344 posts, read 1,047,581 times
Reputation: 346
san francisco is awesome. I just visited for the first time and I was blown away by the nice landscapes, beautiful buildings, great restaurants, etc. Yes, there are homeless people. Just like any big city. San Francisco is a huge city with a giant downtown area, big financial district, etc.. similar to new york. You're going to have crime/problems/bums that came along with that. that's just life.

Overall I thought it was a great city. Good walking city. good culture/arts. Good sights to see. Good scenery. And I love how the people who live there tend to be a bit more understated and modest. Yes, there are millionaires everywhere, but how often do you see someone in a ferrari or bentley driving around? I almost never saw that.

Drive around Boston or New York and it will be less than 2 minutes until you see a yellow lamborghini racing around.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
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.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > San Francisco - Oakland
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:23 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top