What are 5 things San Francisco has that every city lacks? (Berkeley: apartments, houses)

[tarheart009]

What are the 5 things San Francisco has that every city in the U.S. lacks?

[nightlysparrow]

Cable Cars

[pch1013]

A major-league baseball park where some home runs end up in salt water.

A park with bison and windmills in it.

[ccm123]

The iconic Golden Gate bridge.

[clongirl]

The largest and oldest Chinatown in the US.

[chup76]

Great Location. Close to the beach. Close to Napa. Close to Skiing etc. Close to great schools. And oh yeah JOBS.

[GalacticDragonfly]

Cool looking public transit. Now I didn't say 'perfect' or even 'efficient', but in terms of just general style, BART and MUNI Metro look so much more futuristic and visually appealing than most if not all the subways and light-rails I've rode all across the world. (East Coast Subways like NYC's just look absolutely ugly to me, like it was designed to be vandalized). The closest I saw was the subways in Japan, but after the "Fleet of the Future" comes out, it's just too impressive. And that's somewhat ironic considering BART is incredibly old, let's just say when the cars are clean they look stylish. Especially 'A' car.

The second would be the massive tech hub. No tech city comes close to the cutting edge in future like San Francisco and the Bay Area cities do. It's really funny how everyone seems to know it exists but also act to oblivious to it.

Third would be great urban schools, especially Berkeley. Everyone sends there kids to Berkeley schools if given the chance, whether they live in Berkeley or not. The funny thing about Berkeley is that they know this, and instead of chasing them out, they instead supply BART tickets. Like, who takes BART to get around Berkeley? Seriously, I've never seen public schools so massive, so beautiful, so heavily funded, and so jam-packed with diverse urban and suburban students in my life, no matter which city. San Francisco is also this, but more or less compared to Berkeley.

Forth would be the almost fantasy-like blend of nature, suburbs, and metropolises. It's strange looking at a vast forest of trees, or a giant bay, or mountains so intertwined in the backgrounds of the occasional skyscrapers, and beautiful homes laid out like forest cabins. But that's mainly the East Bay. As for San Francisco, just replace the word 'forest' with beautiful Victorian houses and apartments.

Fifth is a region that has plenty of money, and oftentimes spends it on the strangest things while complaining that it's broke. God the T-Third Street extension.....God the High-speed bus rapid transit lanes.....

[sav858]

The only thing I can really think of is the cable cars. Everything else people have listed seems to be some specific variation of things other cities have in some form.

[jessemh431]

A huge homelessness and drug problem next to some of the richest neighborhoods in the world?
Cable cars
A HUGE tech industry
Foggy weather year round
An entire city full of the very unique architecture (some cities have a few buildings with our style, but our building style is ubiquitous)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by GalacticDragonfly

Third would be great urban schools, especially Berkeley.

Berkeley High isn't a "great urban school". People send their kids to Berkeley schools until HS, then they either move to the other side of the hills (Lamorinda), or send their kids to a private school.