What Do San Franciscans Think Of Los Angeles? (San Francisco, Oakland: crime, school)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I live 60 miles north of LA on the coast in Oxnard. You could ask this same question in reverse in the LA area and most would not tear down the city of SF. It is a place we may or may not visit. The truth is that you could take all the people in San Francisco and drop them off in Los Angeles and we wouldn't know the differance. If you were to take all the people in the LA area and drop them off in San Francisco you guys would notice it big time. LOL

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

She does have a point.

Have we revisited the awful crime in Oakland lately, Fantastic? It's been about three minutes since your last tirade. Take your "point" back to Lafayette.

Backasswards opinions are backasswards opinions. (Traffic is better in L.A.?!?) Negates everything else, right there.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Have we revisited the awful crime in Oakland lately, Fantastic? It's been about three minutes since your last tirade. Take your "point" back to Lafayette.

Backasswards opinions are backasswards opinions. (Traffic is better in L.A.?!?) Negates everything else, right there.

The fact that you are so sensitive sort of proves her point though. Just calling it how I see it. She got your goat pretty good.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

The fact that you are so sensitive sort of proves her point though. Just calling it how I see it. She got your goat pretty good.

Because it's just too beyond the pale to be believed!

[goldenchild08]

Originally Posted by jade408

I find LA to be really diverse. But also pretty segregated. There are a lot more "ethnic ghettos" in LA. Like Persians hang out with Persians. Egyptians with Egyptians. Koreans other Koreans. Armenians and Aremenians. Russian Jews and other Russian Jews and so on. People tend to live with and socialize with their own communities. It amazes me how diverse the groups are and how they have the numbers to have an entire life with people of the same ethnicity.

This.

L.A. is among the top ten most segregated cities in America. NYC and LA just have a huge share of people who are used to dealing with no one but their own race. And when there is interaction between races in NY or LA, it is business like Koreans owning liquor stores and corner stores in Black neighborhoods or White cops patrolling Black hoods. Also, people in these cities seem to be much more preoccupied with race. The L.A. riots were an explosive reaction to the terrible race relations down there. Similarly, Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing accurately captured the gist of race relations in New York. No hate but the New Yorkers and Los Angelenos I know, personally, are some of the most unapologetically racist people I've met in my life who weren't mentally ill.

The Bay definitely has much less racial tension than L.A. or any metro area on the East Coast. At the end of the day, everywhere is segregated on some level. Super diverse East Bay communities often have an equal dispersion of Blacks, Latinos and Asians but lack Whites, period. SF has just as bad a White/Black relationship as any city in America. Blacks stick with Blacks and other minorities in SF and Whites stick with Whites and Asians. There are exceptions as SF is in no way as racially stratified as L.A., NYC or DC. Although many communities in the Bay may not be residentially segregated, they tend to be socially segregated. San Francisco in some ways used to be more segregated prior to gentrification. The only reason why many neighborhoods in San Francisco are so diverse today is because of gentrification, much like Williamsburg in Brooklyn or the Shaw in DC. Areas like the Mission and Lakeview are diverse only because of gentrification. The newer residents of both neighborhoods don't socialize with the much poorer downtrodden lifelong minority residents. My old neighborhood in Lakeview in SF used to be upwards of 60-75% Black from the 60's to the 90's. Some blocks in Lakeview were almost 100% Black back then. Today, Lakeview is about 25% Black. However, the only people that come outside and loiter in the neighborhood are Black youths with maybe a few token Latino or Asian kids in the mix. A city like San Francisco is ultimately much less spatially segregated in terms of race because The City is so densely populated. But even that is debatable seeing as the northern tip of San Francisco is overwhelmingly White just like Northwest DC or the lower half of Manhattan and Blacks mostly live in small concentrations scattered throughout the southern half of SF save the Fillmore.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by goldenchild08

Although many communities in the Bay may not be residentially segregated, they tend to be socially segregated.

Exactly. In L.A, you can find rich Koreans in K-town hanging out in the same nora bang places that college students, and bus drivers hang out, it doesn't matter. K-towns night culture is very nonjudgmental when it comes to social status or money.

In the Bay Area, the haves don't like living next to the have nots. The Oakland hills vs the Flats, inner East Bay vs outer East Bay, and of course just look at the drama of 2,000 units of low income housing being built in "upper class" Pleasanton. You would think that they were building Section 8 Projects in the city center judging by some of the comments. It's all very snooty.

[drive carephilly]

fwiw - I like both cities for different reasons. I like LA for the beaches, the variety of neighborhoods (eg, venice vs. pasadena), the ethnic enclaves. The transit is OK. I've made good use of it. A lot of places of interest are still off the transit grid (rail wise) but it's getting better. Not a big fan of how long it takes to get anywhere.

I like SF for its compactness, architecture, the good transit and aesthetically and culturally it's a place I can relate to more.

I think it's hilarious when people from CA argue about the weather. San Francisco itself is an outlier, sure. But the average temperature difference between LA and Oakland or LA and Palo Alto, ranges from 2 degrees warmer in the winter to 2 degrees cooler in the summer. They might get an extra 2 or 3 days per month with some rain.

If you like the weather in the Sunset you might be SOL in LA but if you really like the weather in a particular LA neighborhood you can usually find something very similar somewhere in the Bay Area.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Exactly. In L.A, you can find rich Koreans in K-town hanging out in the same nora bang places that college students, and bus drivers hang out, it doesn't matter. K-towns night culture is very nonjudgmental when it comes to social status or money.

In the Bay Area, the haves don't like living next to the have nots. The Oakland hills vs the Flats, inner East Bay vs outer East Bay, and of course just look at the drama of 2,000 units of low income housing being built in "upper class" Pleasanton. You would think that they were building Section 8 Projects in the city center judging by some of the comments. It's all very snooty.

The Bay is definitely segregated by class moreso than anything else. On the up note, class isn't 100% determined by race. So you'll find ethnically diverse groups of all social classes.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by jade408

The Bay is definitely segregated by class moreso than anything else. On the up note, class isn't 100% determined by race. So you'll find ethnically diverse groups of all social classes.

I think both L.A and SF are both ethnically diverse, they are the top two metro areas of California.

That being said, I don't see multiculturalism in either area in the truest sense. What I see in each area is "pockets of culturalism" if that makes sense. Sure in S.F, Vietnamese and Filipino people will hangout occasionally at the same popular night life places, entertainment areas, but they will both go home to different cities that are homes to their ethnic enclaves.

Filipinos will go to Union City or Daly City, Vietnamese will go back to San Jose, Russians will go back to the Outer Richmond, etc. In L.A, it's very similar, just change the city names (Filipinos = Cerritos, Vietnamese = Westminister, etc).

I think out of my own life experience, New York has come the closest to having a true fusion of cultures instead of pockets of culture.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by RWingFan

I thank LA for bringing Metallica to SF everyday

James was from LA. Lars from Denmark, Kirk from Richmond, and Cliff from Castro Valley. I think they were essentially 1/2 Bay Area Natives for their best work.