Seattle vs. San Francisco

[SeattleWANative]

I really need to update my post here. After living in Seattle, then LA, and now SF I can say by far LA is my favorite city. SF is just meh, if I had to pick between SF and Seattle I would pick Seattle only because it is way cheaper to have a nice place and to be honest the people from Northern Cali all the way up to Wa seem the same to me, Socal is pretty much the only different world on the west coast. The only place I haven't lived is Portland or San Diego as far as major cities up and down the coast. If I had to recommend any city to everyone it would be LA there's so many different parts to LA it's hard to get over it, I was over SF in a week.

[evergraystate]

Yeah its hard to beat what SoCal has to offer. Seattle is tiny.

[ctr88]

Originally Posted by la_fuerza

The novelty of living in San Francisco and the Bay Area wore off for me after abot five years. After that the place became conjested and burdonsome for me. All the things about SF that used to seem edgy and exciting like all the crazy characters and the homeless after awhile became just plain irritating. Also the parking!! I can't count how many parking tickets I've gotten in SF for random stupid stuff like "Street Sweeping Tuesday 12-2 PM" Parking is a hassle but then again MUNI can be a nightmare too.

I think SF worked for me in the 90s. There were more artists and musicians back then. Another thing about SF these days is that it seems anti-family and anti-traditional values. There are alot of people with "alternative lifestyles" which is fine. But alot of these guys seem to have a problem with regular heterosexuals and family people. What happened to tolerance? You notice how there are very few children in SF? But there's a bunch of childless people in their 30s and 40s living with roommates in dilapidated apartments and flats paying a bunch of money in rent, never getting ahead. That's not the life I want for myself anymore. I'm glad to be in Seattle. My stress level has gone down alot since I left San Francisco.

I think this person nailed it. The novelty wears off after a certain time in SF. I lived in the Bay Area for 18 yrs from 1991-2006, much of that in SF. It was great living in SF in my 20's for the excitement and career opps. But the novelty wears off. I actually like Seattle way much more now and would consider it in a heartbeat over SF. I live in San Diego now. To me SF is not really a real, operating city anymore. There are not that many families with kids, etc... It's like a cartoon of it's former self in the 60's and 70's. Full of high income singles and childless yuppie couples living their "hipster urban dream". The traffic and congestion is terrible. The parking is horrendous. It's such a pain in the arse to just go out and get groceries or go shopping if the shopping is across town. Just overrun with really knarly homeless people. The actual city of SF to me did not have a lot of great outdoors or green space. You have GG Park, but it just isn't that enjoyable...it's freezing cold cloaked in fog most of the time, there's a homeless encampment on every other cluster of trees and it just isn't this pristine nature experience. And if you want to go outside of the city to hike you have a $8 toll ride to Marin and possibly horrific traffic at any time, go east to hike and your could be stuck on the Bay Bridge for 2 hrs, etc... Housing is so ridiculously expensive. la_fuerza hit the nail on the head about 30-50 somethings living for decades in their expensive dumpy 1 bedrooms with no parking never making any grounds financially. You also get tired of everyone trying to be more of a hipster than the next guy, it's like a contest in SF. Everyone trying to "out-alternative" each other. It's kind of like an artificial city in those respects. You will get tired of all the street fairs, Bay to Breakers, etc... after about 5 years, it all gets old. And you want a mellower more affordable place to settle down.

Seattle I thought was actually far prettier. With 2 pristine freshwater lakes RIGHT in the city limits. So much greener. Views of Mt. Rainer, much fresher smelling air. Seattle just feels like an easier place to live in. Also, good skiing is really 3.5-4 hrs a way in SF (if you get lucky with no traffic). It's much closer in Seattle. It's much easier to get to the "real" mountains in Seattle (1.5 hrs vs. 4 hrs). The hills around the Bay Area also get really brown about 8.5 months a year.

All in all I would have zero desire to move back to the Bay Area b/c of the cost of housing, traffic, congestion. To me the only areas worth living are SF itself, Marin, Berkeley, maybe parts of Oakland. The rest of the Bay Area to me is not that interesting. And I lived everywhere (Alameda, Walnut Creek, Sunnyvale, San Mateo). Once you get out to burbs, you lose the "coolness" that was the reason for moving the Bay Area in the first place. Like Walnut Creek for example I thought was really generic suburbia, I hated it.

[ctr88]

Originally Posted by drlew

I've read all the posts on this thread, and I wanted to chime in because of my current situation. I've lived a few places, but I was in Seattle until I was 18, and have lived in San Francisco for the past 4 years. For my work, I often traveled back to Seattle for 3 or 4 days at a time, and all of my family and wife's family is in Seattle.

So, I'm 27 years old now and am considering moving back to Seattle from SF. I have lived in 7 cities, and this would be by far the hardest move I have made, even though all of my family is in Seattle (I have a big family and miss them).

Here is why I'm having a hard time about it... because I know what Seattle is like.

1. It rains a lot. Its grey. Its depressing. I don't want to hear any excuses or BS from Seattle people (e.g., that it rains less than NYC in inches), because I have spent a lot of time there. Inches of rain don't represent the misery and depression the Seattle rain brings. People in Seattle make up excuses like "it keeps things green" or "the seasons are nice" or "its not that bad"... I'm very biased after having lived in SF, but man, the weather here is incredible!!!

SF has beautiful mountains and coastal scenery, etc. The Bay Area has year round gorgeous weather... even the rainy season isn't close to as bad as Seattle.

Imagine 10 months of great weather, instead of 3!!

2. There are no tight-knit small-town communities around Seattle (w/in 1 hour during commute) that have a well educated population and unique feel. If there are, PLEASE tell me where. I know of Kirkland (buts its losing its small town feel)...

On the other hand, the SF Bay is full of them, from the peninsula, the valley, along the coast, the east bay, marin, sonoma, napa areas, etc.

3. Transportation in Seattle is awful. It is good in SF (not NYC or Boston good, but good). I drove a lot there for work during the weekdays, and I believe it is much worse than SF.

Plus, SF has a great network of trains, subway cars, and buses.

Seattle needs a bunch of energy efficient buses running on schedule, not a new train or monorail! The train/monorail is not the right answer, and building it will do 40x the environmental damage that adding buses to support the same estimated user traffic would. Plus, buses would be ready within a year. Build a bus lane and get a bunch of natural gas buses!!

4. People are happier in SF. Everything is bright and colorful... people don't have to make excuses all the time about why they live there.

5. People in Seattle believe that Seattle offers more natural beauty and outdoor activities / opportunities than SF. I disagree.

6. San Francisco has a lot of city charm. I don't see that in Seattle. I wish that I did. The city just glows, and has awe-inspiring views at every turn. Maybe I just saw the ones in Seattle too much, I don't know.

7. This is related to Transportation, but EVERYBODY drives in Seattle. I took the public bus to Junior high school twice a day, and my dad took it to work in DT seattle every day. I don't know anybody else who did that. Its much, much better in SF to get around without a car.

Its strange, because I actually really like Seattle as a whole, and I have wonderful memories of living and being there. This might seem a little bi-polar to you. Its just that after living in San Francisco, I realized how high the bar is.

Have you ever driven along the coast around San Francisco, down the peninsula to Santa Cruz or up Marin to Mendocino? Have you ever driven through the back highways and mountains between Napa and Sonoma. What about up and around Lake Tahoe or the small towns to the north of Yosemite.

I am an extremely active, well-travelled, and outdoor focused person.

After a year or two, the stunning beauty of most places fades for those who live there. Not SF.

Wow, as I read my own note it seems biased and overbearing. Well, its emotional, because I'm not looking forward to leaving such an amazing place. Among the places I've lived are Barcelona, coastal Chile, and Boston. I've explored the countryside around all of them, and SF is still in the top spot.

One thing I absolutely agree with... people in Seattle are always measuring their city and trying to demonstrate that its world class. I think it is. But... people in SF don't have to debate it.

1. SF has beautiful mnt a scenery??? I would say Seattle is 10X more beautiful in that category with snow capped views of Mnt. Rainer and the Olympic Peninsula. SF has some nice Bay Views, but the hills are brown about 8.5 mos a year.

2. #4 people are happy in SF? Everything is bright and colorful? I didn't notice that in my 16 yrs there. A lot of it's a concrete jungle.

3. #6 I actually think Seattle has more "charm" than SF. I actually like Fremont, Ballard, Capital Hill, Green Lake better than say the Haight, Russian Hill, North Beach, The Mission. SF is can be very touristy too.

4. There certainly are some nice drives around SF down highway 1, Point Reyes, etc... But I wouldn't way they are any nicer than taking a ferry to San Juan Islands or Victoria, driving to Mnt. Rainer, etc... I actually think some of the views in Seattle are much more stunning and pristine feeling. The Bay Area is much more built up & developed & Seattle feels more pristine to me.

What this poster sounds like is someone who is young and relatively new to the SF Bay and dazzled by it. I felt the same way. Believe it will wear off and you will want out of there by your early 30's. It's just way to expensive to get a nice comfortable place to live except for the super rich & it's so congested. There are 6 million+ people in the Bay Area. The Bay Area also to me is a lot more of a "rat race" feel vs. Seattle (or San Diego where I live).

[UrbanAdventurer]

As an adult I've lived in Seattle, Portland and New York. Only ever visited SF and have never been truly tempted to live there. For what it costs to live there...meh, I just don't really get it. It's cool, don't get me wrong, but it has never held anywhere near the intrigue of NY in my mind, although it basically costs just as much, so where's the value in that? Seattle is a good compromise of COL and cosmopolitan energy...a good bang for the buck so to speak. Portland to me is just a little bit too slow and boring, while inexplicably being nearly as expensive as Seattle.

[Vinylly]

Originally Posted by rob1in

Been to both, yet it seems that their are many more hippies in seattle and although San Fran has its fair share of hippies it's more culturally diverse with more variety. Seattle seems to be (or at least when I went) 90% coffee shop Hippie Hippie Hippie. What do you think?

Same kind of people here as there are in San Francisco. From my experience, San Franciso'ins are a whole lot friendlier, specially in their taverns. I guess the hippies from there all moved up here, if they didn't go to Santa Cruz, that is.

[beenhereandthere]

Think that Conde Nest, this year, rated, among their readers, SF as the #1 city in the US and Seattle as #2.
Even though, this statement could be true: Seattle = Poor Man's San Francisco.