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I was in San Francisco that week. Ecological issues aside, it was the last time San Francisco felt different in a good way rather than a bad one. The “negative
by zusammen 2y ago
I was in San Francisco that week. Ecological issues aside, it was the last time San Francisco felt different in a good way rather than a bad one. The “negative energy” is now too much for me and, when I travel to the Bay Area, I pretty much just stay on-track. I wonder if people who lived in San Francisco from 1965-2005 expected it to last forever.
- realityfactchex 2y agoWhat city regions have better energy, are good economically, and have natural beauty (ocean, mountain, plants)? It is easy to find faults with the SF bay area (politics, costs, and derivative issues), but is somewhere actually better? EDIT: Thanks for the downvotes. It was an honest question, and I badly wanted to be informed, having given the issue in-depth consideration over the years. I wasn't being snarky.
- wrs 2y agoSeattle has those things, IMO. (You didn’t mention weather!)
- drewcoo 2y agoSeattle weather keeps strangers away. And drives sunglasses sales.
- testfrequency 2y agoYou’re conveniently leaving out how pretentious and insufferable many Seattleites are… It has been far and wide the least welcoming, interesting, and lackluster food city I’ve ever lived in. Also, the coffee scene there is worse than SF, Chicago, LA..rare stop for bands and musicians touring, and unpleasant transit. The only people I know who are genuinely happy there are people who moved from Florida, and wealthy white families with young children who moved there (from California) “because taxes and better education”. Don’t even get me started on the lack of diversity and casual racism. SF is far from perfect, but Seattle isn’t even in the conversation for places I’d ever recommend someone leaving SF to shortlist.
- JohnFen 2y ago> You’re conveniently leaving out how pretentious and insufferable many Seattleites are SF isn't any better on that count.
- testfrequency 2y agoCaught me mid edit..I agree..to a degree. Seattle is another tier above. SF people I find far more interesting and smart vs. the smartest people I met/knew/know in Seattle. Seattle is like a pissing contest for nerd snipers. At least in SF we drink our own pee (at Folsom of course)
- qingcharles 2y agoThis is literally the opposite of my experiences :(
- marssaxman 2y agoSorry you're not having a good time here; that hasn't been my experience of the city at all. There was a moment back in the late '90s when I could have moved to either Seattle or S.F., and Seattle happened to snag me first; I still enjoy visiting SF from time to time, but I've never had the slightest regret about settling here instead. For tradition's sake, I feel obligated to give you the classic Seattleite response to such complaints: "whatever, man; if there's somewhere you like better, feel free to go there."
- qingcharles 2y agoSeattle is awesome and the people are the friendliest I've encountered in the USA. Feels Canadian. The weather kills me, though. The weather is too British.
- api_or_ipa 2y agoVancouver, IMO, is a far better developed city than Seattle. Vastly better transit, denser, more walkable neighbourhoods, and just overall very thoughtfully developed. It’s just an enormous shame it’s become grossly unaffordable— on an income adjusted basis, it’s more expensive than the Bay Area. That, and the weather, although the summers are perfect IMO.
- wrs 2y agoAs a Seattle resident I agree with you on all points.
- bombcar 2y agoReally depends on what you mean by all those. Some would say Sandy Eggo has the beauty, others would contest that Seattle has the economy and mountains. The people left there are those who like what it has become or are trapped in someway; others have moved.
- oofbaroomf 2y agoThe Seattle/Bellevue area.
- GuinansEyebrows 2y agoAh, Bellevue, for when you want to feel like you live inside of a shopping mall.
- toast0 2y agoHow can you watch Logan's Run and not want to live inside a shopping mall??
- GuinansEyebrows 2y agoGo to Bellevue and find out :)
- throw8404948k 2y agoSF is good economicaly? Super expensive, high taxes with no matching infrastructure, hiring people... Weather is cold and moisty... There are thousands better places around the world. I would like to hear a pitch, why start company in SF today.
- realityfactchex 2y agoYeah, it's good economically in the sense that it's still near top of market, due to having a large-ish existing economy (even if aspects of said economy seem fundamentally whack). As in: if you want something at decent quality you can pretty much get it pretty easily with a bunch of options (assuming you can afford it). Caveat - not necessarily the top of everything for all markets is available, but overall stuff is still around -- even as some things are disappearing from the area. In contrast, other places are just poor, and you "cannot" find as large a variety of lots of goods and services, I imagine. But I could be wrong -- I'll check my assumptions. Thanks.
- throw8404948k 2y agoAre services really easily available in SF? I was shocked when we went to restaurant at evening without a reservation. Server give one hour waiting time for a table! At normal city you just drop into nearest good restaurant, and if they are full (very unlikely) you go to next. How easy is to get a dentist or masseuse, with a few hour notice?! > In contrast, other places are just poor, and you "cannot" find as large a variety of lots of goods and services I think you need reality check on "poor". The place with the widest selection of services and products (for example types of meat in supermarket, or hand made tailored clothes) is Bangkok in Thailand. Places like SF just do not have enough people to provide all those services.
- realityfactchex 2y ago> Are services really easily available in SF? IDK about in the city itself, but in the surrounding metro area I would say yes. > At normal city you just drop into nearest good restaurant, and if they are full (very unlikely) you go to next. Right, I was biased toward considering the surrounding cities in the SF metro. I think popping into next open restaurant with seating applies to the healthy downtowns in the area metro area. But the city itself, I wouldn't know. > a dentist...with a few hour notice I don't think that kind of dental scheduling is typically found/done _anywhere_ in the US AFAIK. > meat in supermarket, or hand made tailored clothes) is Bangkok in Thailand Good counterexample, thank you.
- VoodooJuJu 2y ago[dead]
- indoordin0saur 2y agoIt really is surrounded by amazing natural beauty. However, everything to do with humans has slowly morphed into an unfixable nightmare and it's heartbreaking. I think it's time to throw in the towel, evacuate everyone from the city and let it return to nature as a wildlife preserve.
- pj_mukh 2y agoI'd say Lisbon, Portugal is probably the closest (including Weather, which places like Seattle are lacking), especially because you didn't mention pre-existing tech industry which is probably SF's main differential versus everywhere else. It even has a big red bridge? P.S: I'm sorry Lisboetas..you are already getting swamped by Digi Nomads, but it's true.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- homefree 2y agoI visited lisbon last year and was kind of shocked how similar to SF it was, weather, hills, general feel - that it has its own golden gate bridge really just sealed it.
- Clamchop 2y agoI've grown rather fond of San Diego.
- sekai 2y agoMunich, Germany. Although, the sea is a bit further away.
- basisword 2y agoI think this is bigger than just SF. After the great recession the generally positive atmosphere in the western world never really recovered. Any time it even got close to recovering some new horrible event happened.
- deadbabe 2y agoAs the world grows more interconnected, the proliferation of news about horrible events happening spreads faster, and even if you personally ignore the news, other people don’t, and this colors the overall mood of society. There is horror everywhere, and always will be until the end of our days.
- basisword 2y agoI hadn’t thought of it in this way. Interesting point.
- LaundroMat 2y agoSuppose you lived in a village where there was no outside news. You'd learn of about two murders and a dozen deadly accidents in your lifetime. Imagine how safer you'd feel compared to a villager who's getting outside news beamed to her face every hour of the day. I'm not advocating isolation, but our primitive minds are not able to really understand that what is projected in front of us is not the same as what happens in front of us. I don't know how anyone could solve that.
- hinkley 2y agoAnd how can you support funding this beautiful park proposal when there are children starving in ${country}?? I can’t remember where I heard this, but it was someone questioning joy and frivolity in a time of war. And the answer back was that people need to remember what they are fighting for otherwise what’s the point? If you don’t allow yourself joy until the problems are gone, there will never be joy and the problems will multiply for lack of it.
- indigoabstract 2y ago
- ianmcgowan 2y agoI moved to "the city" in 1989 from England, and people were complaining then about yuppies and it wasn't the same as the good ol' days of the 60's. SF seems to be a lot more in-flux compared to other cities, so if you don't like the scene now just wait a few years and a new one will be along :-)
- finnthehuman 2y agoWhen I visited in the 90's I remember conversations mentioning seeing the signs and trying to delay the inevitable end. Whether someone sees that as dooming or prescient is probably a matter of if they moved in before or after 2005.
- keoneflick 2y agoThe San Francisco I experience is full of positive energy. Sure, maybe if you're visiting and stay in Union Square, that's not what you see. But if you live in the residential neighborhoods and work somewhere nice (such as in the Presidio), there isn't another city in the world I would rather be.
- jf 2y agoIt seems to me like working from home has transformed the residential neighborhoods. I recently visited Inner Sunset as was astonished at how many people were out and about.
- kemiller 2y agoThings got significantly darker after 9/11.