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The first time I went to work here a few months ago I got out of the Lyft around 9am and two meters away a homeless man was injecting something into his veins.
by 101km 8y ago
The first time I went to work here a few months ago I got out of the Lyft around 9am and two meters away a homeless man was injecting something into his veins. My office is in the Mission.
Some parts of San Francisco are very dirty and the homeless issue is not exaggerated. Everybody knows about the Tenderloin at night.
With that being said, I drove across the US two years ago and if you keep your eyes open you realize it is all over - Portland and Seattle are no better, just less talked about.
My rent is $1300, I live with one roommate on Russian Hill. I'm flexible and lucky so this is not representative. A girl I know who works at Google lives in inner Richmond (arguably a less desirable area) by herself and pays nearly triple for some reason.
It is hard to find a proper gym for less than a Benjamin and food is above average for an American city but hilariously expensive. Good way to gauge is pick some fast food chain and compare, Dennys is x2 here than the rest of the country.
All in all this place isn't the shiny happy city you'd imagine from watching Full House or or the counter culture epicenter of hippie times gone by. It doesn't suck, I'd definitely visit for a week or two if you have never been, and there's a lot of history here but in the end it is no longer a very remarkable place to live.
- friedman23 8y ago>With that being said, I drove across the US two years ago and if you keep your eyes open you realize it is all over - Portland and Seattle are no better, just less talked about. It's not that it's not talked about, it's that other cities manage to not have it right in the middle of the city.
- geoka9 8y agoI can vouch for Portland - smack in the middle.
- countzeroasl 8y agoSeattle is every bit as bad as California. Interestingly enough, when California started getting bad, Washington was where they moved. Now? Hellloooo TEXAS!
- Teknoman117 8y agoI ended up getting a tech job in south Orange County (working at a satellite office of a SV company) because I couldn't bring myself to pay Bay Area rent. I can't even imagining owning a house _here_, let alone in the bay. Buying a house is generally something adults in America aspire to doing, but in California it's basically a mark of wealth. The amount of cash you have to stuff away for a down payment of sufficient size to not be fleeced by the banks is astronomical. I'm really considering transferring to Austin at some point.
- carlivar 8y agoThe weather will always help prop up SoCal real estate (relatively).
- anothergoogler 8y agoIf you're commuting in a Lyft/Uber, you're part of the problem. That aside, for better or worse, most of us city-dwellers are numbed to shocking! displays of hard drug use.
- rsync 8y ago"... and food is above average for an American city ..." The food in San Francisco and Marin is the best food in the world, by a fair margin. In 2018, food, food venues, eating environments and every other aspect of dining, the world over, is being invented and reshaped in San Francisco. Go anywhere else in the world, at any price point, from the first class lounge at Hong Kong airport to the mall food court in Granada, Spain, and everyone is inspired by, or directly copying, what is being done here. EDIT: my parent spoke not of a particular restaurant, but the food of the city, generally. That is what I am talking about - not who has the best BBQ joint in your favorite BBQ genre, but which city has the best food (as opposed to "above average for an American city"). I stand by the assertion that food(ie) culture, worldwide, is being driven by SF.
- wavefunction 8y agoThere is so much traditional cuisine out there as to make this post truly ridiculous.
- oculusthrift 8y agoare you joking? tokyo is inspired by marin county? i can name better food cities in the same state (LA) let alone country or world
- JPKab 8y agoThat's a very bold statement, and frankly demonstrates the insular, self congratulatory circle jerk of the Bay Area. Amazing food, of course, but I've been to an open air Tejano restaurant in a garden outside of San Antonio that beat anything in the Bay, roaming chickens and all. The proprietors could give a shit about SF. And oh yeah, your BBQ sucks. Sure, I can get decent brisket, but for triple the price and half the portion.
- subway 8y agoRudy's was hands down the number one thing I missed in moving from SA to SF. Eventually I found solace at Everett and Jones in Berkeley, but even that'll never come close to Texas BBQ.
- ransom1538 8y ago"My rent is $1300, I live with one roommate on Russian Hill." Sorry this pricing is not realistic for other viewers here. A two bedroom in Russian hill for $2600 is probably a passed down rent controlled unit (A decade?). A typical 2 bedroom (without problems / not nice / no parking / 800sqft) is about $4500. If you are outside of SF and look at prices, remember many people are on rent control. And your best bet is finding someone who is. https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-larkin-union-available/6779737055.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-larkin-... https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-edwardian-flat-2bd-2ba/6780697094.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-edwardi... https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-russian-hill/6779620673.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-russian... (Former resident)
- kuhhk 8y agoSo you are saying OP got lucky to rent a rent controlled apartment, rather than the exorbitantly higher normal prices? Am I missing something? I think it just goes to prove the OP’s point further
- ransom1538 8y agoYeah I have no argument. Just pointing out for viewers outside of SF -- that the price $1300 is difficult to find.