3 ms·

I recently left SF, and feel a little differently, so I'll share my take on your points: * Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the midd

I recently left SF, and feel a little differently, so I'll share my take on your points: * Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the middle of downtown (Market St area). So if you live/work near Market St (especially near Tenderloin), you'll feel like homeless people are everywhere. If you don't, you probably won't * I felt super safe in SF. Even in the Tenderloin, I never felt unsafe or heard of any of my friends being mugged or anything. Stolen bikes, yes. There are parts in and around the Tenderloin that feel very sketch, even if they're safe. You can find neighborhoods like that in most any big city. The difference in SF is that they're in the middle of downtown * Public transportation isn't anywhere near as good as NYC, but you can get most anywhere on a bus and/or muni (metro/subway). Where I lived most recently (Haight Ashbury area), I thought public transportation was pretty convenient. I took ubers to get to my office in Dogpatch though * I agree with point #3 - rent is expensive, and buying costs are prohibitively expensive (even with a well-paying job) * Almost none of my friends in SF own cars. They even recently closed down the main downtown street (Market) from cars [0]. You do need to take buses/ubers to get most places * It's sweatshirt weather pretty much year-round. Although it does get shorts-warm around October/November. If, like me, you like sweatshirt weather, you won't mind it. If you prefer seasons or hot weather months, you probably won't love the weather For me, housing prices were the biggest issue. Buying a house in a good school district in the Bay Area is ridiculously expensive. Looking on Zillow, you see a sad number of foreclosures on people's homes who probably had a $1M+ mortgage. If the housing costs stay at these prices or go up, I'd be surprised if you don't see more and more people leaving the Bay Area. I hope that Google/Facebook's plan to build more homes actually brings prices down some [1][2]. We'll see [0] https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2020/01/market-street-car-free-san-francisco-bike-lanes-transit/605674/ https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2020/01/market-street... [1] https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/1-billion-investment-bay-area-housing/ https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/... [2] https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/facebook-commits-1-billion-to-address-housing-affordability/ https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/facebook-commits-1-billion...

inferiorhuman 7y ago
Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the middle of downtown (Market St area). So if you live/work near Market St (especially near Tenderloin), you'll feel like homeless people are everywhere. If you don't, you probably won't I saw comments (perhaps yours?) along these lines on the last HN post about San Francisco I read. This doesn't jive with my experiences in San Francisco at all. In fact a couple weeks ago I took the 38R to the outer richmond and was just shocked both by the number of vacant storefronts along Geary and the number of homeless folks around. I felt super safe in SF. Even in the Tenderloin, I never felt unsafe or heard of any of my friends being mugged or anything. Stolen bikes, yes. There are parts in and around the Tenderloin that feel very sketch, even if they're safe. You can find neighborhoods like that in most any big city. The difference in SF is that they're in the middle of downtown I've never had a problem in the Tenderloin and I've plenty of opportunity to, but Turk & Taylor definitely earned its reputation. It's a dirty and poor neighborhood but the junkies generally put me less on edge than the folks with more outward facing psychiatric issues like you find in Potrero. Public transportation isn't anywhere near as good as NYC, but you can get most anywhere on a bus and/or muni (metro/subway). Where I lived most recently (Haight Ashbury area), I thought public transportation was pretty convenient. I took ubers to get to my office in Dogpatch though New Yorkers will happily kvetch about their public transit (last time I was there I ended up talking with these women on the subway who were grousing about having to transfer or walk a few blocks because late night service was upended by construction/maintenance). And, quite frankly, you'll have trouble getting to the outer reaches (especially outer Queens + Brooklyn) on a bus/taxi/subway car. The Haight is incredibly well served by buses and streetcars, but the Dogpatch is not. The metro past embarcadero is a shit show (by design).
baby 7y ago
> Homeless people are rare in most of SF Woot. I find it extremely hard to avoid them unless you live in a very very residential part of SF and you only stay there. I'm in Castro and I cross probably 15 homeless people just walking to my bus every morning. > I felt super safe in SF I met several people who told me this, they are all used to the city and have been here (or worse places) for a while. On the other hand I've lived in China, France, England, Canada and moving here to SF was really scary in my first couple months, I can say I got used to it though. But definitely one of the sketchier place I've ever been in the world.

inferiorhuman 7y ago

Homeless people are rare in most of SF, but super common in the middle of downtown (Market St area). So if you live/work near Market St (especially near Tenderloin), you'll feel like homeless people are everywhere. If you don't, you probably won't I saw comments (perhaps yours?) along these lines on the last HN post about San Francisco I read. This doesn't jive with my experiences in San Francisco at all. In fact a couple weeks ago I took the 38R to the outer richmond and was just shocked both by the number of vacant storefronts along Geary and the number of homeless folks around. I felt super safe in SF. Even in the Tenderloin, I never felt unsafe or heard of any of my friends being mugged or anything. Stolen bikes, yes. There are parts in and around the Tenderloin that feel very sketch, even if they're safe. You can find neighborhoods like that in most any big city. The difference in SF is that they're in the middle of downtown I've never had a problem in the Tenderloin and I've plenty of opportunity to, but Turk & Taylor definitely earned its reputation. It's a dirty and poor neighborhood but the junkies generally put me less on edge than the folks with more outward facing psychiatric issues like you find in Potrero. Public transportation isn't anywhere near as good as NYC, but you can get most anywhere on a bus and/or muni (metro/subway). Where I lived most recently (Haight Ashbury area), I thought public transportation was pretty convenient. I took ubers to get to my office in Dogpatch though New Yorkers will happily kvetch about their public transit (last time I was there I ended up talking with these women on the subway who were grousing about having to transfer or walk a few blocks because late night service was upended by construction/maintenance). And, quite frankly, you'll have trouble getting to the outer reaches (especially outer Queens + Brooklyn) on a bus/taxi/subway car. The Haight is incredibly well served by buses and streetcars, but the Dogpatch is not. The metro past embarcadero is a shit show (by design).

baby 7y ago

> Homeless people are rare in most of SF Woot. I find it extremely hard to avoid them unless you live in a very very residential part of SF and you only stay there. I'm in Castro and I cross probably 15 homeless people just walking to my bus every morning. > I felt super safe in SF I met several people who told me this, they are all used to the city and have been here (or worse places) for a while. On the other hand I've lived in China, France, England, Canada and moving here to SF was really scary in my first couple months, I can say I got used to it though. But definitely one of the sketchier place I've ever been in the world.