11 ms·
I agree on almost all of your points with a few caveats. - Cars : The Bay Area is very walkable but that’s mainly SF. The tech burbs of Palo Alto , Menlo Park
by nus07 6y ago
I agree on almost all of your points with a few caveats.
- Cars : The Bay Area is very walkable but that’s mainly SF. The tech burbs of Palo Alto , Menlo Park are not super walkable and you are relying on the BART and other public transport . But Covid has destroyed public transport and cuts in funding threaten them further.
LGBT : This is not really the 80s and 90s . Most big cities from DC, Atlanta, Austin ,Chicago, Phoenix, Miami have strong LGBT presence . And a lot of racial heterogeneity there too.
Art and Culture: Almost all artists that I met in Austin, Chicago , Miami , Portland , Asheville left the Bay Area . They were priced out by tech . Everything is tech in the Bay Area . Even artists have to align or suck up to tech .
High quality food: Yes, again a lot of other cities are replicating that.
The Bay Area is truly great and very beautiful . But I cannot constantly hustle at 45 while raising 2 kids , pay a million dollars for a shack . I am sort of tired of constantly competing and hustling . I am tired of being told that we are counter culture since we are not Wall Street bro’s but I need a million dollars for a 1950s 2 bedroom house .
- whoisburbansky 6y agoAgree on all counts, just putting Seattle out there as another city with a strong LGBT presence.
- throwaway201103 6y agoCan't speak for other cities, and maybe not even Chicago today, but when I lived there, there was a lot of diversity in the loop (the downtown business district) during the workday, but beyond that it was a very segregated city. Also, though I did own a car, I really only used it on weekend trips out of town. If I had stayed long-term, I would have sold it, because it's expensive to own one there (parking is expensive unless you want to gamble on finding a spot on the street, and there are extra city taxes on gas and registration). Chicago is pretty walkable and has usable mass transit.
- skrtskrt 6y agoChicago is pretty segregated, but the transit situation is easily the best of any major US city. A car helps you get places quicker, but an adventurous person can get all over the city easily on the buses and trains and any given neighborhood is very walkable. The main issue is the cold. You have 3 months of amazing summer and 8 months of cold with two weeks of spring and fall on either end. If you're not from the Midwest, it can really wear on you and bring you down.
- busterarm 6y agoCold is fine. Getting robbed at gunpoint isn't. That's the real Chicago you have to contend with.
- ketamine__ 6y agoNever happened to me or my friends. And apparently there's less poop on the sidewalks than SF.
- rightbyte 6y agoI don't know anyone that died of Covid. I wash my hands and are not walking around in Chicago.
- ketamine__ 6y agoI have no plans to live in fear and plan to walk around downtown Chicago in the future.
- busterarm 6y agoHappened to a friend across the street from University of Chicago 2 weeks ago.
- stephencanon 6y agoOnly place I’ve been robbed is SF (Tenderloin, 2002). Only place I’ve had my car broken into is SFBA (Berkeley 2008, San Jose and SF in 2018).
- rayiner 6y agoMost big cities are segregated, both economically and racially—and the economic segregation amplifies the racial segregation. The exodus of middle class Black and Hispanic people from high cost urban areas drives some crazy income distributions in places like San Francisco: https://statisticalatlas.com/place/California/San-Francisco/Household-Income https://statisticalatlas.com/place/California/San-Francisco/.... If your apartment building, restaurants, etc., are places mainly populated by those making over $100k/year, there will be a vanishingly small number of Black people in those places. (See table 10). Contrast somewhere like Atlanta, where a third of households making $75-100k/year (a very comfortable income in that city) are Black.
- robotnikman 6y agoPhoenix and the surrounding area also has a decent LGBT presence.
- ghaff 6y agoAnd SF wrt cars only to some degree. I know a couple who decamped to SF and sold their cars when their kids got older. They do indeed live without owning cars. They also use Ubers, ZipCars, and regular rental all the time. I think a lot depends on what you're used to. I think a lot of folks accept the limited mobility they knew through school when they graduate. It becomes less acceptable as they get older. Many exceptions of course.
- chao- 6y agoYou can make a lot of things work in a lot of places. I have lived in both Dallas and Houston without a car, for example (but also Berlin, Santiago, Tokyo, so I have comparison points). If you don't have kids, and have the freedom to plan a bit around where you live and work, you won't really feel like you're missing anything. I would take a trip via Lyft twice a month to some venue that's further away than the bike/rail/bus combo could get me, but that's about all.
- ghaff 6y agoTBH though, I'm mostly not interested in "making things work" if I have more convenient options. At one point, I spent a lot of time in Houston and I absolutely needed a car--for my job if nothing else. But even living in New Orleans at that time I absolutely needed a car for my job.
- sutterbomb 6y agoWhat’s a good neighborhood or two in Houston where it’s possible to do this?
- chao- 6y agoThe easiest in terms of pure transit is the corridor in Midtown along the Red Line. From about Alabama up to Downtown. Second is Montrose which for some people will have a cooler vibe. Within Midtown, the further North you go, there are a few more bars/clubs that make noise at night, so either live further South, live a few blocks East or West of the rail, or both. Huge amounts of apartment stock just came online in the last 3 years there, so you might get a solid rent deal somewhere? For me personally, being able to walk to a grocery store is always key anywhere in the world: shop every 2-3 days on the way home from work, only buy what I need, less waste. That area has two grocery stores: Randall's and Whole Foods. Montrose is the other top spot. For me it is the #1 example of how Houston's lack of zoning can shine (versus other areas where it is a detriment). Fantastic local retail interspersed among every-other residential block. Montrose is a large-ish area and every half mile can be a slightly different "feel", but there are great options to rent newer apartments, older apartments, or rent spacious, cheap, historical houses close to things like Menil Park, or the big restaurant scene along Westheimer. Sadly the Kroger at Hawthorne is closing, but the huge HEB is dead-center of Montrose. East a bit and you're near Trader Joe's. If you're anywhere along Westheimer, the 82 bus goes to to Midtown Whole Foods and if you're along West Gray the 32 bus goes to the Kroger near River Oaks. The whole area always has things happening (check the pinboards at Inversion or Black Hole), and is next door to Midtown for even more. If Downtown would get a larger grocery store with slightly more affordable staples (no offense to Phoenecia), and have it close-ish to where the rail lines meet, the entirety of Downtown would immediately become more viable (imo). I have friends both in Downtown, and in the Heights (solid bike culture there), but they eat out more than I do. The Heights started getting expensive ten years ago and doesn't look to stop, but it's still an option. In about 5 years I think the Greater East End will be another great walkable/bikeable region (the actual East End, not EaDo), so depending where along the gentrification curve you prefer to live (before, during, after) it might be worth checking out now.
- throwaway6734 6y agoIs there a general belief that San Francisco is a counter cultural place?
- busterarm 6y agoOnly by some San Franciscans who've been sniffing their own farts for too long. Everyone else thinks that The Bay is culturually homogenous.
- bosswipe 6y agoIf I said something bad about "red necks" or other such subcultures people would get angry and indignant. But somehow it's become OK to make disparaging comments like that about San Franciscans.
- 0x2d123 6y agoRednecks and San Franciscans aren't protected classes of people.
- bosswipe 6y agoHuh? I wasn't talking about legal stuff.
- 0x2d123 6y agoIt matters. People won't make fun of protected classes because they might be cancelled and possibly even land in jail some day if some people get their way with our laws. Anything not against the law or against the cultural norms is free game for making fun of.
- bart_spoon 6y agoAs someone living in the Midwest, I assure you that we do get slandered far more often than San Franciscans and no one bats an eye.
- mattcaldwell 6y agoEven smaller towns, like Asheville (where I am now), have a huge LGBTQIA+ presence. I moved from DC, which was pretty gay, and I feel like it's even more super gay here.
- legerdemain 6y agoPresence, sure. What about legal protections around seemingly trivial daily things like bathroom use? Family planning services focusing on the needs of LGBT families? Doctors who have experience with LGBT patients, whom these patients can trust and talk to candidly? Churches that welcome LGBT members without pressuring them to change fundamental aspects of their lives? Mental health specialists that cater to LGBT needs? People who are visibly out (or trans) in the workplace and talk about their loved ones without discomfort? Support for children and adolescents with diverse identities? There's a world of difference between "yeah, we have gay people" and being a place where LGBT people can build happy, stable lives.
- devtosales 6y agoChildren don’t have diverse identities. I used to think I was Batman, my mate used to think he was black. Impressionable children are impressionable.
- legerdemain 6y agoCase in point.
- devtosales 6y agoWhat a world when people can attack then rejection of child abuse and that’s socially acceptable.
- mattcaldwell 6y agoJesus.
- Bahamut 6y agoA caveat on the caveat about cars - I live without a car in the suburbs just fine (Sunnyvale). YMMV, but for me a car would be more of a nice to have. I'll probably get one in a few years anyway after maybe buying a house here, but it's not something I view as an urgent expense.
- gmadsen 6y agothe article referenced was from 2016... many of the LGBT issues presented are still real concerns.
- dcolkitt 6y ago> The Bay Area is very walkable but that’s mainly SF. The tech burbs of Palo Alto , Menlo Park are not super walkable and you are relying on the BART and other public transport . Even SF is not very walkable compared to Chicago, DC, Philly, Boston, etc. (All significantly cheaper than SF.) Even by American standards, the BART is a pretty second-rate metro. (And that's not even counting the fact that nowadays it's essentially unsafe at night, for single women, etc.)
- xvedejas 6y agoTo push back a bit: SF proper must have the best bus system of any city in the US. It's possible to get pretty much anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, even late at night, with just a quick bus ride or two. I won't say MUNI is perfect but it's doing a lot of things right. Anyone who thinks BART is synonymous with SF's inner city transportation is really not making their way around the city by transit.
- physicsguy 6y agoI don’t live in the US but have been to a few US cities for work. San Diego was horrendous without a car. DC was very good, even though when I travelled there had been heavy snow. I’ve been to SF twice in the last three years. My impression of SF’s public transport (and to be honest, walking around parts of it too) was that I did not feel very safe using the MUNI buses, especially at night. I saw on the news that a British guy got stabbed near my hotel a week after I left the first time. On one occasion I also witnessed a bus driver drive past a guy in a wheelchair in the middle of the day. Someone on the bus challenged them on that and I vividly remember that she said “I ain’t lettin no cripple pee pee all over my bus.” The BART was much better but obviously is more limited in where it goes.
- Apocryphon 6y agoOn the other hand, MUNI is incredibly overcrowded along certain lines now, and conditions on the buses are often filthy (though perhaps that's common in all dense large U.S. cities).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]