Lived there for many years, it's about as good as you'll get in the west coast (setting a terribly low bar here), but still not in the same league or even unive

Lived there for many years, it's about as good as you'll get in the west coast (setting a terribly low bar here), but still not in the same league or even universe as Tokyo (where I've moved to and the commenter mentioned). All of SoMA is dominated by huge, high-speed pedestrian hostile thoroughfares; trains only go through one corridor so most of the city is excluded from connectivity (Muni is horribly slow and unreliable so you can't actually depend on it in daily life), not to mention the slow frequency, ear-splitting volume and noxious odors; affordability is downright awful so anyone middle-class couldn't experience it; and the whole city is filthy and dangerous so if you aren't a 20-something able-bodied large male walking in the middle of the day who ideally isn't a minority, you can't really make use of the freedom anyway (and even if you are crazy people will still try to pick fights with you for no reason... yeah never again). In SF's defense the bike-share more or less works given how tiny the city is. But don't ride your own bike or it'll be stolen in a week...