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This seems more of a "West Coast vs. East Coast" article than it is a "San Fran" article. For the most part, the author is highlighting the differences that an
by run4yourlives 14y ago
This seems more of a "West Coast vs. East Coast" article than it is a "San Fran" article.
For the most part, the author is highlighting the differences that anybody living on the East Coast will experience in moving to one of the western coastal cities, save perhaps LA, which as everyone already knows is its own little planet.
Most of these "hints" hold true for San Diego, San Fran, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. They are all in the same vibe the way Philly, New York, Boston, and Toronto are "the same vibe".
- softbuilder 14y agoYou lost credibility with me by repeated use of the vulgar "San Fran". It's THE CITY. :)
- run4yourlives 14y agoWhat part of the Mission do you live in?
- scorpion032 14y agoDolores.
- untog 14y agoSan Diego, THE CITY, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver Yep, I can see how that would work.
- samstave 14y ago:) upvote for not having LA in that reply.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- kjackson2012 14y agoYes, no one from the Bay Area refers to San Francisco as "San Fran". Even worse is when people refer to it as "Frisco". It's either SF or "The City".
- mc32 14y agoOnly _some_ people from the city proper frown upon "San Fran", frisco, etc. Most people don't care and more over people that I know from elsewhere in the Bay area do some times call it San Fran or Frisco, if only to annoy people who get annoyed by the monikers. I couldn't care less what people call it. When I lived in towns closer to San Jose, 'San Jose' was the reference 'city'.
- titlex 14y agoThe only people who seem to get annoyed with the term "San Fran" and Frisco are either transplants or hipsters(which are usually transplants to begin with). Some of the old schoolers and hip hop community still use the term Frisco.
- juan_juarez 14y ago"The City" refers to the core of whatever urban area you're in. It's meaningless outside of your local frame of reference. The only place in the US that has a halfway legitimate claim universal ownership of that name is NYC and that's tenuous at best.
- kjackson2012 14y agoIf you read more carefully, I said people from the Bay Area call SF "The City". I didn't say it was the universal name for SF, just for the people in the area.
- run4yourlives 14y agoSure, but if you read more carefully, you'd understand the context for the rest of the entire conversation is national, if not North American. You can't expect everyone to switch context on your whim simply because you want to.
- w1ntermute 14y agoDon't you mean Frisco?
- wilfra 14y agoActually, it's 'frisco'
- bernardom 14y agommm..... Disagree: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dont-call-it-frisco-laundromat-san-francisco?select=o_OP-tUxvc93tVH1bZ2EfA#o_OP-tUxvc93tVH1bZ2EfA http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/dont-call-it-frisco-laundroma...
- mtalantikite 14y agoTell a New Yorker that SF is called The City and they're guaranteed to laugh ;) Saul Steinberg might put you guys on his map if it were to be made today, but you never know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Aven...
- dguaraglia 14y agoHah, I thought exactly the same. Even out here in Sacramento people call it "The City" (fair enough, Sacramento is just a big-ass, boring suburban sprawl)
- recursive 14y agoI just visited Sacramento this summer, and it seemed about 100x more interesting than where I'm from.
- dguaraglia 14y agoWell, where are you from? I'm so sad for you right now...
- recursive 14y agoThe middle of Wisconsin. But don't mourn for me. I always find things to do.
- batiudrami 14y agoComing as an Australian, where our brand of English is inherently lazy and involves skipping syllables wherever possible, the idea that you would frown upon a simple shortening of the name is ridiculous. Frisco does sound pretty lame though, I can understand that one.
- michaelhoffman 14y agoI'm sorry, I just don't think these points are true for the other cities you mention. As a Seattle inhabitant, the descriptions of San Francisco-specific weather, rent, cost of living, costumes, events, transients, canine-friendliness, fog, commuting, and other things just do not apply here. Of the first few things mentioned, only the strong neighborhood identity is something we share.
- run4yourlives 14y agoIt's most certainly true with regards to weather. Nights are noticeably colder everywhere on the west coast than in the hot, humid north east. canine-friendliness I'm not sure you understand what a canine-unfriendly city looks like - Seattle is certainly canine friendly. fog Not as bad, sure, but fog in Philly or Toronto is like an bi-annual event.
- sswezey 14y agoActually, a lot of it is pretty similar, especially if coming from the east coast. * Weather - replace fog with overcast/drizzle. * Rent & Cost of living - Seattle is not cheap by any means, and rent and house prices are really steep until you get quite far from the city. * Canine-friendliness - Definitely a west coast thing, there are tons of dogs in Seattle, dog parks, and companies that allow dogs at work. * Commuting and public transit - Commuting is bad here, I-5 and its interchanges with I-90 and WA-520 are pathetic. On top of that, native Seattleites are terrible drivers - driving below the speed limit in the left lanes, blindly changing lanes, and don't know how to use a 4-way stop. Then there is the layout of Seattle, with bad east-west travel and the ongoing road construction. Coming from not the west coast, San Fran, Portland, and Seattle do have some similarities - and aptly described as 'west coast' feel.
- philwelch 14y agoIf you live in the Seattle suburbs you're going to have a bad time, but it's not bad living within walking distance of most workplaces, the rent is lower than SF and the city isn't allergic to development, and salaries are almost as high, so you're considerably ahead overall. Also our public transit is awful.
- flatline 14y agoDefinitely true with regards to sports and costumes, but otherwise I'm not so sure this holds any more. Everything around D.C. is much further away than you think, for example, and more than half the people I meet work in the tech sector somewhere. I have friends in Boston and it's much the same there - live in the 'burbs and you won't leave your neighborhood much except to go to work, as the city is very spread out. The East Coast is changing, especially D.C., which is a totally different city than it was even 10 years ago, and has a burgeoning startup scene that is not solely dependent on the government teat. There are a lot more young people here, doing interesting things, than there used to be. I would wager than in another decade the differences between East and West Coast will be even fewer, if things keep on the same general trajectory.
- ghc 14y agoAs someone who lives in Boston, I would like to point out the falsehood of this. Boston is not spread out. By area it is tiny. From where I live I can walk through five major neighborhoods in half an hour, some of which are among the most densely populated neighborhoods in the country. Boston has much more in common with SF than it does DC.
- kjackson2012 14y agoNo. There's something to be said about West Coast vs East Coast vibes, but the article accurately describes SF and it mostly doesn't apply to the smaller cities like Portland, Seattle and especially Vancouver.
- run4yourlives 14y agoAside from the obvious, what exactly doesn't apply?
- kjackson2012 14y agoI have very close friends in Vancouver, and over the last 20 years, I've been to there often, throughout all parts of the season. I'm fairly familiar with it. If I could retire in Vancouver I would because it's a nice, quiet, slow-paced town. Even at the height of work hours, there is very little traffic downtown. It doesn't have the same flair that a city like SF has. SF has major events throughout the year. It has a culture of weirdness, wackiness, lots of technology, lots of greed. It has very vastly different neighborhoods with vastly different cultures. Haight is completely different from Noe which is different from Castro which is different from the Marina. It's not like West End vs East End in Vancouver. There is a culture of risk taking. People always coming up with stupid or crazy startups, trying to push it on the local businesses. There are lots of great restaurants as well. There is zero night life in Vancouver, and a few very good restaurants (but a lot of great sushi restaurants, much better than SF). Downtown is practically dead by 8pm, which is nice. Granville Street which should be like Market Street, is instead almost like a dead street, Robson has a lot of tourists, but no real culture except coffee shops. So go back through the article, and you'll see most of the stuff on startup life doesn't apply at all. There is no craziness or wackiness, no real tech scene, not on the scale of SF or Seattle, no sense of early adoption (not very many people has iPhones in Canada because of the draconian cell phone contracts), the idea that neighborhoods are far away doesn't exist in Vancouver because the traffic isn't nearly as bad as it is here, not even 1/10 as much fog as SF, etc.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- juan_juarez 14y agoCame in to say that much of it's true about Portland. The weather's better. Rent and the cost of living is cheaper, but finding a place close-in to downtown is still highly competitive (ie - you have to be ready to put down a deposit as soon as you find a place you like; there is no real opportunity to look at other places and come back). PBR is losing some of its cachet - you just as often see Hamm's or Old German as PBR anymore. I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever live near a city can agree that the 'burbs are always further out than a real-estate agent says they are. ...and unlike Oakland, all the shit people say about Gresham is true.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago(ie - you have to be ready to put down a deposit as soon as you find a place you like; there is no real opportunity to look at other places and come back). You mean that's not normal?
- juan_juarez 14y agoThings are different in less 'happening' cities, smaller towns or out in the burbs. You can actually spend a few days looking at units and have time to think about which you want. You can come back a 3-4 days later without worrying too much about your first choice being leased. If it is, you can probably get your 2nd.
- dolphins 14y agoI liked it for that reason. Given, I'm also moving from Boston to SF this year, so it's particularly applicable to me.