7 ms·
What sickens me most about San Francisco is not its dirt, or its large homeless population, or its questionable safety, but that locals and the city government
by davidmathers 17y ago
What sickens me most about San Francisco is not its dirt, or its large homeless population, or its questionable safety, but that locals and the city government seem to accept these circumstances.
What al3x appears to not know: It's not about passive acceptance. There is a major political force that fights for the circumstances that he finds (and I find) so objectionable.
In this mentally defective "progressive" movement--that can't tell the difference between helping the poor and helping poverty--cleaning up bad neighborhoods is called "gentrification" and fought tooth and nail. Likewise any plan to fight homelessness that isn't some variation of "give the homeless more free money." The result is a massive political deadlock between two sides that can never agree on anything. Perpetual warfare.
The situation is, in reality, both much better and much worse than he understands. Better because we're not a city full of selfish bohemians. Worse because we are a backwards, provincial city with a deeply broken political culture.
But, even though I also hate victorian architecture, I can't think of anywhere else I would rather live. Portland is way too homogenous and small-town for me.
Edit: btw, I love my transit situation. I use a combination of bicycle (mostly), City CarShare (a fleet of cars at my disposal), Muni trains, and cabs. Not owning a car is a fairly high priority for me. And the only city with decent public transportation is Paris.
- aaronbrethorst 17y agoTry Seattle. Our usual response to gentrification is "oh that sucks...Oh hey, a new cupcake shop just opened up!" No really. Edit: plus, Ben Gibbard, the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie, jogged past my place the other day. Evidently Zooey Deschanel now lives in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are not involved in tech. I'm sitting in the bar around the corner from my apartment writing this on a big couch drinking a great local microbrew while using their free wifi. If I really wanted a stable job, I'd go back to Microsoft. The only downside to this whole thing is that Zooey Deschanel is now married.
- davidmathers 17y agoEvidently Zooey Deschanel now lives in my neighborhood. I don't even know who that is. In LA you'd have movie star neighbors. The "famous" people in my neighborhood are internet micro-celebrities like Veronica Belmont and porn stars like Madison Young. Perfect, for me. Edit: ah, I see now that Zooey Deschanel is a movie star. Also, downvote wtf? Seriously, explain yourselves. I'm perplexed by your rejection of my comment.
- khafra 17y agoI dunno if you can make the argument that, in the Seattle area, most of your neighbors won't be involved in tech. Microsoft, Amazon, Nintendo, multiple Google centers--hell, Ed Fries lives across the street from some of my old friends back there. There's many reasons to choose Seattle, but non-tech neighbor probability isn't a good one.
- aaronbrethorst 17y agowell, my next door neighbor wrote Small Arms (http://www.smallarmsgame.com/ http://www.smallarmsgame.com/), so my argument isn't entirely valid... :)
- carbon8 17y agoWhat's your neighborhood? Which other areas are good?
- aaronbrethorst 17y agoCapitol Hill. Specifically along 15th Ave. I used to live in upper Queen Anne, but it was a little too soccer mom'ish for my tastes. Depending on your tastes, you might also want to check out: Belltown, lower Queen Anne, the Central District, and Pioneer Square.
- sree_nair 17y ago>> And the only city with decent public transportation is Paris. Try London.
- davidmathers 17y agoI have.
- maryrosecook 17y agoA frequently running bus anywhere in the city for £1. Super-fast, mostly reliable Underground to most places that people call London for £2.
- dagw 17y agoI was in London a few month ago and had to pay something like £4 to take the tube 3 stops. So either prices have dropped, I got screwed or your numbers are off.
- sharpn 17y agoYou got screwed. The cash single fare is about double the incremental fare using an 'oyster' card.
- jedc 17y agoYep, you got screwed. Next time pay the £3 for an Oyster card, and save a TON of money. Whether you pay trip-by-trip or a travelcard for a day/week/etc, Oyster is WAY less expensive.
- padmapper 17y agoYeah, in London currently, did a double take when I saw the difference between Oyster and standard fare. The standard fare is absurd, whereas oyster puts it on par with NYC (and has the very nice feature of acting as a la carte until you reach a maximum for the day, at which point it effectively becomes a day pass).
- 17y ago
- gecko 17y agoParis over New York?