Reasons Why San Francisco Is the Worst Place Ever

[Jesus Malverde]

2014 is slowly turning into the "Year of San Francisco." The East Coast media in America has anointed SF as the new hub for innovation, conspicuous consumption, and comically absurd rents. New York Magazine parachuted a bunch of reporters into the Bay Area to figure out how to steal their douchebags back. The article asked "Is San Francisco New York?" No, it's much worse. The existential crisis around San Francisco's ascension to the heights of assholery stands in stark contrast to the fact that it is damn near unlivable for most normal people.

The end is nigh for a city that used to be a magnet for the counter-culture. San Francisco was strangled, so we decided to go over the numerous causes of death.

Everyone Worth a Damn Is Moving to Oakland

San Francisco used to be that place you moved to if you were too weird for LA, but too lazy for New York. It was a perfect city to ply your trade as a quirky motherfucker with a penchant for “edgy performance art” and whimsical scarves. That was just dandy. We liked that.

Around every corner, there could be an anarchist bookshop or a dude covered in glitter, wearing a Spongebob t-shirt, and sporting a raging hard-on. Where did that San Francisco go? Across the fucking bridge, that's where.

http://www.vice.com/read/reasons-why-san-francisco-is-the-worst-place-ever

[lostincalifornia]

1. yes, SF isn't cheap, however, New York is far more expensive, and a lot more people in NY are out to

take advantage of you. There is a nice ruddiness, and arrogance in NY that you will never find in SF, or in California as a whole, if we are comparing Apples with Apples.

Weather sucks in NY also

[tridim]

2. NY smells pretty bad too. SF, not so much.

[Xithras]

10. That really, really depends on the part of the city you're in.

Take a walk around the Mission after a week or two without rain. Blech.

[tridim]

35. All I know is I smelled it every day for the entire time I lived in NYC.

And I moved away, at least in part because of the constant urine smell. Yuck. I'm pretty sure people that grow up in NYC can't smell it.

I'll take wharf odors any day over urine odor.

[demwing]

53. Stroll through the Tenderloin

But stroll quickly, and wear gloves if you have to touch anythig, or try some of thefees fish markers in Chinatown

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Actually SF has the highest median rents in the US....

San Francisco’s status as a pricey place to live has been confirmed, and then some.

The City has the highest median rent among the nation’s largest cities, beating New York handily, according to data from 2010 to 2012 released today by the U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/new-numbers-show-san-francisco-has-nations-highest-rents/Content?oid=2626465

[m-lekktor]

22. yup, I was corrected on this issue on facebook a few months ago.

It changed from Manhattan to SF a few years back if i remember correctly, i didn't look at your link yet.

[lostincalifornia]

27. I don't care what the examiner says, the last 2 years when my daughter was in NY she was

Paying around 2500 a month for a dinky studio that she had to go through a broker to find, and climb 4 stories up because there was no elevator

Park Merced for a studio would cost around 2200 with more square footage. You can also find cheaper places

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. I live 50 miles away and haven't been there for more than a year.

No place to park, and killer tickets if your meter expires.

I have been to Oakland and Berkeley several times, though.

But I want to go back to the sci-i bookstore in the Mission.

[AcertainLiz]

5. I always prefered Southern California to Northern California

[taught_me_patience]

6. Doesn't mention the barage of a-holes who think they are god's

gift to the world because they went to Cal. My sister went to Cal and, to this day, still tries to argue that it was a better school than Stanford. Delusional idiots.

[hunter]

9. Stanford has Donald Rumsfeld, Cal has Robert Reich.

'nuff said.

[reddread]

13. Yoo think so?

SF is hell on earth.

[KamaAina]

18. In that case, I may be going to Hell in a bucket, baby

but at least I'm enjoying the ride! Ride, ride, ride! At least I'm enjoying the ride!

[lostincalifornia]

30. Absolutely, best place ever

[arcane1]

52. Hell yeah!

[hunter]

36. I'm a child of past times. I've slept in the Golden Gate Park or in the homes of people I just met.

I wouldn't do the 'seventies over again, but it's a part of who I am. I experienced my first dive-bar violence in San Francisco.

I've got relatives who still live in San Francisco. No, they are not wealthy, but they still manage to exist in the few niches not overrun by big money.

My great-grandfather owned a big house in San Francisco. My grandma was born there. He passed away over-leveraged, just before the Great Depression started, and this was one of the properties lost. The house still stands but it's been sub-divided into apartments. I stopped by the place a few years ago and one of the residents, a Middle Eastern immigrant, was astonished that my great grandfather, his wife, kids, and an Irish cook-housekeeper had once had the entire house to themselves. There are six mailboxes now and quite a few unrelated people living there.

The uber-wealthy class benefits from austerity, recessions, and depressions. That's when they steal all the stuff hard-working, optimistic, and ethical people have created.

[reddread]

40. lived in Berkeley in 71

those were different times. There is nothing up there that is worth the trouble since long time gone.

[joeybee12]

21. And Stanford had Condoliar Rice, too...nt

[DJ13]

32. Stanford has the greatest hospital on earth

Of course I'm prejudiced, their oncology department (and Dr. Brendon Visser*) saved my wife's life in 2012.

Beautiful facility.


*
https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/surgery/brendan-visser

[hunter]

37. I have a similar story, with similar happy-ever-afters...

...but it's not all unicorns and rainbows.

It's a long drive there and back and like you I'll bet I never want to do it again.

[DJ13]

41. Yep, a very long drive!

3.5 hrs each way, 2x per week for a total of 4 weeks.

I made so many trips I was becoming a regular at a couple of businesses along the way.

Actually I would like to make the trip again, just so I could actually spend some time in SF itself.

Never did get the chance to go to there when my wife was sent home.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

51. Cal has John Yoo.

Try again.

[Arugula Latte]

24. Two words: Hoover Institution. Plus Cal has a vibrant, exciting campus & Stanford is a snooze fest

My son recently took a tour of Stanford and said: "It reminded me of a boring suburban country club."

Also, you have got to be kidding if you think Cal snobbery eclipses Stanford snobbery.

Go Bears.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

38. Stanford calls itself the Harvard of the West

Some folks who went there even say Harvard is the Stanford of the East.

Stanford snobbery is pretty damn high.

[closeupready]

7. As a gay man, I never really "got" SF - I came of age just when AIDS

emerged, and so that put the kibosh on much of the sex stuff that probably made the 70's there so much fun. And I was there in the early 90's (right after Northridge), and it felt subdued and not crazy at all.

I do get wanting to be surrounded 24/7 by your own kind, without feeling a need to check yourself (as Panti Bliss explained so well), but I always found the lure of the East Coast and Europe much more appealing, and I can't even articulate quite why.

I still entertain fantasies about another one or two big moves in my life - like most people, California is one likely spot on my list, but I doubt SF proper would ever be a place I'd move, at this point in my life.

[upaloopa]

8. This was great. I love going to San Francisco

and every time I go it seems a little less of a cool place to visit then the last time I went.
In December of last year we went for the weekend. It was our anniversary and we go there pretty often on our anniversary.
What got to me this time was the fact that everything in Union Square seemed to be geared to young twenty somethings with lots of money. All the clothing stores and the movies playing were not meant for us old farts.
All the young women looked like they were wearing the same uniform of leggings, high top boots and frilly top that stopped just above their ass. After walking around a while we felt like we were not the consumers they wanted shopping at their stores.

Golden Gate park is still a great place to spend time as a tourist and San Rafael and the towns north of there are still great to visit.

[CreekDog]

11. San Francisco was not the caricature portrayed in the OP

San Francisco is a place where people live and work and tourists visit.

It has a lot of amazing qualities, it is also very popular and has been expensive for that reason for a long time.

As for everyone worth a damn, that's BS. It's a ridiculous assertion. There are great people in Oakland, the governor among them, and others, and there are great people in San Francisco.

This column was written for shock value, but it's not shocking to just type a bunch of lies, it's annoying and misleading. But some people like that kind of thing.

[Eleanors38]

12. THAT explains the population growth in Austin.

[KamaAina]

14. "The Wharf is where all the street vendors make $80,000 a year and live in SOMA."

[KurtNYC]

15. Kind of a whiny article

The authors seem not to notice that SF has been like this for the last 30 years or so.

Sky high rents, attitude, high end chain stores, AGGRESSIVE pan-handlers, big worthless tourist districts, people being sleazy -- what is "counter-culture" about that?

The negative publicity, mostly untrue, about SF in the 1960s actually attracted dirty, lazy, drug addicts. That isn't the counter culture -- that is auto-oppression. The counter culture got things done -- unlike whiny complainers -- stopped a war, civil rights, embracing diversity, on and on. Ironically, all the media lies and name calling ("hippie" is deragatory) and smearing of SF helped turn the city into something it wasn't and still struggles not to be.

"too weird for L.A." -- there is no such thing, and if there is, they go to Venice.

[KamaAina]

16. Who wrote this tripe? Peter Shih?

http://sfist.com/2013/08/15/startup_bro_not_completely_stoked_o.php

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Yet San Fran leads the nation in policies to help the poor

And have publicly funded elections.

Go figure.

[MicaelS]

19. SF seems infested with RW Libertarians in the IT industry.

That, for no other reason, makes it a place to avoid at all costs, IMO.

[Nye Bevan]

20. Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded (nt)

[KamaAina]

42. Nice post, Yogi!

[Jamaal510]

54. +1

[hunter]

23. Big money ruins everything it touches.

That's one reason I think the obscenely wealthy ought to be taxed out of existence.

The range of wealth ought to be from a baseline of comfortable full time education, retirement, disability, or welfare, to comfortable working class with plenty of leisure time and money to play with or invest, to very comfortable incomes with maybe a big house, fancy car, but still living in the same communities and sending their kids to the same schools as everyone else.

Giant corporations would not be owned or controlled by an uber-wealthy class, they would be owned and controlled by many ordinary people, including working class people.

Steeply progressive taxes and heavy estate taxes would prevent high concentrations of stagnant and destructive wealth. Society would be much more democratic.

I'm tired of seeing quirky communities I've loved transformed into wastelands of toxic wealth.

People with too much money and no sense are attracted to a community because of it's diversity and unique character and then they destroy it by expelling the community that made it so.

[Arugula Latte]

25. I love SF. Always have, always will.

Some of the best memories of my life stem from living there.

Signed, Arugula "Herb Caen" Latte.

[villager]

26. Sadly, even the "Herb Caen" reference will be lost on many, at this point

At least you didn't say "Art Hoppe" or "Charles McCabe!"

[Arugula Latte]

28. or "Stanton Delaplane"!

[villager]

29. Oh boy! That woulda really thrown 'em!

[Dirty Socialist]

31. I Love Their Restaurants

Was there in 2006. Excellent food. Eagle Cafe, John's Grill, Cha Anh, Hunan House, Sears Restaurant, and that Tiki Restaurant, where I piled up a $34 bar bill. The people working at the restaurants were real nice. The others living in the city, not so much. Drivers were surprisingly bad. Scenery very nice.

[REP]

33. All of the Bay Area is terrible. Nobody should come here to live. It's awful and expensive.

You wouldn't like it here. Trust me.

[TDale313]

39. Oh, absolutely. Totally sucks.

And I know, cause I've lived here my whole life. South Bay, from way back when people were asking "Do you know the way to San Jose?" The good and bad news? They found it. I still love my Bay Area, including The City. Can't imagine living anywhere else.

[Jamaal510]

55. At least Oakland is.

I've lived there (particularly in the Eastside) my entire life, and there's not much there except shootings and sideshows. The only decent part of town seems to be the Hills. If a person has money, though, I'd recommend the inland East Bay (e.g. Livermore, Concord, etc.).

[REP]

58. Absolutely. Stay far away from the Peninsula and Santa Cruz Mountains.

And stay the fuck off 17.

[BeyondGeography]

34. It's pervasive in the western world; great cities becoming unmanageably expensive, and that's a done

deal. The only option is to create more great cities. I tell my 18-year-old don't come back to New York until you have at least $7-8K a month coming in after taxes, and even then you'll need a boyfriend.

Not that she'll listen to me.

But what fun are cities without kids and what fun is it to be a kid with nothing but overhead? Especially if you're creative or doing anything that doesn't pay all that well.

People who are looking at the future, 30-40 years out, see a massive growth in metro areas and particularly cities. People want the efficiencies (technological infrastructure ranking high on the list) and the excitement of cities. The list of great towns will grow; it needs to.

[Throd]

43. I love 'Frisco in small doses.

That's right, I said "Frisco".

I live near Sacramento, so I can get to SF pretty quickly to enjoy the ambiance. Then I go back home where my mortgage is still less than the rent on a 600 sq ft apartment with winos in the doorway.

[Tikki]

44. We do know that San Francisco is actually NOT the worse place ever...

It is actually a very nice place…especially to visit. It is full of some truly amazing people
and is a proud point on the map of the United States of America.
California loves San Francisco.

The Tikkis

[Corruption Inc]

45. Therein lies "the revolution" that will occur across the U.S.

People will simply refuse to take part in the obscene predatory corruption and make other lives for themselves.

[NightWatcher]

46. time to move to Portlandia?

[Corruption Inc]

47. Love that tune!

and the show.

[NightWatcher]

48. excuse me, is the chicken local?

That show is great

[wryter2000]

49. Hush about Oakland

We don't want everyone over here. Most places in Oakland you can still find a place to park.

If I wanted to live in SF, I would. No thanks. Give me Oaktown, aka Bummpcity, any day.

[Blue_Tires]

57. Too late...

The hipsters are already en route...

[SpookyCat]

50. Gotta throw some love at my little City

I love my City in a way that may be pathological.

My dad and my g'ma were both born here. G'ma was a 1906 Quake survivor (she was 5.)

When my dad was a kid he would go to Seal Stadium and watch the SF Seals play.

He went to Sutro Baths for some fun.

G'ma didn't come out here to the Richmond District when she was young, because there wasn't one.

My long rambling point being, cities change. All cities, everywhere on earth. The City they knew is long gone.

But...GG Park is there and lovely. The Presidio is there and lovely. The museums are here, the food is here and the neighborhoods are diverse.

People should live where ever it is that makes you happy. Viva la différence!

[Niceguy1]

56. its been that way forever

[Awknid]

59. I fell in love with SF in 1973

I've always wanted to move there. I go as often as I can and although its changed a lot, it's still way better than anywhere else. But the thing that always wins my heart is the view of the Golden Gate from the overlooks in Marin. I want my ashes sprinkled there!

I'll get there someday for good, even if I'm dead!

[Boom Sound 416]

60. So if San Francisco were New York,

It would be Brooklyn?

[TeamPooka]

61. Bazinga!