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We just went up for a quick visit on the way to a wedding in Mendocino. I admit that I was honestly a bit reluctant to even go into the City, as much as I have loved it for decades since the ‘60s, I didn’t want to see its purportedly present state.
Well, surprise! Coming in from the south off 280 there was a scruffy off-ramp with a bum begging, a few blocks in, one mentally disturbed man danced harmlessly across the street in stopped traffic, and then, quiet, utterly spit-shined clean San Francisco. No bums, no tents, no looting, no litter, no fentanyl zombies. Just beautiful fog, hills, architecture, neighborhoods, residents going about their day.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to find that The City was still here. Granted, ours was a limited in time and geography visit, but on the border of Japan Town and into Lower Pacific Heights the magical City of my many memories yet existed still. Busy, but not too busy sidewalks, boutiques, bars and restaurants all for the taking.
The leadership and voting blocks need to get their act together and shift its policies and priorities and start treating this cultural gem and its citizens with the respect and reverence they deserve. The overtly political messages being documented of all of our city’s challenges should be countered with some actual leadership.
We'll be back in Sept/Oct and I will be staying at the Four Seasons for a night or two. Normally I'd stay on the Peninsula but I want to be in the thick of the 'cesspool' so I can see the hyperbole 1st hand. And I suspect my experience will be just like the bolded part of your comment.
Election season must be coming. London Breed is all of a sudden fighting crime and saying she’ll do homeless sweeps. I’d normally say too little way too late your city is in ruins but it is Ca so she’ll probably be re-elected.
Election season must be coming. London Breed is all of a sudden fighting crime and saying she’ll do homeless sweeps. I’d normally say too little way too late your city is in ruins but it is Ca so she’ll probably be re-elected.
We'll be back in Sept/Oct and I will be staying at the Four Seasons for a night or two. Normally I'd stay on the Peninsula but I want to be in the thick of the 'cesspool' so I can see the hyperbole 1st hand. And I suspect my experience will be just like the bolded part of your comment.
Oh boy. You must be some kind of gambler. Better buy a lotto ticket while you're at it. Hope you're not accosted or robbed while there. No hyperbole needed, just the statistics and facts regarding robberies, theft and worse.
Oh boy. You must be some kind of gambler. Better buy a lotto ticket while you're at it. Hope you're not accosted or robbed while there. No hyperbole needed, just the statistics and facts regarding robberies, theft and worse.
Sure thing pal.
How long have you lived in the city? I'm guessing you have no idea what the norm for the city has been and essentially have no perspective on what myself or the other poster that called out the hyperbole understand. No gambling needed. I'm guessing the boys that cried wolf have had their day (no one cares). Never been robbed or accosted in the 50 years I lived in the SF Bay Area and I doubt it'll be happening when I visit, much to the chagrin of those that are all about bashing and making a mountain out of a molehill. Obviously you don't realize that crime has been significantly worse (you might want to actually look at those statistics that you are talking about).
Last edited by blameyourself; 09-04-2023 at 12:55 PM..
Just spent a nice Labor Day weekend in San Fran. As usual, we stayed East of the 101 and north of California--where all the fun touristy stuff is. Saw humpbacks swimming under the golden gate, hiked, biked, climbed Coit, hit up lots of great eateries, visited museums, bought some momentos, and had a really good time--as usual.
There were many tourists around. Most of them seemed to be European. I heard a lot of German and some French. There were some Chinese bundling around on tour busses, but I couldn’t tell if they were just from outside the area, or actual China.
The city looks better and livelier than a year ago. Busier. Bars and restaurants were packed out the doors. Tons of families and tourists out and about on the streets, parks, and playgrounds. Significantly fewer homeless camps than in the past. Still saw a couple of gibbering zombies, but my overall sense is that things are on the upswing compared to immediately post-covid. The hotel was busier and service overall was better. No masking anywhere, nor signs/mention of it, except for some elderly asians; the same as you would have seen pre-2019.
We usually drive a tiny clear-windowed hatchback beater up and wedge it into a free space, so I was a little apprehensive about bringing my big fancy tint-window minivan into the city, but there was no problem. I found free weekend-long curbside parking right in the center of things, and nobody messed with my wheels. I also didn’t see any broken glass evidence of old break-ins anywhere.
I have to say, every time I visit SF, I am very tempted to move there. We visit techy places and do education-and-kid-centric activities. For those, SF is clearly king. I’ve been to children’s museums all over the country and the world--Europe, Asia, and the East Coast to the Midwest to SoCal. SF clearly has THE BEST focus on education of anywhere in the country, and possibly the world. From Silicon Valley to the tip of the peninsula, it is obviously the undisputed center of the tech universe, and I feel like I might be doing our children a disservice by not moving into the heart of the action, since we could make it happen.
At the same time, SF is still a major American city, with all the warts that entails. Also it’s colder and more miserable than SoCal for most of the year. This weekend was awesome, but it was much cooler and foggier the day we left. While I love visiting SF, I think we will just keep visiting and make do with our location on the periphery.
I did note that there was a LOT more traffic going the opposite way: A huge jam on the 101 going south out of the SF/SV at the beginning of the holiday weekend, and another massive jam going North back into SF/SV at the end. That made us feel smug, as we didn’t hit any slowdowns at all going in the opposite direction.
Question for the natives: I saw some florid-faced fat bald turds riding around on choppers, trying to annoy pub-goers by circling busy areas and revving their engines next to people eating and drinking outside. Are those guys actually from SF, or do out-of-towners ride in on weekends just to get attention? What do you think?
Just spent a nice Labor Day weekend in San Fran. As usual, we stayed East of the 101 and north of California--where all the fun touristy stuff is. Saw humpbacks swimming under the golden gate, hiked, biked, climbed Coit, hit up lots of great eateries, visited museums, bought some momentos, and had a really good time--as usual.
There were many tourists around. Most of them seemed to be European. I heard a lot of German and some French. There were some Chinese bundling around on tour busses, but I couldn’t tell if they were just from outside the area, or actual China.
The city looks better and livelier than a year ago. Busier. Bars and restaurants were packed out the doors. Tons of families and tourists out and about on the streets, parks, and playgrounds. Significantly fewer homeless camps than in the past. Still saw a couple of gibbering zombies, but my overall sense is that things are on the upswing compared to immediately post-covid. The hotel was busier and service overall was better. No masking anywhere, nor signs/mention of it, except for some elderly asians; the same as you would have seen pre-2019.
We usually drive a tiny clear-windowed hatchback beater up and wedge it into a free space, so I was a little apprehensive about bringing my big fancy tint-window minivan into the city, but there was no problem. I found free weekend-long curbside parking right in the center of things, and nobody messed with my wheels. I also didn’t see any broken glass evidence of old break-ins anywhere.
I have to say, every time I visit SF, I am very tempted to move there. We visit techy places and do education-and-kid-centric activities. For those, SF is clearly king. I’ve been to children’s museums all over the country and the world--Europe, Asia, and the East Coast to the Midwest to SoCal. SF clearly has THE BEST focus on education of anywhere in the country, and possibly the world. From Silicon Valley to the tip of the peninsula, it is obviously the undisputed center of the tech universe, and I feel like I might be doing our children a disservice by not moving into the heart of the action, since we could make it happen.
At the same time, SF is still a major American city, with all the warts that entails. Also it’s colder and more miserable than SoCal for most of the year. This weekend was awesome, but it was much cooler and foggier the day we left. While I love visiting SF, I think we will just keep visiting and make do with our location on the periphery.
I did note that there was a LOT more traffic going the opposite way: A huge jam on the 101 going south out of the SF/SV at the beginning of the holiday weekend, and another massive jam going North back into SF/SV at the end. That made us feel smug, as we didn’t hit any slowdowns at all going in the opposite direction.
Question for the natives: I saw some florid-faced fat bald turds riding around on choppers, trying to annoy pub-goers by circling busy areas and revving their engines next to people eating and drinking outside. Are those guys actually from SF, or do out-of-towners ride in on weekends just to get attention? What do you think?
This summer I have heard a fair amount of German being spoken when out and about in SF.....including on MUNI.
At the same time, SF is still a major American city, with all the warts that entails. Also it’s colder and more miserable than SoCal for most of the year. This weekend was awesome, but it was much cooler and foggier the day we left. While I love visiting SF, I think we will just keep visiting and make do with our location on the periphery.
Question for the natives: I saw some florid-faced fat bald turds riding around on choppers, trying to annoy pub-goers by circling busy areas and revving their engines next to people eating and drinking outside. Are those guys actually from SF, or do out-of-towners ride in on weekends just to get attention? What do you think?
To your last point about the choppers, I have to imagine there are a lot of recreational weekend visitors coming in, as you don't normally see those outside of the thirsty areas. However, I will say that as a Bay area native who lived in the region for many many years before we moved to San Diego, I never lived in the city itself, except for a 5 week luxury apartment rental that we did a few years ago to sell our friends' condo for them. That was our only experience actually living there day to day, driving, shopping, getting around. And while we never saw choppers, we were very surprised that night after night, we could hear what appeared to be drag racing on Van Ness Avenue in the middle of the night. I can see the attraction on that stretch of road, but it seemed to be more like the suped-up mustangs than choppers. But the drag racing surprised us.
To your other point about the cold, we hate the microclimate in San Francisco too, and living in it was really unpleasant. The entire time we were there, half the city was overcast 24/7, and then the eastern half would get a little bit of sun in the afternoon. It was always around 65°, which isn't really much warmer than it is in the winter. So it always feels sort of crisp and cool. Some people love it. It actually never gets really cold, in fact I think they haven't recorded a freezing temperature there in decades, but it's just almost never warm. The problem is that it sits on a peninsula facing north into the bay and ocean, surrounded by water on three sides. That's a recipe for cold wind. You would do much better to live somewhere outside of the city if you wanted to move to the Bay Area and actually enjoy California weather. On any given summer day, it would not be unusual for it to be 65° in San Francisco, 85° in San jose, 75° in Palo alto, and 95° in Concord. So you could actually avoid that cold coastal weather if you wanted to. San Francisco is more the exception than the rule. Most of the state has great weather most of the year.
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