I went to SF last summer. I was super excited to get there, and I was never repulsed by a city more than I was by San Francisco. It seems like everything I hate about New York liberal dishonesty.
I grew up in New Mexico and have lived my adult life in New York City, and SF is anathema to both of those things.
All I could see was homeless crack addicts shitting on pristine sidewalks, planned gentrification, and people who wanted so badly to be superior to the rest of the country.
I don’t know if my hate for SF is in any way rational, but there was an enforced calm in SF that went against the grain of my soul. It was like aristocratic pretension that pretends it is populist. There are few things I hate more than that.
So many people talk about San Francisco like it is the greatest city on Earth, I feel like it’s the asshole of humanity. To me it was the Mecca of passive aggression. My friend who grew up in SF, but lives in LA because he can’t stand SF told me that all the liberal hypocrite holier than thous are transplants and not natives. The one I met and got into an argument with was from Charleston SC, so that seems to be true.
Anyway, I fucking hate San Francisco, it represents all that is ugly about liberalism, IMO.
Erek
(I’m not conservative, there are many things I hate about conservatism that are not exhibited by San Francisco)
Well, this conservative had a blast in San Francisco.
Not that I’d ever live there, or want to live there, you understand. But it’s a great city to eat and drink in, and I toured the Jeremiah O’Brien, an old Liberty Ship.
The great thing about a federal system and local control is that liberals can screw up a city like San Francisco and make it uninhabitable for someone like me (a gun owner and lover of low taxation) and leave the part of the country I live in and care about relatively untouched.
They come because San Francisco used to give them cash payments, and surrounding jurisdictions did not. Subsidize an unpleasant behavior in this way, and it’s unsurprising that you’ll see more of it.
This unworkable system was changed by city proposition in 2002, and most of those cash payments (up to $410 a month) will now be offset with social services instead.
Really? I live in Oakland, and go to San Francisco often - I’ve even got friends who live there - and I’ve never seen a homeless crack addict shitting on the sidewalk, even though I’ve gone out of my way to witness such an event. Of course, I guess I wouldn’t really know if they were a crack addict or not just by watching them shit, but apparently you’ve got some superpowers in that regard.
Mostly, though, what I notice about the people in SF are that they’re generally individuals with varied belief systems. Some of them, I’m sure, even put some thought into their ethical/political/social positions. But again, I guess your superpowers allow you to see into the minds of the residents and note the evil passive-aggressive aristocratic superiority complexes that are the true characteristics of everyone in the city. Man, it must be cool to be you.
Well, I will note that after living in the Chicago area for several years, and working in the city, I’d never seen a crack deal taking place blatantly and openly on the street, much less several in the same block. And though I know they do occur, I highly doubt they’d happen within a block of a 4-star hotel in Chicago. Yet it only took a day into my business trip to San Francisco to see that going on. I also noted the very large vagrant/homeless population compared to what I’ve seen in Chicago.
Yet, I had a wonderful time in the city and would like to go back soon for a longer visit. I don’t think those are mutually exclusive views on a place.
San Francisco stinks. Really, it smells like urine and bad things. And it’s ugly. To my eyes, the number of homeless folk begging/pissing/squatting/ranting on the street was truly amazing and somewhat intimidating. It got to the point where it was damn unpleasant to walk anywhere. There’s graffiti and trash everywhere, even in supposedly nice areas.
The night-life areas are disjointed and poorly planned and the clubs don’t have any buzz or atmosphere. The harbour views and bridge are fairly pretty, but nothing to compare to say, Sydney, Auckland, Cape Town or Vancouver. The weather is crap (hello overcast!) and the beach is dirty. Golden Gate Park is an shitty, slummy excuse for a city park.
Fuck, I’m gay and I couldn’t stand the supposedly fabulous gay scene in SF. Gentrification has meant the Castro is populated by ageing mutton dressed as lamb, instead of a young and vital crowd. To contrast by example, London has dozens more clubs and gay pubs, populated by a diverse and burgeoning queer population. Even SF drag shows suck, compared to Sydney. Plus (to contrast with Europe), there’s crystal meth everywhere in SF, which has lead to horrid trancey music in the clubs, an unfriendly vibe, and a shitload of guys with new HIV cases. Gay mecca, my shiny arse.
Maybe it’s a nice place to live and work, but there’s a few dozen more cities I’d rather visit again than San Franstinko (as I admit us travellers used to privately refer to the city).
North of SF, however, is a lovely part of the world.
Hey, if you were a bum, where would you go-- SF or NYC?
I live in the South Bay, but get up to SF regularly. THe bums really make a bad first impression, since you usually have to go thru the gauntlet as soon as you get off the freeway. But it really is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (when it’s not too foggy to see!!), and I’ve seen many of the great cities around the world.
Still, I’m just not a city person, and wouldn’t consider living there unless I had too. But if I absolutely HAD to live in a city, SF would be one of my top choices.
I went to SF in 1997 and spent a week there. I have to say I had a blast, I slept very little (about 2-3 hours a day) so I could enjoy the nightlife as well as the daylife. I’m from a midsize midwestern city and love big cities. I would place SF in the “great place to visit but you couldn’t pay me to live there” category. I too watched the spectacle of a homeless man taking a steamind dump right in front of an ATM. Apalling doesn’t even describe it. It was an incredibly dirty city with litter strewn everywhere. At first the panhandlers and homeless milling about were fascinating but by the end of the week I wanted to scream. I couldn’t walk a block without being hit up for spare change by at least 4 different people and the offers to buy drugs were too numerous to count. I am not indifferent to their plight at all. At the time I was volunteering several nights a week at a homeless shelter back home.
I’m not really trying to slam SF, I did enjoy my vacation and would visit it again, I was just shocked by the chaos and filth.
As a side, I spent a week in NYC a couple years after my SF trip and found it to be a much more relaxing trip. It wasn’t as dirty and was never approached by a single homeless person begging for change. That’s a city I’d move to in a heartbeat.
THe nation’s bum population flocks to the west coast. Here we don’t have weather that would kill a man of exposure in no time.
I’m from the South Bay, and I hate SF. In fact, I haven’t been there in years. Ironically, I must go to SF today to finalize some paperwork for my employment. :mad: