Can the city of San Fracisco stop talking about how great it is for about three seconds?
I live about two hours from “The City” and I understand that it has many cultural oppertunities, etc. I also understand that there is a world that exists outside of it.
Apparently I am wrong.
Okay…they build a stadium. It is a nice stadium. It looks nice and it is probably nice inside. I don’t know, I can’t afford hiked up ticket prices. Right after it was built they went on to declare it The Best Thing on Earth. the Chronicle ran headlines bigger than any war could warrent about it. For two weeks. I am more sick of hearing about that stadium than I am of Elian Gonzalez. The whole city is just coming down from their collective backpatting. Yo! it is a stadium…one which makes watching baseball too expensive for anyone that is not firmly planted in the middle class. It’s not like it is some great humanitarian effort that saves babies.
I read a letter in the Chronicle in which the writer complained about palm trees on the Embarcadaro. he claimed they are a “symbol of Los Angeles” (which, of course, we all despise) and they go against SFs tradition of elegance and good taste. hmmm…well I think that coffee is a symbol of Seattle and we ought to ban that…after all we rise so high above those Puget Sound creatins. I mean really, are you so great that even a plant species offends your delicate tastes?
I could go on forever. They even like to claim bands from completely other cities in Northrn California as their own because we all know that no where else of any importance exists. Arg!
My advice to San Francisco? Take your collective heads out of the sand and go live somewhere else for a while. Maybe you’ll notice that other things can be okay, too. You might even have qualms about going back to your wind blown overpriced violence ridden earthquake prone self important center of all civilazation.
Have the hated Giants even won 1 game there yet? I know my Dodgers beat the stuffing out of them.
I lived in SF for @ 10 years, ending @ 6 years ago when I moved to my current locale. I would probably move back there in a second except for one thing: the money issue. The last few years have spoiled that town forever for anyone not making the serious cash. Call it Willie Brown (that crooked, corrupt, sellout scumbucket of scum-baggery that he is) or the internet economy - whatever; it’s a VERY different place than it was 10-15 years ago. Rents are impossible and getting an apartment is cutthroat.
People have been bitching about the palm trees on Embarcadero ever since the drawing board stage, BTW … but you should have seen it when there was a filthy grey double-decker freeway there!
PS the Giants are 7-11 last I checked, which was yesterday. They’re about the only baseball team I have any interest in whatsoever. So much for their being an unstoppable force this season. But I remember when China Basin was a big empty lot with weeds on it and the ballpark is a definite improvment. Too bad they had to name it “Pacific Bell Park” instead of “The Bellyard” like they said they would do.
I love SF! I’ve lived here for two years, but now it’s time to move. It’s just way too expensive to live. I’ve compounded things by having two cats and a dog. Unless you own your house or want to live in the hood or pay more than 50% of your income for housing you basically can’t have pets. Maybe after I win the lottery, or my pets die of old age, I’ll come back.
The new stadium’s nice. The tickets I got were only $10, for the bleechers. But you still could see everything with no problem. And I don’t think the Giants have won a home game yet… they lost to Arizona when I was there.
Hey, Stylus, welcome to the SDMB - watch out for the next Bay Area DopeFest. I work at UCSF, which is in a very nice neighborhood, and sometimes fantasize about renting one of the condos being built across the street. And then I remember that I would need to earn about two and a half times what I make to even consider it. I’ve lived in the Bay Area most of my life, and cannot wait to leave. The idea of spending 85% of my income on housing for the rest of my life doesn’t really appeal to me.
Oh, and I’m buying a pair of tickets from a Doper who has season tix for $15 a piece. Not too bad. Gonna take the baseball ferry from Larkspur, it’ll be great.
I’ve lived here quite a whle too. much as I hate the prices, I couldn’t bear to leave. Luckily I got a nice place that allows pets. I’m on T.I, have a nice view of the golden gate and only pay $590 a month. Yeah it’s pricey but compared to the rest of S.F. I lucked out.
Besides having people who can spell, The City also has a brand-new baseball park which, you might have noticed, had free entry prior to the season opening. You could’ve gone there without having to worry about the ticket prices.
There is also that convenient thing called BART, not to mention the Golden Gate and the Bay bridges.
Looks to me as though San Francisco’s not only great for itself, but great for the whole region!
SF is great for the whole region? get on 101, go from LA to Eureka. Where is the no FREEWAY? Sf. Why can’t you just drive THRU the freakin city?!? And then, Sf has the audacity to complain about many pedestrian deaths on 19th st, WHEN IT SHOULD BE A FREEWAY with NO peds!
And for gawds sake, PLEEEZE don’t call Babylon-by-the-Bay “the City”, it annoys those of us who live in a nicer, larger “city”, or who have lived in the big kahuna, LA.
If you want to get even with the town, call the place “Frisco”. They hate that! 
“There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing in a known discreet man, though he do nothing but reprove.”
Countess Olivia to Malvolio; William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 5.
101 mock-“terminates” in SF because SF is a destination city: for hundreds of years most people stop travelling once they get there. Nevertheless, obeying the many posted street signs is guaranteed to get you from one end to the other.
To get to Eureka from LA, thinking people take I-5.
Have you ever been to Boston? Boston calls itself ‘The Hub’ for short… Short for ‘The Hub of the Universe’.
Spend two years in Boston and you would kill to get back to the Bay Area. Same traffic (on streets that are essentially paved cow paths with missing street signs), worse attitudes, and the worst weather. Have you ever experienced a nor’easter? Humidity? A hurricane?
Frankly, I’m happy as pie to be in the Bay Area. Sure, housing is twice as expensive, but at least the people and weather are nice.
My kids brighten up our home. They never turn the lights off. -A Wallyism
I think it was ted rall who put it best. When asked why so many people hate san franciscians he answered " When you tell a New Yorker or someone else from any other city that here city is a nice place, they will go back and tell you what a horible place to live. When you tell a San Franciscan the same thing they respond with a simple ‘I know’ ".
We know that SF is a great place and we are not ashamed of it. Other people just can’t handle that kind of honesty
history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce - Karl Marx
Note, folks that is ‘OLDSCRATCH’ himself that says: “We (as in the demons of hell) know that SF is a great place…” 'nuff said 
Now, I’m a New Yorker, born and bred, and I’m as quick as anyone to disdain anything over there on the left coast.
But…
In my jaded, cynical New York opinion, San Francisco is a pretty darn nice place. It is beautiful and fun and you can even get around without a car. There are tons of things to do and you can get an outstanding burrito for cheap. Plus, it never gets really hot there. If you have the money, it is a great place to be. I was more impressed with SF than I have been with any other American city outside of NY. (Of course the museums were totally lame, but…)
On one hand, I can see why the rest of the Northern Californians might feel like they are getting short shrift. But on the other hand, if your whole region is going to be symbolized by one city, it doesn’t get much better than San Francisco.
Sure, SF is a nice place…
Too bad it’s infested with a swarm of Mercedes driving, cell phone yapping, arrogent, ignorant, limp wristed, lame, yuppazoidal snot punks who wouldn’t know how to handle a hard day’s work if it bit them in the ass but think they deserve only the best anyway.
Exterminate all those and I’d move there in a New York second.
PS - What’s the difference between a Mercedes and a porcupine? On a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.
Actually, that was Herb Caen, now sadly passed away. Had a book “None Dare Call It Frisco”, or some such. But when challanged on the point, he always said “Only a fool tries to speak for a million San Fanciscans, and I do it as often as they let me.”
Serial Poster Girl Sounds alomost naughty 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/gregspizza/index.html
We have a good one or two that you wont find without assistance. Let me know when you are in town again!
They are a problem… but we know what neighborhoods they frequent, and we avoid them.
Yes, I actually live in San Francisco, and what is more - unlike so many - I was born here. The place where “little cable cars climb half way to the stars” is right outside my front door. There is a down side, but why would I talk about that?
I am a redhead, you see, and I do not tempt. I insist. -Cristi
Well, as a NoCal’er, I don’t feel jaded at all. I love “The City” (bite me!). 19th is fine, never had a problem, and cell phone talkin’, Mercedes driving people are everywhere anyway. (hate to break it to ya) I like the palm trees and all the efforts at renovation, etc… The weather is beautiful, the people are friendly, it’s not too crowded(maybe the prices are a good thing) and the scenery is beyond compare. I saw a lot of the states while in the army and SF is #1 in my book. When general 'net ppl ask me where I’m from, I say SF and am proud(about 40 mins north of the city). Besides, who else has something that can compare to the Haight?
Well, i’ve only been through one other large city which was LA and i thought it sucked. I still dont see why friends from Orange County and LA think it’s such a great place. I am a central coaster, and I like going up to “The City”. I think it’s a beautiful place, has decent public transportation (Used the BART and the busses the last time. No problems getting around). I love the weather too. Golden gate park is beautiful (and which major city has a buffalo reserve within the city?), and they haven’t built up all of the beach areas on the coast. I think the palm trees are very appropriate. You see them all over the bay area anyway, and all the rennovation has made it look better. And like Dem said, the mecerdez benz driving, cell phone using yuppies are everywhere.
Doobieous - eagerly anticipating the news Nor Cal Doper Bash which will probably be partly in San Francisco
Hey Sassy! Now that I think of it, there was one interesting museum in SF. Ever been to the one at Good Vibrations? Fascinating!