SBGold said:
SFCityBear said:
SBGold said:
I've lived in SF, Trump thinks that's a 3rd World hell hole
VOTE BLUE and VOTE GAVIN
Well, you don't live in SF now. I do. Born here, and lived here most of my life, except for short stints in San Diego, LA, Berkeley, NYC, and DC.
SF is much harder to live in now than when I was growing up. The City is overcrowded, with the same boundaries, but with 200,000 more residents. (That also means many thousands more cars, with hardly any new parking.) Parts of the City are barely habitable, 3rd World hell holes. The inner city, the Tenderloin, South of Market, Hunters Point, Bayview, Bernal Heights, and much of the Mission. If you live in Pacific Heights, Telegraph or Russian Hill, Nob Hill, Sea Cliff, St Francis Woods, and don't frequent the bad areas, you might avoid the crime. Downtown office buildings are mostly vacant since Covid, and that area could be next to go downhill. Even in middle-class or lower middle class western parts of the city, the Sunset and Richmond Districts, you will rarely see a house that does not have an Iron gate over the front door, or iron bars on any window that is accessible from the outside.
Driving a car is really difficult here, and it can take an hour or more to drive the 6 miles across town. Being a pedestrian is dangerous, as drivers seldom look for you. NO ONE stops for stop signs, and I've seen as many as 15 cars running a red light as a group. Sidewalks are full of bicycles, scooters, skateboarders, unicyclists, roller skates, and many of them motorized and moving much faster than you. Parking is hell here. A few nights ago, I came home, and it took me 3 hours to find a parking space.
If I find a space, it will usually be under a tree. The paint on my car has been ruined by sap from the trees and poop from the birds and squirrels who live in them. And the City regulations make it nearly impossible for a property owner to cut down his own tree. The pavement is in terrible shape, with potholes everywhere it seems. The tree roots lift up the sidewalk tiles, making it dangerous for pedestrians and the young. The City doesn't repair enough potholes and they are not any help getting the sidewalks repaired.
No, my friend, parts of SF are livable if you are an elitist living on a hill in the north side or the Marina. You might live your life never seeing a crime, but for the rest of us, living here is a risky , often unpleasant experience. It has become this way due to over 60 years of Democrat Party rule. The Party controls everything here. Short term or long term. They have run most of the blacks out of town, by making it too expensive for them to live here. SF used to be 25-30% black, but now it is more like 5%. Government redevelopment agencies turned over many of the old real estate to private developers and realtors. You can bet lots of money was exchanged for favors, favoring the wealthy, the Democrats. Parts of the City look different now, lots of condominiums, but still many older buildings with no off street parking.
I'm looking to move. La Jolla perhaps. Or a little studio in Mission or Pacific Beach, San Diego, where it is warm. Friends tell me that San Diego is no better than SF. I'm blaming Democrat politicians for this, especially in San Francisco, and where Gavin Newsom in particular held court. Now he has the gall to try and run for President. If he wins, I hope he picks you for some nice position. You deserve it, for all the support you gave him. You need a new hobby.
Dude, stop. I'm in SF every other week or more for work.
SF is one of the world's great cities.
La Jolla and SD are just fine but boring AF as compared to the CIty and with much worse food options.
VOTE BLUE AND VOTE GAVIN
SF
WAS one of the world's great cities.
Once upon a time, I was flunking out of Cal. Woman trouble. I heard the Engineering School had a program where a student could take a semester off, and then return to school. I went in and signed up, and asked them if they could find me a job as far away from Berkeley as possible.
"We have one in San Diego as an Engineering Aide for General Dynamics." the gal at the desk said.
"Don't you have anything out of state?" I asked.
"Nope, that's it."
"OK, I'll take it." I replied.
It was the best personal decision I ever made in my whole life.
I arrived in General Dynamics out on Kearny Mesa in San Diego and it was out in what looked like a desert, and the weather was hotter than a bullet. I called my parents, and said this does not look promising. My dad said "Why don't you look at La Jolla? I hear that is a nice place." La Jolla on the map was a beach town, 20 miles west of the GD plant. I went down there and bought a local newspaper. I rented a room in the back of a garage owned by a highly educated little old lady. $13 a week for a bed, a hotplate, and a bathroom.
Each day I drove to work in a standards lab in a missile factory. After work I would drive back to La Jolla for some golf at Torrey Pines, or head over to the local playground to shoot hoops with some of the locals. The weather was warm but never hot. The fog stayed offshore instead of rolling in and spoiling my evening, like it did in SF. I met several navy pilots playing basketball. One invited me out to Miramar Naval Air Station, where I got to sit in the cockpit of an A7 fighter jet, and a tour of the control tower. I remember all the flight traffic controllers, all chain smokers, even on Sunday when traffic was very light. Just having two planes on the radar screen would make me nervous.
Sometimes I'd go play some tennis at local courts, and many nights after sundown, I'd just walk at Wind and Sea Beach and contemplate life, or just listen to the waves roll in and out. About once a month it was a trip with the guys to Tijuana for wild partying.
On the weekends, I would often play in company golf tournaments. I finagled some golf lessons with a famous PGA pro, Paul Runyan (which ruined my golf swing). Another bad thing about La Jolla, and actually all of San Diego, was that there were very few girls around. You could go into any nightclub or bar on the weekend, and there would be 100 men and maybe two girls. There were several defense contractors, so that meant lots of young male engineers. On weekends I would go to church, a block from my little room. And sometimes I took my landlady's grandchildren horseback riding in Poway, a half hour drive away.
When the Spring semester ended, General Dynamics allowed me to continue until the end of summer, which I did. La Jolla helped me to get my head screwed on straight. I went back to Berkeley, and in the first semester it wasn't all A's, but it was close. I ended up with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Currently registered as a Professional Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, and Civil Engineer in California.
I've been back to La Jolla several times, and of course it is not the same. Many more girls, and fewer navy male personnel. And Wind and Sea Beach is not the same. I went down one night, and there were floodlights and lots of high school and college kids drinking and partying. No peaceful walk for me that night.
Sadly, you may be right about San Diego. The town has fallen into Democrat control, just like my SF has, and things are deteriorating. I don't know what the food options were or are now. We used to go to a wonderful small Italian restaurant where the owner and chef used to come out and sing Opera while we had our meal. On a trip to San Diego a few years ago, I went to see an aircraft carrier, and at a nearby taqueria, I had the best fish taco ever.
Tijuana is not the same either. My Immigrant friends tell me not to visit. They say Mexico is not safe for Americans right now.
SFCityBear
