Why San Francisco Sucks
I was inspired to write my opinion on why San Francisco sucks by this post, written by a Twitter Programmer named Alex Payne.
I don’t like San Francisco, because as a city, it’s dishonest.
We’ve heard about the free-thinking liberalism, the summer of love, the open-mindedness, the marvelous gay influence on the city’s culture— and how well they are integrated into the rest of the city; the overall notion that San Francisco, at it’s core, is good.
I do not believe there is any goodness at San Francisco’s core.
I don’t believe that any of the above notions were, are or will ever be true.
Decadence vs. Exiguity
One thing that will strike you about San Francisco is the young, rich, politically liberal people living and behaving decadently while intentionally, veiling it only slightly.
This thin veil is in line with the politically liberal majority, and in a sense, even defines it.
There is something about San Franciscan liberals that seems to say:
Hey, i’ve paid my share of taxes to help all of you, I deserve this.
Alongside this very decadent living is one of the largest populations of homeless people, per capita, in the nation. I could be surveying the homeless situation completely wrong, but again I’ve never witnessed such a disharmony between the homed and the homeless than in San Francisco. Arguments, fights, confrontations– all very common, and San Franciscan’s seem to love to tell you about it.
Look what I have to deal with to be this open-minded.
Homeless people are the untouchable lepers, and because the macro do-gooders believe that they have bigger fish to fry, and everything they (the homeless) could possibly need is readily available, it releases them of all liability. I’ve never seen a group of homed people setting up tables with food or passing out blankets or sleeping bags; i’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but i’ve never seen it.
Another thing that leave the leaky bucket of compassion empty by the time it reaches the homeless or very poor is that everyone in San Francisco already has a cause to attend to, and again, usually a very lofty one.
Also, you’d think that Germany, Sweden and Brittain were impoverished developing nations with how diligently San Franciscans strive to support their respective automotive industries.
Modern Antiquity?
San Francisco has, within it’s city limits, probably one of the highest concentrations of designers, computer programmers and other assorted tech folks.
This said, the city is embarrassingly low-fi.
I think this is held in place on the surface by some nebulous spartan, Steampunk “it’s-cool-because-its-old” sensibility but in actually only amounts to laziness, apathy and nobody actually believing they’ll live in San Francisco past their 30’s.
If you’re not familiar with San Francisco, it’s pretty much victorian houses from one side to the other. If you’ve watched Full House you’ve seen em.
Now these are built to hold more people and room in a small space than say a craftsman style house, but are by no means efficient by modern measures.
This liberal (?) preservation of the city’s inefficient past should be appalling to actual liberal sensibilities, yet knocking down a half dozen of these dinosaurs and building a jumbo, mid-income, utopian live-work complex would probably make most San Franciscans place their Ferragamo handkerchiefs over their mouths in horror.
Let me tell you something: it gets really cold in San Francisco in any given month. These old victorian houses are not cheap, green, energy efficient or anything else to heat.
Imagine what kind of Green heating, cooling, water renewal, recycling and computer controlled systems these nerds could design? Every apartment could have a fucking trash, recycling and compost chute!
The addition of 10,000 units would decrease the price of rent, making social equality more possible.
What are these assholes doing instead? Paying $4,000 per month for an old victorian house. You fucking hypocritical losers. These houses are the Hummers of houses. Get that through your heads.
Also, if you think BART is some state of the art subway think again. I mean just the cars themselves are rickety, dirty, ugly and probably inefficient.
Must Be A Friendly City, Right?
As Alex mentioned in his post, San Franciscans are not friendly, yet loathe those from Los Angeles as being “fake”. “Fake” is the local dialect for “good looking” and “suntanned”.
Those who live there think they are adventurers traversing some kind of concrete jungle and you need to cut your own teeth. If you’re from out of town they’ll tell you how tough it is to live there, which vis a vis means they are tough.
If you’re a tourist, they pretty much think you’re a worthless piece of unwashed trash.
In Conclusion:
There is some good about San Francisco– a lot of good– but the things i’ve mentioned are so unbearable to me that I could never have a long term relationship with San Francisco.
Unless I was gay. Then i’d be all over San Francisco like hobos on ham sandwiches.
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Tagged with alex payne, fake, gays, homeless, liberals, san francisco, straight, twitter, victorian, yuppies
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So I take it you’ve spent considerable time in SF that you used to formulate your opinion?
yes I have Heman.
What do you think I just made up all of this shit?
I read this article cause I thought it might be interesting or funny but it was simply a sophomoric, shallow tantrum by someone confusing their pedantic intake and personal experience with actual phenomenons and physical realities.
The author asks questions that are easily answerable and takes flagrant missteps that show the he is neither a native nor a local to the city. Ironic how he has addressed only the stereotypical and famous notions of San Francisco to counter its value.
A very small amount of regional knowledge or research would reveal that one of the many reasons San Francisco has so many homeless people was that the city had (before Reagan and subsequent Bush and state cuts) more shelters and soup kitchens than any other place in the United States. Many other cities and states have literally exported their homeless to the city including some from Guiliani’s clean up of NYC.
The author also makes the arbitrary and random connection that some how techies are in government and lobby positions and have any power or capacity to effect city planning. The legislature of San Francisco is actually notorious for being outdated and obtuse and would have made a great subject for the original article had it not been a childish rant about superficial personal prejudices.
The last portion of the article is laughable but not funny. It further exemplifies the author’s lack of depth or insight into life in general let alone San Francisco. He reveals his ignorance particularly in the part about Asians saying they are all “packed into chinatown” which is ludicrous and hilarious in its stupidity. Inherent in that statement first of all is that all Asians are Chinese. Further showing the author’s complete lack of sense for ethnicity or geography.
You sir… are just a hater. And there is nothing original about that. Don’t quit your day job… if you even have one.
I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out the problem.
[Since I'm an Asian chick I fall into the highly prized category. All I need to do is find a rich brother so we can afford to heat our old Victorian.]
@ pepe.. let me get this straight, a republican mayor from new york city shipped his dregs of homeless people across the country to SF? You know thats a lot of $700 plane tickets right? Tell me how this was done, the logistics would be really interesting to me.
Techies aren’t interested in politics. Ok first I think thats not true and your excuses are bad, secondly, if they don’t and they certainly can doesn’t that make the spirit of the city sort of selfish and rotten like I was saying?
Re: my knowledge of geography and ethnicity, I happen to be living and working (wont quit the day job, thanks for the career guidance!) in China and if i’m not mistaken Chinatown is the only real asian enclave in san francisco. Oh wait no you’re right, I forgot about little italy. Ok so there’s two ethnic asian enclaves.
I better hit the geography and ethnicity books!
I have to say I agree with Pepe. Usually I think your funny if a little bit misinformed on occasion.
This is just a whole lot of unfunny BS.
The issue about the anitquity of the buildings is to do with heritage preservation concerns. I understand that they are more expensive and less environmentally friendly but to be honest the legislature on buildings of historical importance is similar in every state in America. Perhaps this needs to change but the time for this sort of legislation change has not come in any country in the world yet let alone America and just because SF is ‘progressive’ does not mean they don’t balance some concerns identically to others. Legislation takes years to make. And to be honest I’m not sure that the ‘knocking them all down’ is a extremely clever answer to this considering the affect it would have on the environment just to build new houses(regardless of whether they will be more environmentally friendly).
As for your breakdown of the social climate. I mean that was just a whole heap of stereotypes that I don’t even think are true as someone who lived there for 4 years. And yes I am gay and no I don’t know anyone who thinks straight males are a waste of space. Also I have a great deal of Asian american friends that I went to Berkley with
Also I really disagree with your observation that homeless people are ignored or treated like shit. The reason a lot of homeless people have moved from say San Diego to SF is that the city and its residents(not all but a lot of them) have a more caring policy towards them.
Lastly I don’t think Pepe meant that techies don’t have an interest in politics just that they do not have a major affect on the law as a group of people.
One thing I will agree with is that it takes a long time for SF to change anachronistic laws as a liberal city but a lot of that has to do with the CA state itself.
Less environmentally friendly? Wait a second, suddenly that isn’t a big deal to you hippies? It seems like when other people are doing things wrong you have all these great ideas, when you’re doing something wrong you throw excuses.. sheesh.
Yes… you should “hit” all and any books you can get your hands on. I certainly hope you are not in China teaching English.
nope.. not an english teacher… what an insult
The SF mash-up of historical tradition and irreverence succeeds in some things and falls short in other things. SF sometimes congratulates itself regardless; that sort of pride is admirable on one level, but contains the potential to leave shortcomings unfairly unacknowledged. Look at how much indignant “Hmph!” appears to run through several of the responses above.
In my view, I enjoyed living in SF and could live there again. I currently prefer slightly more convention because I’m intellectually lazy when dealing with the world. But I’m loyal. I’m a California native, and I’ll take our SF dandies, Auburn rednecks, LA bronze gods, South Bay defense workers, and Humboldt weed-heads, to name but a few of our state’s stereotypical sub-cultures, over most any states’. And, since we’re all people, I dislike each of us.
I’m gay and I wouldn’t live in San Francisco. I prefer L.A. or NY.
You hippy assholes are so full of shit, ragging about this article. I’m from San Francisco, and all of the above statements are 100% true.
I’ve been all over the U.S. and never have I seen a more self-congratulatory, contradictory, faux-liberal-as-fashion, willfully enslaving populace as I have in SF. At least in LA people are honest about their fleeting socio-political whims and inherent self-centeredness.
Pepe and friends would probably know this if they could tear their eyes off some dude’s groin long enough to actually look around them.
tear their eyes off some dudes groin.. haha
Sitting in San Francisco right now where I have lived for the past year.
Having lived in 5 states and 3 countries, I can safely say that San Francisco is, simply, pathetic. There are countless better places in the third world. Any random small town in the midwest is better, New York City is better. The entire Bay Area region is an abomination.
Anyone who thinks it is a nice place either hasn’t lived anywhere else or is very deeply confused about life.
San Francisco is the greatest!!!
I agree as I recently took a business trip to San Fran and only a few days was enough. Different, lots of culture, and lots of liberalism…. but what else do you expect from SF? How does the saying go… if you aren’t gay or willing to be lead astray, don’t stay… something to that affect?
Check out http://www.weirdlawsuits.com for weird and dumb lawsuits.
I’ve been to San Fran about 5-6 times for business/pleasure. My most recent visit, just a couple weeks ago, was disheartening. I don’t know how much of the OP’s opinions I can comment on, but I did notice a couple other things while there:
1) The city is dirty! Yeah, I know, there are lots of tourists and it’s a sizable city. Come on though, a few street sweepers and a little more garbage pickup would have it looking ten times better. It really wouldn’t take a lot of resources or effort.
2) The supposedly progressive wifi availability is rubbish. I expected to have decent wifi access while there. I had to go to Starbucks (grrrr) just to read/reply to my daily business emails and so on. My Market District hotel charged an arm and a leg for wifi, the Moscone had simply awful speeds and dependability, and most businesses I stopped by had it locked down or charged for it unless you spent a fair amount of money, i.e. more than a cup of coffee. So, I spent several hours in a great cafe city like San Fran sitting in Starbucks of all places. It was disappointing.
Bang on analysis ! I lived in SF for 5 years and couldn’t agree more.
I would also like to add that although the Sf cops themselves are almost tolerable the surrounding bay area is close to fascist.
Follow the dream…follow the myth..and go to SF at your peril. Find out for yourself.
If you want friendly ppl SF will disappoint you. You will, however, find plenty of social pretenders and an over priced cup of coffee.
Just to give you an example : the guy that lived next door to me had a surf board permanently attached to the top of his van ( wonders what that does to gas mileage ) . In 5 years I NEVER saw him go surfing yet alone go to the cold ass beach !
I just came back from San Francisco and literally googled “I don’t like San Francisco” to find if I was the only person in the entire world that didn’t like my time there.
While my reasons are probably less founded and definitely less political than yours, I just really, really didn’t like it there. I am an “LA girl” if you want to call it that, in that I’m from Manhattan but loved Los Angeles mainly because it was the total opposite structurally of NYC but still had that great Southern California vibe for someone looking to escape the concrete grand of Manhattan.
And in the end? I still find people from LA TEN times friendlier than anybody I met in SF. The people are airier, kinder and had much less angst. SF, to me, was just a hippier, less glamorous, smaller, and dare I say it, more pretentious version of NYC. And I get enough of that here!
Mainly, I don’t understand the hype. If I’m going to do California, I would 100% do Los Angeles before SF. I want a laid back atmosphere with nice people, accessible suburbs, and a healthy vibe. I watched as several people got in brawls on public transportation in SF, something I think I’ve seen a handful of times in my years in NYC.
Also, THE HILLS! AH, I can’t!
I’ll take flat NYC over that any time, but that’s just the lazy in me. I also don’t like the way the city is geographically divided. I like a city that has residential and shopping all mixed in together so that you don’t need to travel too far to get what you need. I didn’t find that in SF.
Overall, I see no reason for me to go back. Though I’ll be doing my visits to LA frequently, as I still love it there.
San Fransisco Sucks… perhaps it is because I let my expectations get too high before going to SF, I’ll entertain the idea that I might be biased, but after spending my childhood in DC, and my college days in Boston, I found it SEVERELY lacking in several important ways. Besides, SF is always in all of those History and Discovery Channel shows about disasters past and present. who wants that hanging over their head? Highways built over landfills, residential districts made of wood, has several major fault lines near or UNDER IT… not for me. Then there’s the people, but we’ve already addressed that.
San Francisco is full of pretentious pricks, so many rude people. They are love talking sarcastically and always think they are more “aware” of everything.
After wasting most of my childhood and early adulthood there, I finally moved out of the city, to a better one. And I have been happier for it. San Francisco and its people sucks!
I moved to San Francisco to attend university. When I first moved here, I thought my life would change for the better. In many ways, it did. But those things that improved were completely isolated from what the city had to offer.
Being an Asian, what I do appreciate is the abundance of other Asians that are in the city. What I do not appreciate, is how ethnically divided the entire city is. The truth about San Francisco is that there is a race war going on. Whites, Asians, Mexicans, Russians, and many other races are not getting along. Everyone sticks to their “own kind”. I saw this in my university, in the bars/clubs, on the streets, and in the overall culture in San Francisco.
White people in the Marina will dog Asian males that haven’t assimilated. Asians in China town will dog whites for being in their territory.
The majority of the people that I’ve met in San Francisco aren’t truly driven people–nothing compared to the people I’ve met in New York City.
My overall rating for SF on a scale of 1-10? 3
People might not be able to understand this, but I’ve lived in San Francisco for 5 years. That is a long fucking time. As each year progressed, I found myself getting more and more depressed.
San Francisco is a funny place. When I first started out, I lived in the Sunset. My goal was to get closer to downtown. That is seriously a lot of peoples goals when they first arrive in San Francisco.
Well, 4 years later, I have an office in the financial district and live in downtown. Guess what? I am totally miserable. The grass is always greener? People who live in downtown are complete SNOBS. They act as if they are MADE. We pay thousands to live in 500 square feet boxes.
Of course, these prices are expected. But I’ll tell you one thing. None of it is worth it. You won’t be happy. You will not find what you are looking for in San Francisco. This city spawns and morphs people into a weird thing… a shallow and pretentious people.
Think it might get better? Take a look at SOMA. They are driving everyone out that can’t afford to pay 2500-3000 a month for rent. Seriously?
I’ve already made plans to move out and have absolutely no regrets. Oh, and, can’t forget the lovely DPT.
06-01-10
I went to SF this Memorial Day with my entire family; I really didn’t want to since my car got towed in this miserable city when I was on my first year wedding anniversary but my wife’s cousin was from Minnesota and really wanted to see the golden gate bridge, so I also tagged along. Just as we parked and was crossing the stree, two cars come barreling down the street not caring if they will hit us or not. My wife’s cousin is five months pregnant. Nice, really nice. Let’s hit a pregnant lady from out of town and show them what us San Franciscans really are like. Even for me, I’m SHOCKED!!! No police presence, dirty ass street, stupid rude people, over priced food and drink. You know what mayor gavinusiance, you and your fellow SF people can stick it where the sun don’t shine. Unless I can help it, I will never set foot upon your crappy city and I’ll make sure not one of my friends or family set foot on your shit city.
Your whole damn city is nothing but a hypocrisy in action.
Oh, by the way, the aholes in the car honked as they zoomed past my family. Sometimes, you really wish you actually bought a gun but wait, normal citizens can’t even arm themselves.
Well….having lived in New York (Manhattan) for 15 years I was looking forward to house-sitting for a friend for one month in SF and getting to know another city other than NY if even for a short time. Conclusion: Huge disappointment.
1. Rude people
2. Terrible weather
3. Ridiculous Hills/poor public transit
4. Pretentious liberals (I am a hard core Democrat but found a guilty until proven innocent attitude w/ regards to politics/beliefs) who wear hemp but drive Bavarian
5. No style fashion wise (Must be the weather but can any of you SF girls bother to put a little make-up on and/or dress in something other than fleece)
5a. Unattractive Women
6. Tons of Lesbians who hate men
7. Tons of men who love men (Unless you are in said category then please add to plus column)
8. Boooooooring nightlife – everything closes @ 2am ??????????????????
9. Painfully Provincial ( I had thought SF could be considered a world class city – ABSOLUTELY NOT) 10. Homelessness/Crime – Never felt as worried in NYC as I have on BART/Muni or close to the numerous skid-rows in SF.
11. It’s just plain a small city
All in all I have to say SF sucks when compared to NY. I am hoping to try LA at some point just to see.
Smug provincial hippy-dippy doofuses. I couldn’t believe that anyone would list this ongoing failure of a “city” to actual world class cities like Paris and Tokyo.
On the plus side, scenic beauty and cool summers. The minus side, the people and their attitudes, their politics, their smug, snide cretinistic pompousness.
No city I know of needs to be neutron bombed as deservedly as San Francisco. The planet’s full of assholes, that’s a given, but SF is a magnet for them.
Shoddy, decaying infrastructure, everything’s overpriced, an infuriatingly undeservedly smug populace–just read Yelp SF, and you’ll wish San Franciscans had one neck so that you could more efficiently strangle them all.
If I had my way…well, you’re all very lucky that I don’t.
you all can go suck a dick.sf is awesome.jealous people!!!!
I’ve worked in San Francisco for 5 years now and lived in Berkeley and Oakland – the East Bay is your basic, normal area – but SF – oh man: Top 10 reasons SF is a joke.
1) The people who always talk about how great SF is, generally haven’t spent significant time anywhere else and/or are druggies.
2) SF is a druggie mecha. If you love to do drugs – come to SF because this place is so “liberal” that they its pretty much “Beyond the Thunderdome” out here.
3) People here pretend to be “liberal” but really they just vomit up whatever they heard on the Daily Show or read on some blog. They have very little real-world knowledge of how things work or historical knowledge for context (see point 1). They also have no tolerance for anyone who doesn’t share thier POV. If you don’t think 100% liberal, then get ready to be a social pariah.
4) With rare exception the music scene is a joke. “Hyphy” is considered “crap music” every where outside of SF and the folk/rock/hipster music being strummed at every local venue is a cavalcade of people who can’t sing/play their instruments.
5) “Hella” This word is used here way too much and is very annoying. “Hecka” is even worse.”
6) I have never seen so many people with rich mommies and daddies pretend to live so poor and think its cool.
7) Tight jeans, scarves, flip flops and plaid. People sacrifice common sense for “fashion” – I mean, which season are you in? The more outlandishly you are dressed – the better.
9) HAIGHT STREET: Stay away. Stay very far away.
10) Transplants. To be honest – I’ve met some very cool native San Franciscans – people born here, that moved away and came back and they are usually more down to earth and hard working. Most of them hate the fake, hipster-ish transplants that rule SF with an iron fist.
Burn SF down and start from scratch.
San Francisco is the most overrated, provincial shit hole in the country. I lived there for a few years and couldn’t wait to leave. Those ‘liberals’ in SF live like Republicans and talk a good game because they smoke weed and shop in a co op instead of a Target. park you car a few inches onto one of their driveways and tell me how liberal and tolerant they are. Also, SF is one of the most racist, segregated cities in America. Count how many black folks you see there–except the ones that are being patrolled 24 hours a day in the 4 block area they let black people live in that cops surround. Culturally, its provincial and produces no or little worthwhile art. Unless you count street festivals that are supposedly progressive that are little more than indulgent pageants for exhbitionist sexual behavior. Wow, assless chaps again this year? how novel! How free we are!
That city is a joke, its a second tier hipster getaway for kids that couldn’t make it in new york city, a rich class you’ll never see that lives in the clouds and makes sure to keep the negroes and homeless far away from them while they prattle about liberal nonsense drinking 400 wine bottles.
Oh, did I mention the public transportation there is not really and option, totally run down, usually late, in the case of Oscar Grant a place you might get murdered for being black, and in the end you really need a car?
SF is Denver by the bay, please give me a break that city sucks ass. Its coasting on a reputation built 50 years ago that has nothing to do with the present state of the city today. The only good thing about it is you can get weed in Golden Gate park and its a nice weekend getaway. Getaway being the key word.
Did someone force you to come here?
I’m a 50yr old native San Franciscan and have seen more than a few changes over the years. (most for the worse)I also spent years traveling the country and there are a LOT of crappy cities out there. Everybody that hates San Francisco get the fuck out. NOW!! We have an airport, bus stations, you can take BART to a train station, drive away, walk away, just leave and DON’T return. A few suggestions….Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, hell the whole state of Texas (sans Austin)Take your opinions with ya and tell the world!! San Francisco sucks!! We won’t even know you left. They’ll be some other asshole, that has a preconceived notion of what they think The City should be, moving into your over priced home in a heart beat.
Just remember it’s not just about the city. From my house I can be… in a redwood forest in 45mins, Napa Valley in an hour and change, Monterey and Carmel in a beautiful 2 hour ride down the coast, 4 hours from looking up at El Capatian and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley. I’d love to continue but I’m going for a 3 hour paddle down Russian River in an hour (12:30)and have to make it back for 6PM reservations @ Boulevard. Your right this place DOES suck!!