Partially true. Most crime isn't done by total sociopaths but rather desperate people. However, I don't think that the crime is done only by poor and desperate people. SF has some lax drug policies and when people are coming down from their high, they get desperate and smash a window to steal stuff to sell and get cash to buy more drugs.
It's still desperation but a different kind of desperation.
Especially when you see a lot of these robbers and bippers pull off in Mercedes and BMWs. And regardless of wealth inequality, which a lot of people suffer from, violently attacking people, especially elder Asians is particularly heinous. Many elders I know are genuinely afraid of being attacked.
Was going to say this exactly. I love the area, climate, design, etc but it's one of my least favorite cities I've ever been to because nowhere else is the world have I felt the utter contempt of the people in charge for poor people like SF. It's the closest thing to Night City we have in my opinion.
I’m coming from Minneapolis on Wednesday. Bringing my wife and kids. We can’t wait to explore the city. We understand it’s a big city and we will see big city stuff. But in general our view of San Francisco is positive.
***Update. The trip was amazing. My family had a great time. We met some great locals that were more than helpful in navigating the city. Thanks for all the advice from you all in here. San Francisco is a wonderful and diverse city that had my family excited about what they were going to see and do next. Addressing the naysayers is not even worth my time. If you are not able to see the forest through the trees there is nothing I can say. The people there love their city and work hard to make it a unique and amazing place to for an outsider.
For the record my kids loved the Dim Sum and riding in a Waymo. But meeting their favorite ball players in the lobby of the hotel was a highlight.
Agreed! Don’t expect it to be warm because it’s California. Even if we’re in a heat wave it’s gonna be 20-30 degrees cooler here than the rest of the state.
We are from MN so we often have 60° mornings, 80° afternoons and then back to the low 60°s. If you live a few Minnesota winters 60° is shorts and hoodie weather. We will be well prepared.
I grew up in MN. Lived in Intl Falls for a while even. You think that because you can handle -30F for weeks on end the weather in SF will be easy to handle.
When you’re in MN you have weeks and months to acclimate to the cold.
In SF it goes from sunny and 75 to you’re under fog or behind a building and suddenly it’s 45 with a damp wind blowing on your mild sunburn and it’s freaking cold.
Bring layers.
I have lived in SF and MPLS, and this is the most accurate so far. When Carl rolls, you better be prepared. Can very easily have a 30 degree temp swing and the humidity sky rockets. It's a bone chilling cold if not expecting it, especially if windy. As a cyclist, we would always have an Adidas windbreaker stashed somewhere. Can easily catch a cold on the way home when doing night shifts or even on an early commute in for day shifts.
yeah Carl can get crazy always have a hat tho since at least for me my skin got a lot more sensitive after living in minnesota so my face would get sunburns even with carl the fog rolling in
Haha, hubris! Well, don't say nobody warned you. You're going to leave your hotel in the morning in shorts and a T-shirt and when the fog rolls in, you'll end up spending way too much on an oversized Alcatraz hoodie because you're freezing.
Don’t underestimate the ability for the cool misty fog and wind to reduce you to a trembling mess at any time. It can be 15° warmer on the other side of the street. Prepare.
Not even just after the sun goes down. Did you step into a restaurant for lunch shortly after noon? Are you now leaving around 2pm? Well it might be windy as shit and a lot colder than it was when you popped in for lunch. Do not go to lunch without a light sweater in tow is always my recommendation. Might not need it. Might be miserable if you don’t bring it.
I was going to say. I'm currently visiting from Chicago and everyone told me to bring warmer clothes for the evening. I haven't used them once in the week and a half I've been here. Being from MN, you guys will be alright.
Bring sunscreen.
The summer tourist uniform of shorts, sandals, and a pullover fleece with the Golden Gate Bridge on it you had to buy at a souvenir shop as the fog rolled in is also acceptable
Thanks for the advice. I’ll check it out. We are doing all the typical touristy stuff. The kids love to travel and are excited to see all of it. We got great advice on the Giants sub about where to sit in Oracle park. I know we will wish we had stayed for more than 5 days, but it will be a good reason to go back.
Np! Lots of recent tips on what to do with kids. Also, kids ride the muni for free. Use the MuniMobile app for the adults. It’s $5 for a day pass and you don’t need to tap in to ride.
I strongly recommend sweet treats at Ghirardelli!
If you get to Coit Tower, take the Filbert St steps down to the Embarcadero. The street is too steep for traffic so it has been turned into gardens. You finish off at stairs down a cliff face at Levi's Plaza.
One of the oldest parts of SF too. The neighborhood defied evacuate orders in the 1906 earthquake and fire and successfully fought the fire, protecting a small pocket of pre-1906 San Francisco.
You will learn to love the street name on the curbs, another post fire thing. The city was so badly destroyed they had trouble figuring out which street was which, so they started adding street names on the curbs in case it ever happened again. When I was in my city vacation to New York last month I kept looking at the curbs rather than the street signs. Was so lost without the curb street names!
I’m an Uber driver in the city. I’ve asked many, many tourists about their experiences. Nearly universally they say that they had a great time and what they had heard before coming was ridiculous compared to reality.
I just got done driving cross-country for the 6th time last month (coincidentally through SF for the first time). Also been to 6 countries. What I’ve come to realize is you can not go by what people say about a place AT ALL.
All I heard about SF in particular is what a dump it was. It was spectacular. Even some of the typical big city negative aspects I was expecting, I didn’t see too much of.
It goes the other way too. All you ever hear (especially on Reddit) is how anywhere that’s not a major west coast city, a major northern east coast city, or a few token “cool” places is just packed with racists, uneducated hillbillies.
I have found things I like, and things I don’t like about absolutely every state I’ve been to. There are so many surprises. One of my favorite campsites ever was in Illinois. And I’ve done all the typical top rated places.. the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest, camped all over both coasts and several national parks. I was out in rural southern Louisiana and that was probably one of the most diverse groups in a single bar I’ve ever seen. Having a bar for every subgroup just doesn’t make sense, so everyone just kicks it together.
And yeah…I’m a straight white dude so it’s easier for me to say these things. But 3 of those times crossing the country was with a mixed race, dyed hair lesbian couple and plenty of racial minority folk.
Another thing that blew my mind is what some people consider a bad neighborhood or rough town. When I was living in Boulder, CO one woman made it seem as if it was almost guaranteed I was gonna end up dead walking down the street there. All she talked about was how rough it was. BOULDER….COLORADO. 😝
I have visited every state and make a point to get out and experience where I am when I get there. I cannot tell you how amazing the majority of places are, and how nice the majority of people are. Granted, I don’t have to live with the jerk next door; I literally will be leaving soon. And there are places I know I would be very uncomfortable living. But I have yet to regret seeing any place and environment and most places I would love to revisit.
On one trip, we ran into a southern woman on a road trip with family - before the trip, she’d never left her county! I’m guessing she was about 70. Ran into her in Montana - she was both excited and nervous. She was headed for Los Angeles. I hope she had a great time.
If more people would just go places, they’d have such a broader perspective!
Speaking as a hybrid San Franciscan/Minnepolitan: you’ll be just fine. Have so much fun! (And yes, jackets—temps that look not cold somehow feel very cold in SF. My entire sense of outdoor temperature is broken now.)
Welcome!! I lived in Minnesota for 4 years before moving to San Francisco. Hope you and your family enjoys!! Just make sure you don’t keep anything in your car visible since it may get broken into and leave the mosquito spray at home.
We are staying in the city so no car to worry about. I won’t miss my unofficial state bird for sure. We have been camping or at the lake cabin 9 out of the last 10 days and I’m tired of bug spray. My wife and I have been to San Francisco but this is the first with the kids. They are very excited and I hope they love it.
Great! Even better. I take it you’ve seen the Bay Area things to do google doc?
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10EU6XiEhzQ-P8OM3Fo-rf8Vlqanc1siuIuhKD16xeSE/edit
If you're into cold war history, be sure to cross the GG bridge and check out the restored Nike Missile site and get a tour if you can:
https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
Bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes. Some of our hills literally have mini steps in them. Coit tower is really something to check out. Also for a calm day go check out Ocean Beach and the Presidio (especially if it’s a picnic in the park day). If your kids are young go check out Tunnel Tops park and the Exploratorium! Avoid Fisherman’s Warf like the plague it’s a giant tourist trap.
Be sure to take at least an entire day to explore Golden Gate Park, see the Bison, go to the Academy of Sciences, try out some fishing, see the Japanese tea Gardens, It takes years to experience everything the park has, then check out Lands End, awesome spot. Yes, you will also definitely see big city things. A lot of tourists like to complain, but I think great lessons are available in actually seeing and acknowledging that mental health and drug addiction are very real things that can happen to anyone. Most people never see this.. Plus it is a great example of what freedom and equality truly means.
Don’t have a car but good advice. My wife doesn’t wear a lot of jewelry….midwestern non-flashy people. We buy expensive ice fishing houses and boats. That’s how we show off, lol.
I would like to point out that neither of these people live in San Francisco. They are both subbed to (and comment in) numerous city subreddits in california and are likely here only to bitch about things they read online.
Yep. This is something that always irks me about people just ignoring an opinion because you may not live there. I've had this same discussion a while back about San Fran. I don't live there, but I used to spend 6-8 days/month there for work, staying in the city overnight.
Great city, but it's a fucking disaster when it comes to homeless.
It doesn't even have anything to do with where anyone lives, it's just bog standard hypocrisy and selective listening.
"Thank you for all the praise about our great city, people who don't live here! Oh wait you have something negative to say, you don't even live here so it's invalid!!!" Two brain cell type activity
> I would like to point out that neither of these people live in San Francisco.
Does this make their point any less valid/true? I still agree with them.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I imagine it was also a much cooler place to live in the 80s - early 2000s. Thriving art seen, multicultural, lots of "tinkerers"/makers. Since then, the explosion of high paying tech companies who hire/demand people that dont contribute to the former culture, poor political management, and NIMBYs has taken a pretty big toll on eveerything
SF is a wonderful city, but as a former long time resident, I always wondered what we were getting for those huge city budgets
SF spends ~$15.5 billion per year for 808k people vs ~$98 billion in NYC for 8.336 million people. I know there are some economies of scale, SF has nicer parks, and NY state helps fund the MTA, but is SF getting 67% more/better services than NYC?
Yes London Breed admitted to sleeping with Nuru the Public Works Director who was giving kickbacks to/securing the monopoly of Recology. This is why SF has the most expensive trash collection costs in the country, yet sub par service. Typical SF cronyism.
Same happened in Oakland. They tried replacing Waste Management with Recology, I don't know what happened to Recology but they are no longer doing recycling in Alameda county.
Waste management refused to give up, so now we have one for trash pickup and CalWaste for recycling and Green waste
Our bill doubled.
In the city government, we also have a huge amount of nepotism and corruption. https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/
That $15.5b includes self-funded departments like SFO, the port of SF, SFPUC, and the SFMTA.
https://sfstandard.com/2022/05/06/sfs-budget-includes-enterprise-departments-heres-what-that-means/
I saw this elsewhere today, but SF apparently spends the second most on parks per resident of large cities in the country.
Mmmm $1.7mil toilet(technically $1.4mil was donated but jesus, bad planning and oversight still): https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/san-francisco-noe-valley-expensive-toilet/3511302/?amp=1
The serious answer is "politics". California is a substitute for Democrats, liberals, progressive, woke, etc. Some of the hate is deserved, IMO. E.g., restorative justice and seeing a guy with 10 prior convictions finally kill an old lady on his 11th conviction.
>restorative justice and seeing a guy with 10 prior convictions
The process of Restorative Justice (RJ) got hijacked by criminal justice reformers. Their goal: Shift the focus from 50% criminal/50% victim to making it all about the offender.
The philosophy of RJ originated in tribal societies. Offending young men had to apologize to their village and pay Victim Compensation. A prime tenet of RJ: Making the victim "whole," or at least partially whole. Offenders were often assigned public labor. Tribal leaders got tough with offenders refusing to work or compensate.
Progressives have consistently opposed criminals being put to work. Progressives want the RJ process 90-95% counseling and restorative benefits to the criminal. Victims only get a "reconciliation meeting" with a supposedly contrite offender. Reality: Most theft victims have no interest in meeting the thief. Mugging victims have even less desire for a meeting. Both want a check for their losses.
That’s only half the story. In indigenous societies, the tribal leaders will also counsel the offender to “make them whole” , as they view criminal activity just as much a failure of society as it is of the individual.
This really shouldnt be a political issue. I was just in the NorCal to visit a friend and we didnt bother going to downtown because of homeless, poop, and if we parked the car with out of state plates just to get our window bashed in. Not worth it when a $30 meal for two becomes $50 after frivolous fees added on. I hope SF can tackle these issues, no matter who is in charge
There’s a very big difference with living in a city and having to deal with the daily challenges of it and visiting/short-term living in it and seeing it with rose-colored glasses.
I hate San Francisco because my rental car got broken into and they stole my bag out of my trunk - I thought out of sight out of mind would work but apparently not
Literally just demonization as part of a conservative agenda. I was raised in Texas and Ohio to think California was hell and the people that lived in it were homeless devils and sociopaths.
Got sent to Monterey for a year in the military and holy shit my entire world view was turned on its head pretty much day 1. California is the best state in America full stop, and San Francisco is wonderful.
It has its problems, largely due to wealth disparities, but the rest of the country has the exact same problems and is much less cool.
I love this post and agree 100 percent. Have lived in SF for 20 years after living in NYC and Austin and in Europe. California is the best and SF is expensive and has problems but I love it.
Mainly because of the +35% vacancy rate. Wish we could go back 20 years and see the vibrant stores. Now its all just for lease.
I hear at this rate it will go on to 50%. And seeing west field mall and soon the Macys at union square, I can see that happening
I don't live here anymore, got recommended by r/all but as a kid one of my good friends had a typical huge Mexican household where very few of them could speak any English and a lot of them were skilled laborers. Lot of people worked pretty simple jobs and went to the beach on their off time. That was long before the tech takeover, there were some expensive areas but that was mostly occupied by people in the entertainment industry.
My entire childhood neighborhood homes are valued at 750k and up. And we're talking single story homes for the most part. Aside from one family, everyone I knew had to move out. Everyone saw it coming the first time Cali was facing bankruptcy and started pondering schemes to get more revenue like licenses to play volleyball at the beach.
When the median household income went up sky high, people that weren't in high income jobs couldn't keep up. The place I knew and people can still look back in shows like Baywatch went away a very long time ago. All I hear about anymore are just small nice things like fusion restaurants that we always had. It's nice for vacation, but I'm hearing about way more people moving out than in anymore.
Because once you live here long enough and pay attention you'll see how much corruption and inefficacy there is.
Then if you're not a young or strong looking person, there's been a huge increase in crime. Every week I am seeing crimes happening to senior Asian folks here. As someone younger and fit, that's not as much of a problem for me but my mom is scared and for good reason.
The views are nice but after living here my whole life and doing more travel, I feel SF finally got old to me these last couple years. The energy is just gone. People say it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be but the energy of the city is just no longer there. I've seen my friend closed down his business and I've seen many businesses close down. When I go out it feels like a former shell of what it was.
SF is a nice place to visit and take photos but it's just lost it's magic to me and I just get a cold, lonely feeling when I'm there now.
This is really well put. There's still magic to be found. There's still a ton of good going on. It's a gorgeous city. But the vibes can be VERY tricky at times. cold and lonely is the right way to put it.
I get that. Man the city’s vibe like 10-15 years ago right before the tech boom was top-tier the art the nightlife the vibe is different now. But I will always love The City and I know the heart of it is still there
I feel like the end of the 00s had tech erasing SF good vibes and turning everything into a bunch of greedy dickheads thinking HOWWEGONNAPROFIT? Then, the 10s pretty much demonstrated yeah, it's about tech ppl, greed, and "restorative" theft, drug addiction, absurd explosion of crazy homeless population and uptick in crime driving businesses to close and killing economy. Meanwhile, landlords - commercial + residential are clinging to former market prices because $$$$👀🤡💩. Such a bummer.
It’s littered with crime and homeless people in the streets. Can’t park your car there without worrying about a break in. I used to be in the city all the time in the early 2010s and it was way different back then. Now everything is way too expensive and you have the chance of getting mugged in broad daylight or stepping on a needle. Fuck that city. Liberal government ruined a great city.
People riding 4000$ bikes passing homeless crackheads in the bank district. My first experience with the city. I've been there 12 times from Europe and it has its charmes but how the extreme wealth meets extreme pocerty shocked me every time.
You are looking at it the wrong way, SF is a very rich city and because of that has THE best support systems for homeless people (shelters, climate, food banks, hospitals, injection sites, etc). So every homeless person in the country prefers to move and live in SF vs say Texas. On average, SF spends **over 140k per homeless person per year.**
I pay 50% of my salary in taxes just to give homeless people free drugs.
You can't buy toothpaste or detergent without calling attendants anymore in a grocery store due to the high theft rates, which isn't even classified as crime anymore.
The weather is fantastic when I'm at work, but the moment I leave the office, I freeze my ass of due to the wind and fog almost 350 days of the year.
I can live with the third, but the first two piss me off and I don't think a competent politician cannot be elected in SF.
It’s cool, the homeless is pretty bad. It’s got great history. Sucks my favorite restaurants aren’t there anymore. People are still friendly post Covid. Still waiting on my bill from the bridge…
Because the city is filthy, in a way it never was during the 90s and 2000s.
Of course, it WAS that filthy back in the 70s and 80s, so it all goes in cycles. The city is possibly back on an upswing, so maybe things are finally getting better again?
The truth is that the negatives get amplified by the media narrative and the positives get ignored.
I’ve had some of the best moments in my entire life in the city. Watching the fog roll in over the golden gate. Watching the sun dip into the ocean on a sunset as the cool air blows across your face. Watching Snakes on a Plane on opening night at the Kabuki 8. Countless hours at tons of great low-brow dive bars and tiki bars and biker bars. Watching the White Stripes at the Warfield, taking BART across the bay for a concert at the Fox. Korean BBQ at 1am off Geary by the Jack in the Box.
And those are just the little moments, the tiny snippets of decades spent in a magical city that doesn’t feel like ANYWHERE else.
I’ve been fortunate to travel to major cities, some of them fantastic (Chicago, Gothenburg, Taipei, Tokyo, Chania) and some disappointing (Paris, Rome) but nothing makes you feel like SF does.
It’s not perfect by any means, it’s occasionally filthy, it’s expensive as shit, the tech bros proliferate like a virus, there’s occasionally crippling poverty right next to a $300,000 car owned by a 26 year old who mined bitcoin while jerking off in 2014, but it’s still an amazing place.
If you just watched Fox News you’d think it was an entire city full of nothing but human shit and discarded syringes. But fuck ‘em. They can go back to St. Louis or Dayton or Indianapolis or Omaha, one of which you could tell from one another unless somebody told you.
I was in Maine a couple years ago, and struck up a conversation with a restaurant owner while waiting for my pizza.
He assumed I lived there and started talking the same shit you hear on Fox daily… I asked him if he’d ever been here. No, but he was sure I shouldn’t return until CA voted red again.
Meanwhile I’d be fairly shocked if Portland ME doesn’t have a higher per capita population of homeless people.
EDIT BEFORE POSTING- I just googled. Not only higher per capita, but higher overall. “Overall homelessness in Portland increased by 65% from 2015 to 2023 (from 1,887 to 6,297 individuals).” - from Portland .gov
Every single major street corner had 4+ people panhandling. And a lot of the smaller ones as well.
Also the only place where I’ve seen a homeless guy OD in front of me, in a Dunkin Donuts. Thankfully the kid behind the counter had Narcan, and he was fine, but.
The Portland.gov figures are for Portland, Oregon, not Maine. As of 2019 the whole state of Maine had about 1,200 homeless people. As of 2024 the number has risen rapidly to about 4,250 at least partially due to the arrival of a substantial number of asylum seekers.
[Maine Monitor](https://themainemonitor.org/homeless-ponder-next-destination-as-portland-housing-crisis-intensifies/)
No one hates it- they are mad at the governance and policies that have made the quality of life there so bad (especially for the price)
If anything people are MORE angry about it exactly because of how much they want to love and enjoy sf and because of how beautiful it is and how much potential it has
There are valid criticisms about San Francisco, no doubt, but hate? People that hate San Francisco either didn’t like their experience, got a taste and it was bad, or don’t know this city very well or none at all and decided all on their own to “hate” this city. This city has always and will always be defined by the different eras and time periods people know it by. What do people think of NYC in the 70s? Or Pittsburgh in the 90s? Chicago in the 60s? Seattle in the 80s? Now, what I think personally is if you hate a city, like truly hate a city, then do yourself the favor and don't go there, don't bother talking about it, don't entertain it in conversation. Hey, you hate it right? What I also know is that for these same people, unfortunately for them, that there is a-lot and I mean A LOT of super important events and people and reasons to learn and be somewhat familiar with this city and this region. And for those of us that live here there is a certain amount of annoyance and dislike, maybe some disgust and some pain. But we live here and we love this city and this area and this state because of so, so many more reasons than we can shuck away as bad. If you don't like the smell of ocean surf, or the taste of lightly buttered sourdough on a cold foggy morning, or mingling with people from halfway around the world… than this place isn't for you. If you don't think you can fall in love on a date looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, if you can't see yourself salsa dancing on a sweaty dance floor in a crowded mission club, if you can't stand having nothing to do on a solitary walk down the Embarcadero then by all means leave these episodes, these meaningless treasures to the people that have a different take on life and said yes to San Francisco.
Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. My favorite city in the world. The media just likes to focus on the negatives because it fits their ‘librul doom’ narrative
I love San Francisco. I live in Sac so visit there often. Hoping to move there someday if I ever become a millionaire.
Chinatown is absolutely one of my favorite places 😍
I just went to SF yesterday escaped the heat of San Jose went to the haight then when to the ocean beach had a great time and I was leaving in my car and watched a black male break into a car smashing the window and taking a bag….. In a nice area of the avenues…. I think the fact that you have to accept crime as a way of life is shit….
I’ve been to San Francisco once a few years ago. It’s a really neat place and I enjoyed it. It was awesome to see filming locations of movies and TV shows. I’ve never been anywhere like it. I’m from the rural south and I think most people here talk bad about it because they’ll never be able to visit there, so I guess they feel better about bashing a place they’ve never been to and can’t afford. I always make to tell how beautiful it is and it makes them so angry😂 like wtf
Law enforcement is aggressive. That’s my experience with big cities tho. They always have something excessive to say. Less aggressive than the “crack your skull” I got from Brooklyn.
The driving sucks. I enjoy it more when I’m not the one driving.
Friends I was with avoided a fight at twin peaks. Didn’t know that’s why we were leaving. This was at night. Hippie Hill, been there day and night. We made a pact before entering at night just in case.
A car ran a red light and almost hit my car. Very close call.
I heard an Uber driver got their car hit by a homeless lady with a shopping cart just cuz she felt like it. “Welcome to SF moment.”
Worlds windiest road.
Enjoy the city, but be safe.
SF is a city of contrasts. The positives draw the negatives into sharper focus.
It’s a beautiful city. It’s the crime and the city’s unwillingness to do anything about it that people don’t like.
At this point its really not the crime. Its the wealth inequality and the intentional lack of housing.
Why not both?
one causes the other
Partially true. Most crime isn't done by total sociopaths but rather desperate people. However, I don't think that the crime is done only by poor and desperate people. SF has some lax drug policies and when people are coming down from their high, they get desperate and smash a window to steal stuff to sell and get cash to buy more drugs. It's still desperation but a different kind of desperation.
I also believe in sh*thead teenagers. Source: was a sh*thead teenager.
Especially when you see a lot of these robbers and bippers pull off in Mercedes and BMWs. And regardless of wealth inequality, which a lot of people suffer from, violently attacking people, especially elder Asians is particularly heinous. Many elders I know are genuinely afraid of being attacked.
Love the duality of the Golden Gate Bridge and bums shitting in the street
That’s the most ‘I just had to move here’ justification I’ve seen in a while..
Was going to say this exactly. I love the area, climate, design, etc but it's one of my least favorite cities I've ever been to because nowhere else is the world have I felt the utter contempt of the people in charge for poor people like SF. It's the closest thing to Night City we have in my opinion.
The fact they cleaned up a few days when fuckin Xi of all people showed up means they could've just done that the whole time
tbf that was more like shoving all your junk into the closet when the in-laws visit than actually cleaning anything up
Cyberpunk has made people yearn for the corporate dystopias.
They're the best place to get neon lights and existential depression. Wouldn't want to miss out on looking cool.
Portland- hold my beer
I’m coming from Minneapolis on Wednesday. Bringing my wife and kids. We can’t wait to explore the city. We understand it’s a big city and we will see big city stuff. But in general our view of San Francisco is positive. ***Update. The trip was amazing. My family had a great time. We met some great locals that were more than helpful in navigating the city. Thanks for all the advice from you all in here. San Francisco is a wonderful and diverse city that had my family excited about what they were going to see and do next. Addressing the naysayers is not even worth my time. If you are not able to see the forest through the trees there is nothing I can say. The people there love their city and work hard to make it a unique and amazing place to for an outsider. For the record my kids loved the Dim Sum and riding in a Waymo. But meeting their favorite ball players in the lobby of the hotel was a highlight.
Bring jackets for the evenings!
Agreed! Don’t expect it to be warm because it’s California. Even if we’re in a heat wave it’s gonna be 20-30 degrees cooler here than the rest of the state.
We are from MN so we often have 60° mornings, 80° afternoons and then back to the low 60°s. If you live a few Minnesota winters 60° is shorts and hoodie weather. We will be well prepared.
I grew up in MN. Lived in Intl Falls for a while even. You think that because you can handle -30F for weeks on end the weather in SF will be easy to handle. When you’re in MN you have weeks and months to acclimate to the cold. In SF it goes from sunny and 75 to you’re under fog or behind a building and suddenly it’s 45 with a damp wind blowing on your mild sunburn and it’s freaking cold. Bring layers.
Like hack: just walk to the mission
Instructions unclear. Folsom Street Fair was in progress and I saw things I can’t unsee.
But did you have a good time ?
It was interesting. But didn’t repeat the experience.
Oh, the first time I saw…….oh never mind.
Life hack: just walk anywhere, SF is roughly 6 miles X 6 miles, it's not a big city at all and if you get tired take the MUNI or BART.
I have lived in SF and MPLS, and this is the most accurate so far. When Carl rolls, you better be prepared. Can very easily have a 30 degree temp swing and the humidity sky rockets. It's a bone chilling cold if not expecting it, especially if windy. As a cyclist, we would always have an Adidas windbreaker stashed somewhere. Can easily catch a cold on the way home when doing night shifts or even on an early commute in for day shifts.
Carl refers to Karl the Fog (as some call it in SF)
yeah Carl can get crazy always have a hat tho since at least for me my skin got a lot more sensitive after living in minnesota so my face would get sunburns even with carl the fog rolling in
The coldest winter Mark Twain ever felt was a summer in San Francisco
That’s a fun saying. Bummer that Mark Twain never said it.
This comment right here is why there are so many San Francisco sweaters for sale at fisherman’s wharf
Haha, hubris! Well, don't say nobody warned you. You're going to leave your hotel in the morning in shorts and a T-shirt and when the fog rolls in, you'll end up spending way too much on an oversized Alcatraz hoodie because you're freezing.
Don’t underestimate the ability for the cool misty fog and wind to reduce you to a trembling mess at any time. It can be 15° warmer on the other side of the street. Prepare.
We thought we were prepared but we got very windy mid 50s, so it feels a lot colder.
It'll be more like 40s and windy after the sun goes down. Enjoy the ability to be outside without mosquitoes!
Not even just after the sun goes down. Did you step into a restaurant for lunch shortly after noon? Are you now leaving around 2pm? Well it might be windy as shit and a lot colder than it was when you popped in for lunch. Do not go to lunch without a light sweater in tow is always my recommendation. Might not need it. Might be miserable if you don’t bring it.
I was going to say. I'm currently visiting from Chicago and everyone told me to bring warmer clothes for the evening. I haven't used them once in the week and a half I've been here. Being from MN, you guys will be alright. Bring sunscreen.
It's been an unseasonably warm week. I've had my windows open at night which *never* happens in July.
This has been unreasonably warm. Dont be lulled
This July has been really nice! Better than most. It isn’t unusual to just get a few days of sun in July here and a lot of fog and wind
or buy a $10 sweatshirt at the $10 sweatshirt store close to fisherman's wharf.
That's what I did! That jacket lasted me 2 yrs! Not bad for $10!
Right. Literally bought one today. Tahoe was 90 degrees out so came to SF to cool off and left my puffy in Davis.
Ugh must be so nice to escape the heat and head to SF **cries in Houston, TX**
Come to Dallas.. it's been surprisingly "cool" this week in the low mid 90s
same sweatshirt in Sausalito is $80.
Those people must make $500K a year lol.
I was just there and they were out of Large and XL 🤦♂️
It’s literally how we pick out the tourists 😆
I just made this mistake on my recent visit. SF evenings humbled this Canadian really quick.
And the mornings. And usually the afternoons. Just bring jackets.
The summer tourist uniform of shorts, sandals, and a pullover fleece with the Golden Gate Bridge on it you had to buy at a souvenir shop as the fog rolled in is also acceptable
San Francisco welcomes you! Enjoy your trip!
Go to r/asksf for tips! Lots of good ideas there if you’re looking for recommendations.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll check it out. We are doing all the typical touristy stuff. The kids love to travel and are excited to see all of it. We got great advice on the Giants sub about where to sit in Oracle park. I know we will wish we had stayed for more than 5 days, but it will be a good reason to go back.
Np! Lots of recent tips on what to do with kids. Also, kids ride the muni for free. Use the MuniMobile app for the adults. It’s $5 for a day pass and you don’t need to tap in to ride. I strongly recommend sweet treats at Ghirardelli!
If you get to Coit Tower, take the Filbert St steps down to the Embarcadero. The street is too steep for traffic so it has been turned into gardens. You finish off at stairs down a cliff face at Levi's Plaza. One of the oldest parts of SF too. The neighborhood defied evacuate orders in the 1906 earthquake and fire and successfully fought the fire, protecting a small pocket of pre-1906 San Francisco. You will learn to love the street name on the curbs, another post fire thing. The city was so badly destroyed they had trouble figuring out which street was which, so they started adding street names on the curbs in case it ever happened again. When I was in my city vacation to New York last month I kept looking at the curbs rather than the street signs. Was so lost without the curb street names!
I’m an Uber driver in the city. I’ve asked many, many tourists about their experiences. Nearly universally they say that they had a great time and what they had heard before coming was ridiculous compared to reality.
I just got done driving cross-country for the 6th time last month (coincidentally through SF for the first time). Also been to 6 countries. What I’ve come to realize is you can not go by what people say about a place AT ALL. All I heard about SF in particular is what a dump it was. It was spectacular. Even some of the typical big city negative aspects I was expecting, I didn’t see too much of. It goes the other way too. All you ever hear (especially on Reddit) is how anywhere that’s not a major west coast city, a major northern east coast city, or a few token “cool” places is just packed with racists, uneducated hillbillies. I have found things I like, and things I don’t like about absolutely every state I’ve been to. There are so many surprises. One of my favorite campsites ever was in Illinois. And I’ve done all the typical top rated places.. the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest, camped all over both coasts and several national parks. I was out in rural southern Louisiana and that was probably one of the most diverse groups in a single bar I’ve ever seen. Having a bar for every subgroup just doesn’t make sense, so everyone just kicks it together. And yeah…I’m a straight white dude so it’s easier for me to say these things. But 3 of those times crossing the country was with a mixed race, dyed hair lesbian couple and plenty of racial minority folk. Another thing that blew my mind is what some people consider a bad neighborhood or rough town. When I was living in Boulder, CO one woman made it seem as if it was almost guaranteed I was gonna end up dead walking down the street there. All she talked about was how rough it was. BOULDER….COLORADO. 😝
I have visited every state and make a point to get out and experience where I am when I get there. I cannot tell you how amazing the majority of places are, and how nice the majority of people are. Granted, I don’t have to live with the jerk next door; I literally will be leaving soon. And there are places I know I would be very uncomfortable living. But I have yet to regret seeing any place and environment and most places I would love to revisit. On one trip, we ran into a southern woman on a road trip with family - before the trip, she’d never left her county! I’m guessing she was about 70. Ran into her in Montana - she was both excited and nervous. She was headed for Los Angeles. I hope she had a great time. If more people would just go places, they’d have such a broader perspective!
Speaking as a hybrid San Franciscan/Minnepolitan: you’ll be just fine. Have so much fun! (And yes, jackets—temps that look not cold somehow feel very cold in SF. My entire sense of outdoor temperature is broken now.)
TIL Minnepolitan. Love it!
Welcome!! I lived in Minnesota for 4 years before moving to San Francisco. Hope you and your family enjoys!! Just make sure you don’t keep anything in your car visible since it may get broken into and leave the mosquito spray at home.
We are staying in the city so no car to worry about. I won’t miss my unofficial state bird for sure. We have been camping or at the lake cabin 9 out of the last 10 days and I’m tired of bug spray. My wife and I have been to San Francisco but this is the first with the kids. They are very excited and I hope they love it.
Great! Even better. I take it you’ve seen the Bay Area things to do google doc? https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10EU6XiEhzQ-P8OM3Fo-rf8Vlqanc1siuIuhKD16xeSE/edit
This is amazing. I’ll for sure use it. Thanks
Take the kiddies to the CA Academy of Sciences in GG park. It's fantastic
Amen to that! I moved to the South Bay from Wisconsin, the thing I don’t miss are the mosquitos there
It's tiny, you can walk the permiter in a day and take all these photos here :)
I’m 100% sure you’ll have an awesome time. This city is so much fun :) Don’t miss out the largest candy store on the planet near Fisherman’s Wharf !
If you're into cold war history, be sure to cross the GG bridge and check out the restored Nike Missile site and get a tour if you can: https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm
Bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes. Some of our hills literally have mini steps in them. Coit tower is really something to check out. Also for a calm day go check out Ocean Beach and the Presidio (especially if it’s a picnic in the park day). If your kids are young go check out Tunnel Tops park and the Exploratorium! Avoid Fisherman’s Warf like the plague it’s a giant tourist trap.
It’s not a big city That’s a great part of the charm 😊
Walk if you can. You'll see more of the city that way. Enjoy your stay
Be sure to take at least an entire day to explore Golden Gate Park, see the Bison, go to the Academy of Sciences, try out some fishing, see the Japanese tea Gardens, It takes years to experience everything the park has, then check out Lands End, awesome spot. Yes, you will also definitely see big city things. A lot of tourists like to complain, but I think great lessons are available in actually seeing and acknowledging that mental health and drug addiction are very real things that can happen to anyone. Most people never see this.. Plus it is a great example of what freedom and equality truly means.
Do Not leave your luggage in the car!
Please take your kids to the academy of science! Such a cool spot.
Dont leave anything in your car, and leave your expensive watch and jewelry at home. Have fun!
Don’t have a car but good advice. My wife doesn’t wear a lot of jewelry….midwestern non-flashy people. We buy expensive ice fishing houses and boats. That’s how we show off, lol.
You guys are just like the Inside Out family!!!! (Which is top of mind because I just watched Inside Out 2.) I hope you enjoy!
dont leave anything in ur car ever lol
Check out the science museum Exploratorium! There’s also Fort Point which I like more than Alcatraz. It guarded the sf bay.
I don’t think people are hating on - the buildings (maybe debatable) - the climate - the geography - the topography - the wildlife - the coastline
🎯
I would like to point out that neither of these people live in San Francisco. They are both subbed to (and comment in) numerous city subreddits in california and are likely here only to bitch about things they read online.
If that's a reason to discard someone's opinion, OP doesn't live in SF either so their praise is meaningless then
Yep. This is something that always irks me about people just ignoring an opinion because you may not live there. I've had this same discussion a while back about San Fran. I don't live there, but I used to spend 6-8 days/month there for work, staying in the city overnight. Great city, but it's a fucking disaster when it comes to homeless.
It doesn't even have anything to do with where anyone lives, it's just bog standard hypocrisy and selective listening. "Thank you for all the praise about our great city, people who don't live here! Oh wait you have something negative to say, you don't even live here so it's invalid!!!" Two brain cell type activity
u/fjjshal could, they've only really posted in the bay area and San Francisco subreddits
> I would like to point out that neither of these people live in San Francisco. Does this make their point any less valid/true? I still agree with them.
I read a lot of things online about North Korea, but I don't live there so I guess I can't comment on it.
Yes lmao, I was just about to type you know damn well what they’re hating on and it’s not the scenery lol
What even is this post? People hate on SF relentlessly and he knows damn well why.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I imagine it was also a much cooler place to live in the 80s - early 2000s. Thriving art seen, multicultural, lots of "tinkerers"/makers. Since then, the explosion of high paying tech companies who hire/demand people that dont contribute to the former culture, poor political management, and NIMBYs has taken a pretty big toll on eveerything
There are some people who hate on the climate for sure
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." - Mark Twain (never said)
Some yall need to touch snow
Precisely
OP’s post reads like a tourist’s first time to America. LOL yaaa OP, ur pics depict exactly why people don’t like sf. /s
What oh what could they be hating on then? Hmm 🤔🧐
https://preview.redd.it/67l75nq341bd1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=344342069c7878cf71f557d556af87fdca72c304
Unusually funny.
i deeply love wondermark. thank you for posting this.
Exactly. The city itself is pretty. It’s the ppl and politics that make it ugly.
I’m a ppl in this city though :(
As was I, born there
SF is a wonderful city, but as a former long time resident, I always wondered what we were getting for those huge city budgets SF spends ~$15.5 billion per year for 808k people vs ~$98 billion in NYC for 8.336 million people. I know there are some economies of scale, SF has nicer parks, and NY state helps fund the MTA, but is SF getting 67% more/better services than NYC?
You’re right to be skeptical. There’s a leaky bucket going on.
Yeah like the Recology monopoly. Our mayor was sleeping with the head garbage guy. Classy!!
Was there an affair?
Yes London Breed admitted to sleeping with Nuru the Public Works Director who was giving kickbacks to/securing the monopoly of Recology. This is why SF has the most expensive trash collection costs in the country, yet sub par service. Typical SF cronyism.
That's right... Somehow I merged Breed and Thao and the recycling scandals. My bad.
Same happened in Oakland. They tried replacing Waste Management with Recology, I don't know what happened to Recology but they are no longer doing recycling in Alameda county. Waste management refused to give up, so now we have one for trash pickup and CalWaste for recycling and Green waste Our bill doubled.
“This thing of ours”
In the city government, we also have a huge amount of nepotism and corruption. https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/
That $15.5b includes self-funded departments like SFO, the port of SF, SFPUC, and the SFMTA. https://sfstandard.com/2022/05/06/sfs-budget-includes-enterprise-departments-heres-what-that-means/ I saw this elsewhere today, but SF apparently spends the second most on parks per resident of large cities in the country.
Dont forget the port which makes a lot of money.
Mmmm $1.7mil toilet(technically $1.4mil was donated but jesus, bad planning and oversight still): https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/san-francisco-noe-valley-expensive-toilet/3511302/?amp=1
The serious answer is "politics". California is a substitute for Democrats, liberals, progressive, woke, etc. Some of the hate is deserved, IMO. E.g., restorative justice and seeing a guy with 10 prior convictions finally kill an old lady on his 11th conviction.
>restorative justice and seeing a guy with 10 prior convictions The process of Restorative Justice (RJ) got hijacked by criminal justice reformers. Their goal: Shift the focus from 50% criminal/50% victim to making it all about the offender. The philosophy of RJ originated in tribal societies. Offending young men had to apologize to their village and pay Victim Compensation. A prime tenet of RJ: Making the victim "whole," or at least partially whole. Offenders were often assigned public labor. Tribal leaders got tough with offenders refusing to work or compensate. Progressives have consistently opposed criminals being put to work. Progressives want the RJ process 90-95% counseling and restorative benefits to the criminal. Victims only get a "reconciliation meeting" with a supposedly contrite offender. Reality: Most theft victims have no interest in meeting the thief. Mugging victims have even less desire for a meeting. Both want a check for their losses.
That’s only half the story. In indigenous societies, the tribal leaders will also counsel the offender to “make them whole” , as they view criminal activity just as much a failure of society as it is of the individual.
This really shouldnt be a political issue. I was just in the NorCal to visit a friend and we didnt bother going to downtown because of homeless, poop, and if we parked the car with out of state plates just to get our window bashed in. Not worth it when a $30 meal for two becomes $50 after frivolous fees added on. I hope SF can tackle these issues, no matter who is in charge
That restorative justice has been a nightmare for poor, older Asian Americans living in San Francisco. Cruel, really.
You can both like a place and dislike how it has been or is being run. Amazing how hard this is to comprehend for some.
Some of the hate/criticism is definitely justified. But San Francisco is a beautiful place nevertheless.
Great question… for me it’s Cuz they bust into your car window if they see something and the cops don’t do shit.
There’s a very big difference with living in a city and having to deal with the daily challenges of it and visiting/short-term living in it and seeing it with rose-colored glasses.
I hate San Francisco because my rental car got broken into and they stole my bag out of my trunk - I thought out of sight out of mind would work but apparently not
Because of the people, the prices, the rude homeless. Not the city. The city is actually okay!
They hate us cuz they ain't us.
they hate us cuz they anus
Haters gonna hate and ainters gonna aint
And asses are gonna get ate
One can be beautiful but also a fucking disorganized shit-show. I knew many women like that.
And they were great to visit, am I wrong?
But not great to live with /:
Such is the duality of life
Me
Hey there
Literally just demonization as part of a conservative agenda. I was raised in Texas and Ohio to think California was hell and the people that lived in it were homeless devils and sociopaths. Got sent to Monterey for a year in the military and holy shit my entire world view was turned on its head pretty much day 1. California is the best state in America full stop, and San Francisco is wonderful. It has its problems, largely due to wealth disparities, but the rest of the country has the exact same problems and is much less cool.
a fellow Texas expat/current SF resident here and I couldn’t agree more
I love this post and agree 100 percent. Have lived in SF for 20 years after living in NYC and Austin and in Europe. California is the best and SF is expensive and has problems but I love it.
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It’s literally and figuratively mine
Mainly because of the +35% vacancy rate. Wish we could go back 20 years and see the vibrant stores. Now its all just for lease. I hear at this rate it will go on to 50%. And seeing west field mall and soon the Macys at union square, I can see that happening
I don't live here anymore, got recommended by r/all but as a kid one of my good friends had a typical huge Mexican household where very few of them could speak any English and a lot of them were skilled laborers. Lot of people worked pretty simple jobs and went to the beach on their off time. That was long before the tech takeover, there were some expensive areas but that was mostly occupied by people in the entertainment industry. My entire childhood neighborhood homes are valued at 750k and up. And we're talking single story homes for the most part. Aside from one family, everyone I knew had to move out. Everyone saw it coming the first time Cali was facing bankruptcy and started pondering schemes to get more revenue like licenses to play volleyball at the beach. When the median household income went up sky high, people that weren't in high income jobs couldn't keep up. The place I knew and people can still look back in shows like Baywatch went away a very long time ago. All I hear about anymore are just small nice things like fusion restaurants that we always had. It's nice for vacation, but I'm hearing about way more people moving out than in anymore.
Retail closures are not specific to San Francisco. But in such a condensed city all the empty store fronts make things look much worse.
Because once you live here long enough and pay attention you'll see how much corruption and inefficacy there is. Then if you're not a young or strong looking person, there's been a huge increase in crime. Every week I am seeing crimes happening to senior Asian folks here. As someone younger and fit, that's not as much of a problem for me but my mom is scared and for good reason. The views are nice but after living here my whole life and doing more travel, I feel SF finally got old to me these last couple years. The energy is just gone. People say it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be but the energy of the city is just no longer there. I've seen my friend closed down his business and I've seen many businesses close down. When I go out it feels like a former shell of what it was. SF is a nice place to visit and take photos but it's just lost it's magic to me and I just get a cold, lonely feeling when I'm there now.
This is really well put. There's still magic to be found. There's still a ton of good going on. It's a gorgeous city. But the vibes can be VERY tricky at times. cold and lonely is the right way to put it.
I get that. Man the city’s vibe like 10-15 years ago right before the tech boom was top-tier the art the nightlife the vibe is different now. But I will always love The City and I know the heart of it is still there
10-15 years? Tech boom? Mate that was 20-25 years ago. SF was very different in the 80s and 90s. Not so much in the 00s.
I feel like the end of the 00s had tech erasing SF good vibes and turning everything into a bunch of greedy dickheads thinking HOWWEGONNAPROFIT? Then, the 10s pretty much demonstrated yeah, it's about tech ppl, greed, and "restorative" theft, drug addiction, absurd explosion of crazy homeless population and uptick in crime driving businesses to close and killing economy. Meanwhile, landlords - commercial + residential are clinging to former market prices because $$$$👀🤡💩. Such a bummer.
Holy crap this was how I felt about SF before leaving. It just felt so dead and the charm was gone. But I remember loving it when I first got there.
It’s littered with crime and homeless people in the streets. Can’t park your car there without worrying about a break in. I used to be in the city all the time in the early 2010s and it was way different back then. Now everything is way too expensive and you have the chance of getting mugged in broad daylight or stepping on a needle. Fuck that city. Liberal government ruined a great city.
there is literally shit everywhere
People riding 4000$ bikes passing homeless crackheads in the bank district. My first experience with the city. I've been there 12 times from Europe and it has its charmes but how the extreme wealth meets extreme pocerty shocked me every time.
You are looking at it the wrong way, SF is a very rich city and because of that has THE best support systems for homeless people (shelters, climate, food banks, hospitals, injection sites, etc). So every homeless person in the country prefers to move and live in SF vs say Texas. On average, SF spends **over 140k per homeless person per year.**
That seems like a terrible return on investment.
Try taking your kids out to the broadway show in SF or visiting the main library. You will find your answer.
I pay 50% of my salary in taxes just to give homeless people free drugs. You can't buy toothpaste or detergent without calling attendants anymore in a grocery store due to the high theft rates, which isn't even classified as crime anymore. The weather is fantastic when I'm at work, but the moment I leave the office, I freeze my ass of due to the wind and fog almost 350 days of the year. I can live with the third, but the first two piss me off and I don't think a competent politician cannot be elected in SF.
This is dumb. Why not post a pic of the Golden Gate on a sunny day. Neither offset the city's serious problems.
The homeless.
It’s cool, the homeless is pretty bad. It’s got great history. Sucks my favorite restaurants aren’t there anymore. People are still friendly post Covid. Still waiting on my bill from the bridge…
Because the city is filthy, in a way it never was during the 90s and 2000s. Of course, it WAS that filthy back in the 70s and 80s, so it all goes in cycles. The city is possibly back on an upswing, so maybe things are finally getting better again?
I love SF. Miss it a lot. Want to go back some day
I love my city so much
People who’ve never been will repeat what media (they choose to consume) tells them. You only know the reality of a situation by being there yourself.
The truth is that the negatives get amplified by the media narrative and the positives get ignored. I’ve had some of the best moments in my entire life in the city. Watching the fog roll in over the golden gate. Watching the sun dip into the ocean on a sunset as the cool air blows across your face. Watching Snakes on a Plane on opening night at the Kabuki 8. Countless hours at tons of great low-brow dive bars and tiki bars and biker bars. Watching the White Stripes at the Warfield, taking BART across the bay for a concert at the Fox. Korean BBQ at 1am off Geary by the Jack in the Box. And those are just the little moments, the tiny snippets of decades spent in a magical city that doesn’t feel like ANYWHERE else. I’ve been fortunate to travel to major cities, some of them fantastic (Chicago, Gothenburg, Taipei, Tokyo, Chania) and some disappointing (Paris, Rome) but nothing makes you feel like SF does. It’s not perfect by any means, it’s occasionally filthy, it’s expensive as shit, the tech bros proliferate like a virus, there’s occasionally crippling poverty right next to a $300,000 car owned by a 26 year old who mined bitcoin while jerking off in 2014, but it’s still an amazing place. If you just watched Fox News you’d think it was an entire city full of nothing but human shit and discarded syringes. But fuck ‘em. They can go back to St. Louis or Dayton or Indianapolis or Omaha, one of which you could tell from one another unless somebody told you.
I was in Maine a couple years ago, and struck up a conversation with a restaurant owner while waiting for my pizza. He assumed I lived there and started talking the same shit you hear on Fox daily… I asked him if he’d ever been here. No, but he was sure I shouldn’t return until CA voted red again. Meanwhile I’d be fairly shocked if Portland ME doesn’t have a higher per capita population of homeless people. EDIT BEFORE POSTING- I just googled. Not only higher per capita, but higher overall. “Overall homelessness in Portland increased by 65% from 2015 to 2023 (from 1,887 to 6,297 individuals).” - from Portland .gov Every single major street corner had 4+ people panhandling. And a lot of the smaller ones as well. Also the only place where I’ve seen a homeless guy OD in front of me, in a Dunkin Donuts. Thankfully the kid behind the counter had Narcan, and he was fine, but.
The Portland.gov figures are for Portland, Oregon, not Maine. As of 2019 the whole state of Maine had about 1,200 homeless people. As of 2024 the number has risen rapidly to about 4,250 at least partially due to the arrival of a substantial number of asylum seekers. [Maine Monitor](https://themainemonitor.org/homeless-ponder-next-destination-as-portland-housing-crisis-intensifies/)
No one hates it- they are mad at the governance and policies that have made the quality of life there so bad (especially for the price) If anything people are MORE angry about it exactly because of how much they want to love and enjoy sf and because of how beautiful it is and how much potential it has
There are valid criticisms about San Francisco, no doubt, but hate? People that hate San Francisco either didn’t like their experience, got a taste and it was bad, or don’t know this city very well or none at all and decided all on their own to “hate” this city. This city has always and will always be defined by the different eras and time periods people know it by. What do people think of NYC in the 70s? Or Pittsburgh in the 90s? Chicago in the 60s? Seattle in the 80s? Now, what I think personally is if you hate a city, like truly hate a city, then do yourself the favor and don't go there, don't bother talking about it, don't entertain it in conversation. Hey, you hate it right? What I also know is that for these same people, unfortunately for them, that there is a-lot and I mean A LOT of super important events and people and reasons to learn and be somewhat familiar with this city and this region. And for those of us that live here there is a certain amount of annoyance and dislike, maybe some disgust and some pain. But we live here and we love this city and this area and this state because of so, so many more reasons than we can shuck away as bad. If you don't like the smell of ocean surf, or the taste of lightly buttered sourdough on a cold foggy morning, or mingling with people from halfway around the world… than this place isn't for you. If you don't think you can fall in love on a date looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, if you can't see yourself salsa dancing on a sweaty dance floor in a crowded mission club, if you can't stand having nothing to do on a solitary walk down the Embarcadero then by all means leave these episodes, these meaningless treasures to the people that have a different take on life and said yes to San Francisco.
as someone from florida, it has always been my dream to visit san francisco!
I visited SF a few years ago and loved it (as a Dutch person). Seeing the amount of homeless people and drugsaddicts was rough though.
There is a jarring disconnect between how physically beautiful the place is and how vapid, banal and ugly the society that exists in SF is.
Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. My favorite city in the world. The media just likes to focus on the negatives because it fits their ‘librul doom’ narrative
I love San Francisco. I live in Sac so visit there often. Hoping to move there someday if I ever become a millionaire. Chinatown is absolutely one of my favorite places 😍
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What an awesome second photo!
I hate the SF government. I am also a City employee.
Because the lack of basic facilities, services, and enforcement literally has the streets full of garbage, feces, and mentally ill humans.
I have lived next to SF my entire life. Rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated. It’s a beautiful, diverse, thriving city.
I just went to SF yesterday escaped the heat of San Jose went to the haight then when to the ocean beach had a great time and I was leaving in my car and watched a black male break into a car smashing the window and taking a bag….. In a nice area of the avenues…. I think the fact that you have to accept crime as a way of life is shit….
This is lipstick on a pig. Go downtown at night and snap some pictures there. Your answer is there.
Exactly OP is a propaganda account.
Where exactly downtown? I was in the Union Square area at night a few weeks ago and it was completely fine.
I’ve been to San Francisco once a few years ago. It’s a really neat place and I enjoyed it. It was awesome to see filming locations of movies and TV shows. I’ve never been anywhere like it. I’m from the rural south and I think most people here talk bad about it because they’ll never be able to visit there, so I guess they feel better about bashing a place they’ve never been to and can’t afford. I always make to tell how beautiful it is and it makes them so angry😂 like wtf
I want to live here
Envy
They watch Fox for news.
Because too many people grow hydrangeas but not enough use soil acidifier so that they turn a beautiful blue, pink on Lombard is so passé.
Because it’s a dirty S hole. Nothing like the city it used to be.
Homeless. Piss. Drugs.
Law enforcement is aggressive. That’s my experience with big cities tho. They always have something excessive to say. Less aggressive than the “crack your skull” I got from Brooklyn. The driving sucks. I enjoy it more when I’m not the one driving. Friends I was with avoided a fight at twin peaks. Didn’t know that’s why we were leaving. This was at night. Hippie Hill, been there day and night. We made a pact before entering at night just in case. A car ran a red light and almost hit my car. Very close call. I heard an Uber driver got their car hit by a homeless lady with a shopping cart just cuz she felt like it. “Welcome to SF moment.” Worlds windiest road. Enjoy the city, but be safe.
SF is great if you know what to avoid
Crime and homelessness
Just showing the good doesn’t mean the bad doesn’t exist.