I recently moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco after 14 years in New York. It’s my six month SFOversary. Things are different here.
A little background. I identify as a straight white guy and I work in tech. Not a very unique position for this city.
You are closer to Japan than Europe. California has its own wine and style of cooking. The European influence is very small. Anything considered continental is considered “fancy”. On the other end, anything Asian is strongly represented. And there are a lot of French. I hear a lot of French spoke out of doors. Not sure what that is about.Bicycle infrastructure is fantastic. Despite the topographical map, getting around on a bike is easy and fun.Strangers will tell you their opinions, framed as concern for your well being. They will be lying. They have no concern for your well being. They want to feel better about their own life choices. Do not confuse them. Stay silent and move along.There is a Jewish minority, rather than just like, half to all of your friends being Jewish.Everyone is LGBTQI everywhere. And they are all hot.Summer is confusing. Expect 55F and cloudy. Real summer doesn’t exist until you leave the city.There are local communities being pushed out of their neighborhoods.It is very clean. Everywhere. Even the dirty parts are clean.There is a shocking amount of conspicuous drug use. In six months, in public I have seen, crack being smoked, meth being blown, coke bumps being passed around in a public park, multiple drug exchanges on the sidewalk and junkies wandering around on most blocks in SOMA and Mission.It’s a violent city. In the same six months, I have been assaulted twice (not battered, no one hit me but they hit things beside me) and witnessed a fight between two men on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a major street.There is a lot of cheap money. More on that later.It is beautiful. There is so much natural beauty here. Nature as a construct is less contained into parks and more sprawly.