Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
curbed.com ^ | Jan 30, 2019 | Diane Helmuth

Posted on 02/14/2019 6:53:27 AM PST by posterchild

It would appear we are fleeing California like it’s on fire (which, actually, it literally is lately); only large quantities of “foreign” people moving into one area typically disrupt culture and incite hatred like that. Yet San Francisco rent continues to lead the nation based on white-hot demand. This doesn’t really make sense.

Let me offer a snapshot of San Francisco in 2018:

A friend is having a birthday party at a funky dive bar in the Mission and has invited you. Despite the ostensibly blue-collar aesthetic, you pay $14 for a cocktail containing house-made lavender syrup and organic gin. You lean against a vintage pinball machine, a shrine to the predigital adolescence half the people in the bar never had, and proceed to make small talk with the other guests, asking, “Where are you from?”

(Excerpt) Read more at sf.curbed.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: 1stammendment; bloggers; citybythegay; clickbait; journalism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last
To: gcparent
We did that in 2011. At the time, Stinson Beach made us feel like we had stepped back into the sixties. The drive over to Stinson Beach from Muir Woods was breathtaking, despite my white knuckles....

My son lives in Menlo Park and would like to move out of Cali so that he can afford to buy a house.

61 posted on 02/14/2019 7:57:48 AM PST by aberaussie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

It looked ok during the Ironside and Streets Of SF era from what I’ve seen.

Plus other historical stuff that I have seen and read about.


62 posted on 02/14/2019 7:58:25 AM PST by wally_bert (You're bringing The Monk down, man!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: struggle
it was a mess except for Fisherman’s Wharf, North Beach, and Chinatown.

You left out the Marina District as another exception.

63 posted on 02/14/2019 8:02:23 AM PST by Salvey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

I remember in college and law school it was supposed to be a cool thing to move to San Francisco, I suppose because homosexuality was considered cool, even by hetero liberals. I wonder if that’s still the case now with all that poop in the streets...


64 posted on 02/14/2019 8:09:52 AM PST by Unam Sanctam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

Used to attend a lot of trade shows and conventions in SF. Not no more. Most trade shows have moved their events to Orlando and Nashville and San Diego for an acceptable California location. When the trade associations vote on future convention sites, no one votes for SF.


65 posted on 02/14/2019 8:09:59 AM PST by EC Washington
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

If you’re goin’ to San Francisco
Be sure to wear...a hazmat suit

In the streets of San Francisco
You’re gonna meet
Some unwashed junkies there


66 posted on 02/14/2019 8:14:16 AM PST by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

Another once-great city ruined by progressives.


67 posted on 02/14/2019 8:21:09 AM PST by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

Where ever these flee’ers end up they pollute that place with their left wing politics.


68 posted on 02/14/2019 8:23:29 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild
What I want is for California to be affordable to more than one kind of life.

That can only happen after the state becomes unattractive to wealthier kinds of life. And they are working hard on achieving it. :)

69 posted on 02/14/2019 8:23:35 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

And she does not understand why people in other states do not like California ex-pats moving in and voting for the same policies that ruined the state they are fleeing from.


70 posted on 02/14/2019 8:26:45 AM PST by Chuckster (Older than dirt.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

Not enough human feces, trying Haiti or Liberia for better feces/foot ratio.


71 posted on 02/14/2019 8:44:18 AM PST by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

Interesting read. She addresses the hostility against Californians who flee the state because they can no longer afford it. She manages to virtue signal about how immigrants are flooding into the state and area. But she never quite gets how negatively Californians are messing up other cities when they leave California. She thinks they should get a pass.

Reading this article helped me understand somewhat how it happens that so many Californians leave California but manage to go on and support policies and politicians who made California the mess it has become. I wrongly have assumed that they have seen the light and want something better. But so many are still Californians in their thinking. It is a lot like immigrants who come here. Some assimilate, still enjoying their native culture while learning to appreciate American culture. Others live here but never assimilate. Their home is still back in the old country.


72 posted on 02/14/2019 8:45:06 AM PST by Nevadan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fwdude

Like people who vote a town dry, and then move. ;)


73 posted on 02/14/2019 8:45:14 AM PST by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: dsrtsage

Exactly. A lot of them are moving to small rural towns like the one we live in and then show up at our city council and county supervisor meetings and lament our lack of affordable housing and homeless shelters and all that rot.


74 posted on 02/14/2019 8:50:28 AM PST by Texas Eagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: GraceG
Moving, especially moving across the country, is an enormous, yet hardly uncommon, life shift. Leaving one’s hometown to forge a better future in a new city is one of the most traditional adult rites of passage that we as Americans have.

I moved out of my home town for the exact opposite reason.

It was dying. Killed by Jimmy Carter’s Stagflation.

When I was a kid my town was a growing industrial town with factories like Chrysler, Autolite and Union Carbide employing working class folk with good paychecks.

But in my teens Carter took office and set about dismantling the industrial might of the United States. In four short years my dad lost his job at Chrysler and my possible future in my home town evaporated.

So, after getting a associate’s degree I got a job on the other side of the state that was both growing and shrinking.

The old industrial part was dying like where I came from, but newer industries were growing.

Years after I moved away my mother asked if I would ever move back. I couldn’t lie to her, I had to say; ‘there is nothing here for me’.

Both parents are dead now and when I visit for weddings and funerals I am still shocked by how that town has faded and shrunk. It still has not recovered after 35 years.

75 posted on 02/14/2019 8:53:34 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: posterchild
Weed on Mount Shasta?

I’ve been there. It is a beautiful place.

I wouldn’t mind living there. But as far as jobs go there isn’t much. At least not when I was there about 20 years ago.

76 posted on 02/14/2019 8:56:10 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: posterchild

One huge problem is that there is almost no way to build more housing.

Can’t fill in the bay. Can’t go high at a reasonable cost due to earthquakes and, in particular liquefaction.

For all the carping about and crapping on SF, more people want to live there than can afford to. Thus prices will continue to climb. Rent control only exacerbates this.

No one is *forced* to, or has the inherent *right* to live anywhere.


77 posted on 02/14/2019 9:03:19 AM PST by RedStateRocker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nevadan

Some of us are really torn.

I’m a second generation San Franciscian; love some things still - opera, weather, world-class food, lots of highly educated people with different world views than my own (I do not find ‘diversity’ threatening as long as I’m not *forced* to respect or participate in it).

But I sure as hell feel more at home, gun on hip, pack or horse loaded for a trip, copy of Constitution in pocket, in the parts of America where no one is ashamed of the Flag or driving a big ol’ Chevy pick-up.


78 posted on 02/14/2019 9:12:19 AM PST by RedStateRocker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: ctdonath2
".... SF has firmly evolved into 'a great place to visit, but I’d not want to live there' ...."

SF has evolved over the decades from a great place to live, to a great place to visit to, currently, a shitty place to avoid at all costs.

79 posted on 02/14/2019 9:31:35 AM PST by HotHunt (Reagan was good but TRUMP IS GREAT!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: RedStateRocker

I was born in Palo Alto and have lived in California for 48 of my 67 years - mostly in San Diego. My wife and I love this place, but even San Diego is changing and not for the better. Although we still have a Republican mayor, Democrats have a super majority on the City Council and are pretty much controlled by the public employee unions. Taxes are high. Gasoline is expensive. The infrastructure is not being properly maintained. Labor and environmental laws are insane. Parts of the beautiful park one block from my from house have been rendered unusable by the homeless. And, of course, housing is expensive. However, it’s still California. It’s still beautiful. Four of five children are here, and our youngest may we’ll return. Grandchildren are being born. So, we will probably stay after we retire, but even we are considering our options.


80 posted on 02/14/2019 9:37:53 AM PST by p. henry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-93 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson