[VOA]

Bryan Clouse, for his part, never grew fond of San Francisco.
"Over the years, it started getting dirtier and stinkier. It wears on you," he said.

I know it's a matter of personal taste, but my one side-trip to San Francisco
left me underwhelmed.
Dirty streets, stumbling bums, with a few nice vistas as a backdrop.

I'm sure this qualifies me as a person without class, but I'd take Los Angeles any day over
the self-important atmosphere of San Francisco.

But I bet it was one cool place back in the middle of the 1800s...

[Tax Government]

SF 'exists' as a democrat-controlled city because it has been ripping off the Hetch Hetchy water system. Since SF refuses to formally declare this decades-old public-works project complete, a loophole in the enabling legislation lets SF siphon off water revenue for unrelated purposes.

The result? The system is falling into disrepair. For decades, money has been diverted to democrat-favoring social projects and income redistribution. Meanwhile, SF water rates in SF are far below average. The undermaintained Milpitas Calaveras dam, which stores water for the system, poses an earthquake and flood hazard to communities of Newark, Fremont and Union City. Because of the risk of it failing, the dam is kept only about 1/3 full.

Bottom line. SF demorats have been stealing the region's water revenue, and spending it for the benefit of SF and democrats in particular.

What can happen? Other communities in the area are now starting to force SF to do the right thing. And, when SF water rates triple, as they may, and the faucet of stolen revenue dries up, SF will lose its attractiveness to most of the low lifes Freepers hold in contempt.

[CatoRenasci]

Actually, San Francisco was a cool place up through the '60s, although the climate was hostile to business from the mid-50's.

I'm a 5th generation Northern Californian with roots in San Francisco to the Gold Rush, but I no longer live in California. I couldn't stand what's happend to it from the '70s on, so now I'm on the East Coast. Perhaps if all the bozos leave, I will move back to the country North of San Francisco, get the old ranch back and run some sheep, plant some grapes and put in that hot tub I couldn't persuade the folks to.....

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You can have them both as far as I'm concerned.

[magellan]

"I know it's a matter of personal taste, but my one side-trip to San Francisco left me underwhelmed. Dirty streets, stumbling bums, with a few nice vistas as a backdrop.

"I'm sure this qualifies me as a person without class, but I'd take Los Angeles any day over the self-important atmosphere of San Francisco."

I totally agree with your sentiment. SF is the most stuck-up city in U.S. There is an incredible sense of entitlement from the bum on the street to the big-shot driving the BMW 7-series.

LA is much more laid back. People in LA are more friendly. I was in LA visiting friends during the Northridge earthquake in 1994, and rode with them up PCH from Redondo Beach to Santa Monica as my friend took his wife to work. All of the traffic lights were out, but everybody simply treated the intersections as 4-way stops. There were no accidents.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"I know it's a matter of personal taste, but my one side-trip to San Francisco left me underwhelmed. Dirty streets, stumbling bums, with a few nice vistas as a backdrop."
<br Welcome to Marxist Utopia...

[rightofrush]

I'm sure this qualifies me as a person without class, but I'd take Los Angeles any day over the self-important atmosphere of San Francisco.

If you like LA, you've got to get out of California.
BTW, SF was a wonderful place to visit 40+ years ago.

[185JHP]

San Francisco was a wonderful place in 1970. Alioto's. Ghirardelli Square. Golden Gate Park. One of the few unpleasant experiences I had there was at a hotel in Chinatown. I tried to check in and the Oriental clerk said "no rooms!" I could tell that they had rooms, that wasn't the problem. I later realized the creep could have been thinking "short hair! you maybe like killing Asians, eh?"

[HamiltonJay]

San Fran is a filthy city... liberal policies make it full of bums, gangs and filth. The landscape coming up 101 toward san fran looks like giant trailer parks on either side, with square 1 story homes painted horrid colors.

There is some beauty in San Fran proper, but you have to ignore a lot of filth to see it.

The valley south isn't as bad, just overcrowded and overpriced. I did my time there, hated every minute. The only thing nice about the area were the people I met and the weather... everything else completely sucked.

[Wolfstar]

Me too! The Bay Area has scenic beauty, but it's somehow just too uncomfortable in a way that's hard to articulate. And I'm not just referring to it's dominant Left-wing politics. I first visited San Francisco in 1975 and when I had the chance to move from New York to California the following year, I decided to come to L.A., sight unseen, rather than go to the Bay Area. Maybe it's that, to me, SF is a smaller, more claustrophobic version of New York. I don't quite know. But I've never regretted my decision to settle in the L.A. area.