San Francisco?

Hmmm... I guess we just had a really lucky week. One of the things that we were really impressed with was the friendliness of the general populous when we visited. Literally every time we looked even momentarily confused someone would ask if they could help us find something. And they wouldn't just give directions they would chat for a while, make suggestions. Everyone we encountered--and I will say we spoke to so many more random people than we usually do when we travel because everyone was so open--was pleasant, helpful and obviously took a great deal of pride in their city. It was actually a little weird. We were there for a week and spent most of the time in the city without a car so we went everywhere on foot and public transit and after a while we actually stopped using all the map and tracking apps on our phones to get around because it was actually easier to just ask strangers. For example, we were on our way out of the botanical gardens in Golden Gate Park and saw there was something called Strawberry Hill on our map--rather than looking it up on our phone we actually just stopped a random woman and asked her what it was and if it was worth seeing. She thought it probably was and then took us there--we walked together for about ten minutes and she spent the entire time explaining what Strawberry Hill was and how it had changed over the years, gave us a couple restaurant suggestions, etc. When we arrived, she headed back the way we had just come. I had assumed when she offered to take us there that it was on her way, it wasn't. We had stuff like that happen all week. I really felt that there was a very strong vibe there and it was almost exactly opposite of what people are describing here. Of course we also had weather consistently in the seventies and low eighties--so maybe we are just charmed.

 

Not exactly. It has virtually no opposition to the LGBT community, but there's not that many gay people there at all (from my experience). It's basically most of the young gay population (even straight folks) have been gentrified out of the communities there and relocate to the southern cities like LA, Santa Barbara, and Irvine. It's mostly middle-aged businessmen, surgeons, and engineers that live the City.

San Francisco is an extremely expensive place to live in due to its amazing weather (80-something degrees is already a heat wave to them). The stereotype of Californians being stuck-up and obsessed with fashion and such live in the City.

A simple house in Chinatown (which is ghetto to half of the residents' standards) would be over a million dollars. Rich big-business Chinese immigrants move there.

Honestly, I would not live there even if I earned a million dollars a year. I would rather live in the region I live in now so my money wouldn't be spread so thinly, although I would live in a slightly more affluent area.

Also, Mexican and Chinese food here is WAY better.

 

I find it pretty entertaining the amount of people who are saying people there are "image-obsessed". I live in fucking Sherman Oaks. I was told there were plastic surgery clinics every three blocks and people walk around with their small dogs in their purses...that has not been my experience at all. I'd like to hear from someone who has actually lived there and hasn't just spent their time in Pac Heights or downtown. Does not at all tell you what the entire city of 800,000 is like.

 

I lived near SF several years ago. What I found is that there is a large gay population, however they tend not to be very friendly. I found myself much more accepted in rural Pennsylvania, or Wyoming, then I ever was in SF.

I like smaller cities anyway, and SF, or NY have way to many people for me.

 

My first partner who I dated fro three years in Michigan moved there, and then, after about a decade, decided it was almost an impossible place to form lasting relationships, and moved back to Michigan, and he now lives with his partner on Beaver Island. He taught at SF state. It seems like a place that garners a lot of varied responses, but that is definitely a mixed bag for gay people, and not the Mecca it's purported to be.

I did find it a very pretty city, just not one that seemed very down to earth.

Oh, and my friend always called Pacific Heights, 'Specific Whites', for obvious reasons =p

 

When I was in SF for a couple of days, I didn't really get the "gay Mecca" vibe. I even passed through The Castro district (SF's gay neighbourhood). I fee like my hometown of Toronto has a bigger gay village than SF.

That being said, I LOVE SF. Would LOVE to live there. Small enough of a city, yet it still has a GREAT downtown core, with a New York design, yet a West Coast attitude. The Bay Area in general in GORGEOUS!

 

Well, I was born and raised in San Francisco, yet I still spent the last 7 years of my life in denial, trying to repress my sexuality.

That being said, until recently, I never lived anywhere else, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. But the reality is that, in this day and age, LGBT-friendly locations don't exist. There are places that are less hostile towards the LGBT community than others, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. I mean hell, my uncle was born and raised in San Francisco and he's told me, to my face, that gays are "sick bastards," "a bunch of perverts," and he even got pissed when he found out that one of my teachers in high school was gay.

Anyways...I'm not saying that to trash the city, I'm just stating my experiences. But having visited other major cities, one thing I will say about San Francisco is that the restaurants there are amazing. In fact, I always found it hard to find a bad restaurant in San Francisco while in other major cities finding a restaurant that was average by San Francisco standards was pretty tough. There are also a lot of really beautiful locations and sights to see. And, as with pretty much every other major city, there's always something to do, whether it be checking out a museum, seeing a play, taking a tour of the bay, etc.

Some of the not-so-good aspects? It's foggy as hell, little to no seasonal variation (could be good or bad, depending on what you prefer), extremely dense and crowded, people can be kinda stuck up or full of themselves, earthquakes every other day, public transportation is shitty, ridiculously expensive.

So, yeah. At the end of the day, everyone has their own preferences when it comes to cities, so I can't say for sure what you'll think of it. Speaking for myself I don't have any strong feelings towards it, positive or negative. And although I'm not out to that many people, literally everyone I've told who's from San Francisco has reacted extremely well, so people do tend to be more accepting around there, but again, it's not perfect.

 

Your transportation system is leaps and bounds better than LA's. You NEED a car to live in LA. You can survive on transit in SF!

 

Well if San Fransisco isn't the best city for gay people, what is?

 

West Hollywood?

 

I think San Francisco is a nice place, if you have a lot of money :lol:. If you're a tourist, it would also be a nice place to ride around and explore. Personally, I don't see the allure of the city. Then again, I have a thing against very dense population centers.

Also, regarding "gay meccas," I don't want to live my life in certain neighborhoods/areas just because I'm gay. I just want to live where I want to live. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

My friend is actually going at a gay block party in WeHo right now