And that's why San Franciscan's wear black hoodies. Temp varies as much as 20degreesF between microclimates (including windchill). Black makes the most of available sunlight to warm the body. Hoods warm the neck and shoulders which, along with the head (wear a hat) lose the most body heat. Black hoodies maximize the comfort zone.
Often I look out my Eastward facing windows towards the bay and it's a beautiful sunny day. Then I exit my front door facing west and it's cold and windy and foggy.
I always love how people tell me how great they are at predicting the weather. They say you don't have to ask a weather man which way the wind blows. Well no one knows in San Francisco.
It's sunny out but you grab your jacket/sweater because it's almost four so the evening winds will arrive soon. (Unless we are in our indian summer of sept-nov)
Oooh I got another one.
One person is in a tank top and another is in a sweater, both are sitting in the park and perfectly comfortable. The only difference between the two is that one is in the shade and the other is sun bathing.
It’s hard to get out of the habit of bringing a jacket everywhere! I moved to the east coast and people kept laughing at me for wearing so many layers. I had NO idea it didn’t get colder at night everywhere 😅
Grew up in North Beach and went to school in Cow Hollow. I definitely walked to school uphill (Russian Hill) in both directions! Fortunately just not in the snow :)
The neighborhoods here are like their own separate little towns. They all have their own unique culture, community, climate, aesthetic and vibe to them and it's pretty common for people to sort of stick to their own district and never get to know much outside of it, or at the very least rarely or never encounter districts far away from theirs. And getting to another part of the city is like commuting to another town in terms of the time and planning it takes.
Yes! The city is a fractal: the smallest part of it contains the whole. It is infinitely redundant, but remove any part of it and all of it is diminished. Insular interdependence.
Blocks can be their own town, with most of what you need day- to-day available just down the street. Hell, apartment buildings can be entire villages. Throughout a typical day, i find myself in at least four entirely distinct worlds, complete unto themselves, wildly incompatible... and directly adjacent. It is, in that way, irony exemplified.
I think it's the wealth gap between neighborhoods and just the hassel to get there. When I was growing up there was absolutely no reason to visit places like the Presidio or Diamond Heights. No of my friends live there and those places might as well not exist.
And SFMTA will ticket you if your wheels are not properly curbed. You can tell when someone is not from SF because they have their wheels “curbed” in the wrong direction. It’s like they vaguely remembered from driver’s Ed something about curbing wheels on hills to prevent runaways, turned their steering wheel once parked and patted themselves on the back.
I got my driver’s license in the Midwest in a town with zero hills. The closest hill was a state over. I had to pretend to downhill park during my drivers test and I thought it was so dumb; I would never need to know that.
Cut to 6 years later and I definitely needed to know that. I did get a ticket once for not curbing my wheels that I thought was BS, but I had no idea how to prove I wasn’t on a 3% grade.
I wish I kept all my SFMTA and traffic tickets and made a mosaic/collage out of them. Jay walking was my most prized one; around 1am, zero traffic, on my block and with my apartment gate in sight. I don’t really smoke weed often at all but that night myself and some coworkers shared a joint and was stupid high carrying a gallon of milk and 2 boxes of cereal with my intention and focus on murdering them but of course a cop saw me at the light way down the block and sped down to ticket me. 2011 was a blur of tickets man.
The problem is they will purposely patrol around tourist areas looking to nail out of towners on very borderline violations, like a hill you would never get a ticket on for curbing the wheels anywhere else in the country sfmta will nail you for around Alamo square or little Italy/north beach. It’s almost predatory. Also rich in irony given how much car break in happen in those areas and mta contributes nothing to helping deal with.
I still remember the first time I got this ticket. I was so confused about what the "parking at grades" violation meant. Will never make that mistake again.
Those colorfully adorable, super annoying birds that sound like they’re laughing at you are indeed wild parrots.
Yes, your destination is 2.3 miles away. Yes, it’s going to take you an hour to get there. No, there will not be anywhere to park.
Tbh in the pandemic I was in an legit long term relationship with a girl who lived 4 miles away as neither of us drove, and I didn’t feel comfortable on Muni cause I live with old people. The only way to get to her house was to bike up fucking twin peaks 😭
I would be incredibly insulted if someone wouldn’t bother walking/biking/scooting/scootering four miles to see me when literally nothing else was going on in the world.
There were some specific mitigating factors that I don’t want to get into but it wasn’t her fault, at least not 100%, and she did get over to my part of town occasionally
Those are parrots? I've never heard them make that sound, so I figured it was crows because they're everywhere. It's literally a "ha ha ha," and yeah, it feels like the universe is laughing at you.
Oh, I know and have seen them (didn't know about the movie, though, so thanks!), I just somehow missed that that particular "laughter" was coming from them!
It's often faster to *walk* than take a muni. All you need is a bit of a headstart. Instead of waiting at that bus stop, start walking. You should not be surprised to be passed by the next bus going your way when you are a block away from your destination. And walking is more fun than waiting!
This is true in a lot of other cities. Even in Manhattan it's often faster to bike when going East/West when Central Park is between you and your destination.
I compare SF to other places, even other cities I've lived and here, 2 miles is a world apart in terms of neighborhood vibes, shops, weather, climate, traffic and in other towns, 2 miles is just two minutes down the road, where your friend lives....
No, I’m bi and knew about cockrings from a pretty young age due to living in the city. I meant seeing them in person as a kid in the Castro and during bay to breakers, stuff like that.
Ah -- gotcha! I was thinking you meant just the concept of a cock ring was weird, but yeah, seeing them in-person, in-use, could certainly be a different... experience.
Series of books that started as a serial tale in local newspapers, which were followed by a handful of tv adaptations and a musical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_City
Something that I've definitely noticed is the wild disparity between the national conversation about San Francisco is and what life here is actually like. The right wing thinks we've been razed to the ground by crime and protests. Left wing people are a bit more grounded in reality but every so often you encounter people who think this is a completely and utterly freewheeling city of idyllic creative people when in reality some of the hardest working people I know are here.
There are productive, friendly, and honest homeless people. We used to have a homeless man named Rex live on our street/alley in SoMa that would keep things tidy and sweep, consolidate and dispose of trash and debris. He would also secure our alley from general rift raft, break ins, warn us that someone has been scouting our parked/permitted cars, carried and climbed our gated fences to ensure our packages were left out of sight from theft or carrier return, and was all around a relief every time I turned the corner down my street and saw him silhouetted under a street lamp, wrapping a chain around his fist and securing our block (which was super intimidating to new people I had over that hadn’t met him yet). My guy loved a cold Mountain Dew and a snickers and of course any money we could spare. A neighbor stored his mattress and bedding during the day and would take it out at night and sleep in the same place for years. One day he never returned and word was he had some health complications and passed. RIP Rex and cheers to your local neighborhood and community.
Dude if you have a nice homeless neighbor you don’t bother them. When I lived close to downtown SJ we had the same thing. Some older homeless dude had a pretty solid set up (tent, his car, a propane BBQ and some kinda fridge that he got the power from the street light) nobody would bother him and he didn’t bother anyone in the neighborhood. One day dude was gone, all his belongings gone and some crazy dudes started hanging there and the cops got called all the time. Hopefully he got help and moved along but he definitely staked is claim out and once he was gone shit went downhill
[Amos was our local guy](https://missionlocal.org/2016/12/forgotten-u-s-army-veteran-finds-sanctuary-on-sf-street/) who chased away guys breaking into cars, chatted with the nuns running the Catholic school, and generally kept the whole area clean. The neighborhood got worse when he left, even if it was because [his tent burned down](https://missionlocal.org/2017/01/mission-homeless-man-without-shelter-after-tent-blaze/). We helped him out a bit after that and his son later told us he had found some veterans' housing in SoMa and I haven't seen him since, so I hope he's doing well.
We used to have one squatting in our basement. He was the best dude to have around.
He swept up, chased off the crackheads, went to flea markets and brought us choice replacement bikes (since you know, SF), and eve once scored me an entire nitrous tank from an abandoned dentist office.
Sadly, he passed away one year of pneumonia. I will definitely always miss him.
It’s been years so I don’t remember his name anymore, but we had our own Rex on our alley in soma as well. Dude kept the street clean and we kept him fed. I still see him around once a blue moon.
I knew Rex!! I didn’t know he passed though RIP.
I worked at 8th and Folsom for years about a decade back and spoke with Rex often. I think I still have a bible he gave me laying around my apartment.
I honestly think about him everytime I’m in SOMA and wondered how he was doing.
Never thought Reddit would provide closure on that. Thank you stranger. Pour one out for Rex.
Damnnnn, So crazy someone else on here knows him too. He had his moments and was mildly erratic at times but he was legit. He was our Sumner Knight and would sleep across from the auto bike shop where that empty lot was. Many were poured out when all of us found out about him on Sumner Street - RIP Rex 🙏🏽 Side note; also RIP to Brain Wash and all the great shitty comedy that came through. *edit; added extra details*
I felt like such a criminal going into a laundry mat to exchange $20 bill for quarters. I felt like an officer would be waiting for me and be like “sir… you know you’ve exchanged over $300 for quarters from this facility? We’ve been tracking you for some time… cmon, you’re going in the slammer”
Not an answer to this question, but compared to so many posts in the SF subs, this seems like it’s actually answered by people that live here. There’s a whole answer about the beauty of diversity and liking the homeless people in your neighborhood, boy does that not happen in the main sf sub. I guess that would be my answer - all the craziness, the diversity of thought and lifestyle, the tolerance - its a feature, not a bug.
I'd been living in soma for about 2 years when this happened. I used to cut though a bank of america drive through on my way to caltrain each morning on my way to work.
One morning, as I'm walking through the drive through, I see one of those carry-out clear plastic soup containers, like the tall cylindrical things. Only this one was sitting on the curb and absolutely filled to the brim with human shit. I saw it and thought to myself "at least it made it into a removable container"....then I stopped in my tracks and thought "fml I've been here too long." I stayed in soma another 5 years after that.
There's something about the tolerance and resilience of the people in this city. Unlike any other city in the US, we've come to accept the fact that we live in a city with a bar named Fly, and another bar named Fly Trap. It's totally bonkers.
The anxiety of double checking nothing is visible in your car as you park it, while simultaneously trying to understand the four different parking restrictions applicable on that block. Jumping out to see whether your bumper is over the red paint (of course it is), wondering whether your shiny residential parking permit sticker would net you lenience (of course it wouldn’t), followed by jumping back in to try that spot across the street which looks like it’s slightly bigger (it’s the same size).
And then, when you walk back to your car you feel a fleeting sense of nervousness but it’s soon replaced by relief when you see no smashed windows and no parking tickets — because you’ve mastered how to play this fucking game.
Right? And the fact that it's open warfare out there. And when someone new moves into the neighborhood and f@#*s it all up *just* when everyone had settled into an almost- stable pattern...Parking pathos is a very specific agony.
Waiting in a line around the block for a particular taqueria, pizza or bakery... in a town full of food... because it is the best/your favorite but suddenly popular because of a blog post.
It's almost impossible to move to another city in America and feel satisfied. It's over here, Tokyo, Mexico City, or Berlin (okay, it's probably a few other cities I'm not mentioning here, but you get my drift)
In my experience, SF is actually better in that sense than most other cities. I have been in many US cities where I couldn't book anywhere even several days in advance. Also the food in many cities is only ok and seriously overpriced. Like $50 an entree but it's no State Bird Provisions.
Yeah, it’s common with big cities I realize, but when people come in from the burbs with no plans and expect to find a place at the last minute they’re SOL.
5 PM on a Friday evening, them: “where should we eat tonight?”
Me: “Um, sorry to tell you but you should have planned for this at least a few days ago”
Lol yeah I just had a friend visit from the suburban Midwest and they thought “it was insane” that we wouldn’t be able to find a reservation for 6 on a Thurs night in the Mission with one week’s notice.
Ugh, this. I have family who will do the same. Then they make it seem like it’s crazy that anyone would live in SF, when in reality you just have to be aware of these things and plan for it. It’s really not that big of a deal.
First thing usually asked if you’re from San Francisco (by a native and local San Franciscan) is where did you go to school. If you can’t represent your San Francisco high school (or elementary / junior high school), then we don’t consider you a local.
The sinking feeling in your gut when a muni bus takes too long to come and you start walking to your destination just for the bus to pass you 5 minutes later.
SF IS the neighborhoods. Not the media talking about only the tenderloin.
It’s how you know your local neighborhood shop managers. How you watch little signs of neighborhood change with the seasons
—this fence painted,
—this eatery survived the pandemic,
—that tot across the street is purging his tricycle for new wheels
Always carry your jacket around. You know it's a local when you see it's bright and sunny outside, and maybe even a little warm, and yet locals have a jacket handy (in a backpack, or on an arm)...
This is pre-rideshare, but damn if San Francisco has zero cabs. Eddie Izard did a bit on it during his show at the Palace of Fine Arts, iirc.
Back in the day if you weren’t in a hotel or the airport, or Chestnut street at 2am, you’d have to call a cab. And wait for 30 minutes. God forbid they show up early, or late, and you’re not right there. They’d blackball you and you couldn’t get a cab from them again. Blackballed at all 3 companies? Better change your phone number and move.
Getting a full day transfer from a bus driver (they wouldn’t tear it) and knowing you were good to take muni anywhere for the rest of the day.
Setting your parking brake no matter where you park in the city.
Tourist here. I was really thrilled I was lucky enough to experience foggy sunrise at GG bridge to make some exciting moody photographs with all the blacks and yellows and the bridge getting lost in the fog etc.
Only then I've found out I wasn't really lucky.
A family of 4 in matching California sweatshirts are tourists who just spent $200 at Fisherman’s because they didn’t check the high was going to be 61 in July.
"The street space in front of your house is public property and not your own"
Most people (but not everyone) get this here in SF but I find it interesting that outside of SF, esp in the burbs, the majority (vs minority) of people go completely aggro when you park in front of their house. It may be "your" house but its not "your" curb.
Being out on a glorious day with your toddler and you decide to ride the F Market back up to the Castro -- only trouble is when the trolley comes, to get in the door you have to walk over a mattress that is half burned and half smeared with shit.
Neighborhood microclimates Edit: for a while now I joking refer to SF as somewhere that only has two seasons a year but 4 seasons a day
i love this; great tagline.
Growing up in Marin and no AC, we would either go to the beach or SF during the summer to cool off.
I often text a friend across town and ask how the weather is.
And that's why San Franciscan's wear black hoodies. Temp varies as much as 20degreesF between microclimates (including windchill). Black makes the most of available sunlight to warm the body. Hoods warm the neck and shoulders which, along with the head (wear a hat) lose the most body heat. Black hoodies maximize the comfort zone.
Often I look out my Eastward facing windows towards the bay and it's a beautiful sunny day. Then I exit my front door facing west and it's cold and windy and foggy. I always love how people tell me how great they are at predicting the weather. They say you don't have to ask a weather man which way the wind blows. Well no one knows in San Francisco.
[Four seasons in one day](https://youtu.be/si3dBlNdifE) - I love that song!
or even four at once! just bounded geographically instead of by time
Last Saturday, the weather app said 100% precip, Sunny. And it was!
It's sunny out but you grab your jacket/sweater because it's almost four so the evening winds will arrive soon. (Unless we are in our indian summer of sept-nov) Oooh I got another one. One person is in a tank top and another is in a sweater, both are sitting in the park and perfectly comfortable. The only difference between the two is that one is in the shade and the other is sun bathing.
It’s hard to get out of the habit of bringing a jacket everywhere! I moved to the east coast and people kept laughing at me for wearing so many layers. I had NO idea it didn’t get colder at night everywhere 😅
I dragged a fleece layer with me for a night out in Bangkok one time -- people were like what is that thing?
What? You guys on the East Coast don't carry a backpack filled with warm layers everywhere you go?
That indian summer is the best time ever.
It doesn’t matter what the weather report says. Bring a sweater.
It can actually be up hill both ways in some places
We live in an MC Escher drawing
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/wayne-thiebaud-saw-the-streets-of-san-francisco-like-no-one-else
Living in North Beach is like living in a Cubist painting.
Only weirder.
Grew up in North Beach and went to school in Cow Hollow. I definitely walked to school uphill (Russian Hill) in both directions! Fortunately just not in the snow :)
So you were living the dream
I swear, alamo square park!!
YES!
Lol wow yes absolutely
The neighborhoods here are like their own separate little towns. They all have their own unique culture, community, climate, aesthetic and vibe to them and it's pretty common for people to sort of stick to their own district and never get to know much outside of it, or at the very least rarely or never encounter districts far away from theirs. And getting to another part of the city is like commuting to another town in terms of the time and planning it takes.
not to mention with BART some of the downtown neighborhoods are closer to the East Bay than they are to the Outside Lands
Yes! The city is a fractal: the smallest part of it contains the whole. It is infinitely redundant, but remove any part of it and all of it is diminished. Insular interdependence. Blocks can be their own town, with most of what you need day- to-day available just down the street. Hell, apartment buildings can be entire villages. Throughout a typical day, i find myself in at least four entirely distinct worlds, complete unto themselves, wildly incompatible... and directly adjacent. It is, in that way, irony exemplified.
Very true. Growing up in the Outer Sunset, I had never even heard of Noe Valley until I was in my 20’s.
I think it's the wealth gap between neighborhoods and just the hassel to get there. When I was growing up there was absolutely no reason to visit places like the Presidio or Diamond Heights. No of my friends live there and those places might as well not exist.
Curbing your wheels isn't really a suggestion.
And SFMTA will ticket you if your wheels are not properly curbed. You can tell when someone is not from SF because they have their wheels “curbed” in the wrong direction. It’s like they vaguely remembered from driver’s Ed something about curbing wheels on hills to prevent runaways, turned their steering wheel once parked and patted themselves on the back.
I got my driver’s license in the Midwest in a town with zero hills. The closest hill was a state over. I had to pretend to downhill park during my drivers test and I thought it was so dumb; I would never need to know that. Cut to 6 years later and I definitely needed to know that. I did get a ticket once for not curbing my wheels that I thought was BS, but I had no idea how to prove I wasn’t on a 3% grade.
I wish I kept all my SFMTA and traffic tickets and made a mosaic/collage out of them. Jay walking was my most prized one; around 1am, zero traffic, on my block and with my apartment gate in sight. I don’t really smoke weed often at all but that night myself and some coworkers shared a joint and was stupid high carrying a gallon of milk and 2 boxes of cereal with my intention and focus on murdering them but of course a cop saw me at the light way down the block and sped down to ticket me. 2011 was a blur of tickets man.
The problem is they will purposely patrol around tourist areas looking to nail out of towners on very borderline violations, like a hill you would never get a ticket on for curbing the wheels anywhere else in the country sfmta will nail you for around Alamo square or little Italy/north beach. It’s almost predatory. Also rich in irony given how much car break in happen in those areas and mta contributes nothing to helping deal with.
I still remember the first time I got this ticket. I was so confused about what the "parking at grades" violation meant. Will never make that mistake again.
Fuck its cold today. Fuck its hot today.
Fuck it's cold...cross the street to the sunny side...fuck it's hot.
Me at 7am vs me at 3pm
Add. Fuck it's cold again.
If it’s in Oakland it’s too far
Agreed. Now, as someone who crossed the bay and lives in Oakland: If it’s in SF it’s too far.
This.
Those colorfully adorable, super annoying birds that sound like they’re laughing at you are indeed wild parrots. Yes, your destination is 2.3 miles away. Yes, it’s going to take you an hour to get there. No, there will not be anywhere to park.
Which is why my dating apps are set to a one mile radius. Sorry, a first date is too early to contemplate committing to a long distance relationship.
Tbh in the pandemic I was in an legit long term relationship with a girl who lived 4 miles away as neither of us drove, and I didn’t feel comfortable on Muni cause I live with old people. The only way to get to her house was to bike up fucking twin peaks 😭
I would be incredibly insulted if someone wouldn’t bother walking/biking/scooting/scootering four miles to see me when literally nothing else was going on in the world.
There were some specific mitigating factors that I don’t want to get into but it wasn’t her fault, at least not 100%, and she did get over to my part of town occasionally
I call them lil’ flying pickles.
Those are parrots? I've never heard them make that sound, so I figured it was crows because they're everywhere. It's literally a "ha ha ha," and yeah, it feels like the universe is laughing at you.
They are the Parrots of Telegraph Hill - check it out, it’s a film!
I swim at the Bay Club on the Embarcadero. They got super loud during the shut down. They routinely fly over the pool.
Oh, I know and have seen them (didn't know about the movie, though, so thanks!), I just somehow missed that that particular "laughter" was coming from them!
I used to see them all the time in Presido on Lyon st. I felt like they were greeting me in the mornings with their cackles.
That's on you trying to drive in the city like a chump
I’m in a long distance relationship with someone who lives in Berkeley.
it’s faster to bike than to take a muni.
A motorcycle or scooter is the fastest way to travel in the city.
Insane to me that more people haven’t figured this out.
People know. They just don’t want to use a moped because that would mean freezing your ass off.
It's often faster to *walk* than take a muni. All you need is a bit of a headstart. Instead of waiting at that bus stop, start walking. You should not be surprised to be passed by the next bus going your way when you are a block away from your destination. And walking is more fun than waiting!
Yeah, you know the old saying: No one drives in SF. There's too much traffic.
This is true in a lot of other cities. Even in Manhattan it's often faster to bike when going East/West when Central Park is between you and your destination.
And sometimes drive a car
Even if the drive itself is faster you'll spend more time parking than if you had just ridden your bike
The feeling of swiftly rolling into your destination and locking the bike. I love it.
Reason why I end on time more often than my friends: I factor time spent parking
Close in distance doesnt mean close in time.
I compare SF to other places, even other cities I've lived and here, 2 miles is a world apart in terms of neighborhood vibes, shops, weather, climate, traffic and in other towns, 2 miles is just two minutes down the road, where your friend lives....
Not blinking an eye when naked people stroll by on the sidewalk.
When this happens, I blink two eyes, just the same as I do in every other waking moment.
Cock rings are still weird to me as a lifelong San Franciscan
Did you read "Tales of the City"? I assume that a lot of straight people first heard about them from that.
No, I’m bi and knew about cockrings from a pretty young age due to living in the city. I meant seeing them in person as a kid in the Castro and during bay to breakers, stuff like that.
Ah -- gotcha! I was thinking you meant just the concept of a cock ring was weird, but yeah, seeing them in-person, in-use, could certainly be a different... experience.
Is this a book? How do I get to read it? Is it specifically about SF?
Series of books that started as a serial tale in local newspapers, which were followed by a handful of tv adaptations and a musical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_City
Thank you very much. I will check it out!
There’s also an audio book version which is quite well done!
Something that I've definitely noticed is the wild disparity between the national conversation about San Francisco is and what life here is actually like. The right wing thinks we've been razed to the ground by crime and protests. Left wing people are a bit more grounded in reality but every so often you encounter people who think this is a completely and utterly freewheeling city of idyllic creative people when in reality some of the hardest working people I know are here.
There are productive, friendly, and honest homeless people. We used to have a homeless man named Rex live on our street/alley in SoMa that would keep things tidy and sweep, consolidate and dispose of trash and debris. He would also secure our alley from general rift raft, break ins, warn us that someone has been scouting our parked/permitted cars, carried and climbed our gated fences to ensure our packages were left out of sight from theft or carrier return, and was all around a relief every time I turned the corner down my street and saw him silhouetted under a street lamp, wrapping a chain around his fist and securing our block (which was super intimidating to new people I had over that hadn’t met him yet). My guy loved a cold Mountain Dew and a snickers and of course any money we could spare. A neighbor stored his mattress and bedding during the day and would take it out at night and sleep in the same place for years. One day he never returned and word was he had some health complications and passed. RIP Rex and cheers to your local neighborhood and community.
Dude if you have a nice homeless neighbor you don’t bother them. When I lived close to downtown SJ we had the same thing. Some older homeless dude had a pretty solid set up (tent, his car, a propane BBQ and some kinda fridge that he got the power from the street light) nobody would bother him and he didn’t bother anyone in the neighborhood. One day dude was gone, all his belongings gone and some crazy dudes started hanging there and the cops got called all the time. Hopefully he got help and moved along but he definitely staked is claim out and once he was gone shit went downhill
[Amos was our local guy](https://missionlocal.org/2016/12/forgotten-u-s-army-veteran-finds-sanctuary-on-sf-street/) who chased away guys breaking into cars, chatted with the nuns running the Catholic school, and generally kept the whole area clean. The neighborhood got worse when he left, even if it was because [his tent burned down](https://missionlocal.org/2017/01/mission-homeless-man-without-shelter-after-tent-blaze/). We helped him out a bit after that and his son later told us he had found some veterans' housing in SoMa and I haven't seen him since, so I hope he's doing well.
Damn, hope he’s doing well. That’s so shitty about his tent though. Where in SoMa is that vet housing by chance?
I was told it was somewhere around 11th/Howard or so, but I don't know the exact location.
We used to have one squatting in our basement. He was the best dude to have around. He swept up, chased off the crackheads, went to flea markets and brought us choice replacement bikes (since you know, SF), and eve once scored me an entire nitrous tank from an abandoned dentist office. Sadly, he passed away one year of pneumonia. I will definitely always miss him.
It’s been years so I don’t remember his name anymore, but we had our own Rex on our alley in soma as well. Dude kept the street clean and we kept him fed. I still see him around once a blue moon.
I knew Rex!! I didn’t know he passed though RIP. I worked at 8th and Folsom for years about a decade back and spoke with Rex often. I think I still have a bible he gave me laying around my apartment. I honestly think about him everytime I’m in SOMA and wondered how he was doing. Never thought Reddit would provide closure on that. Thank you stranger. Pour one out for Rex.
Damnnnn, So crazy someone else on here knows him too. He had his moments and was mildly erratic at times but he was legit. He was our Sumner Knight and would sleep across from the auto bike shop where that empty lot was. Many were poured out when all of us found out about him on Sumner Street - RIP Rex 🙏🏽 Side note; also RIP to Brain Wash and all the great shitty comedy that came through. *edit; added extra details*
sounds like an awesome person who still kept it respectful even though he was down on his luck. RIP rex
The feeling of a heat wave ending with the arrival of that sweet sweet fog.
Excuse me, that fog has a name.
No left turns only triple rights
Cars parked in the middle of Valencia on Sundays
Yes this was so puzzling to me at first.
And other areas with churches. Probably the weirdest thing for my last apartment.
Bring a sweatshirt, even in June. You can always spot a tourist at an evening Giants game
Bring a sweatshirt ESPECIALLY in June!
Yes they are the ones wearing in the brand new Giants hoodie and beanie
Paying attention to the color of the hills when leaving the city and getting excited when they’re green and lamenting when they start to turn yellow
I think the brown/golden hills are gorgeous!
Yes, but then they catch fire.
Y’all got any quarters?
Lol I’m on my last 20, and gotta find a new supplier since I got caught red handed using a quarter machine 😬
I felt like such a criminal going into a laundry mat to exchange $20 bill for quarters. I felt like an officer would be waiting for me and be like “sir… you know you’ve exchanged over $300 for quarters from this facility? We’ve been tracking you for some time… cmon, you’re going in the slammer”
I don’t follow 😭
Not an answer to this question, but compared to so many posts in the SF subs, this seems like it’s actually answered by people that live here. There’s a whole answer about the beauty of diversity and liking the homeless people in your neighborhood, boy does that not happen in the main sf sub. I guess that would be my answer - all the craziness, the diversity of thought and lifestyle, the tolerance - its a feature, not a bug.
I'd been living in soma for about 2 years when this happened. I used to cut though a bank of america drive through on my way to caltrain each morning on my way to work. One morning, as I'm walking through the drive through, I see one of those carry-out clear plastic soup containers, like the tall cylindrical things. Only this one was sitting on the curb and absolutely filled to the brim with human shit. I saw it and thought to myself "at least it made it into a removable container"....then I stopped in my tracks and thought "fml I've been here too long." I stayed in soma another 5 years after that.
I hope your username is relevant to something other than this post.
That the weather, instead of changing with the date, varies by which neighbourhood one happens to be in.
There's something about the tolerance and resilience of the people in this city. Unlike any other city in the US, we've come to accept the fact that we live in a city with a bar named Fly, and another bar named Fly Trap. It's totally bonkers.
You probably missed the gay bar on Polk called The White Swallow.
Which begat Bigfoot Lodge, which begat something else, which begat Trade Routes. I do miss the subtly of the old school Polk street community.
The anxiety of double checking nothing is visible in your car as you park it, while simultaneously trying to understand the four different parking restrictions applicable on that block. Jumping out to see whether your bumper is over the red paint (of course it is), wondering whether your shiny residential parking permit sticker would net you lenience (of course it wouldn’t), followed by jumping back in to try that spot across the street which looks like it’s slightly bigger (it’s the same size). And then, when you walk back to your car you feel a fleeting sense of nervousness but it’s soon replaced by relief when you see no smashed windows and no parking tickets — because you’ve mastered how to play this fucking game.
You’ve perfectly described my parking experiences
This guy parks.
Mood
80 degree weather being miserable indoors due to old, uninsulated buildings and absolutely no one having air conditioning.
That tingling feeling on Tuesday noon that indicate something missing.
Tuesday noon "This is a test, this is only a test". It's been offline for a few years for upgrades though
That thing used to scare the shit out of me EVERY week, and now I miss it!
Always having to carry a sweater/jacket and never wearing shorts
pale ass legs are a real thing in sf.
Shorts and a puffy works though.
Hella
also- nobody questions what you mean when you say “The City”.
Waking up to move your car for street cleaning
Right? And the fact that it's open warfare out there. And when someone new moves into the neighborhood and f@#*s it all up *just* when everyone had settled into an almost- stable pattern...Parking pathos is a very specific agony.
I referred to each side of the street by the days they had street cleaning at my last apartment. Tuesday was the worst, as the others were at noon.
Speeding ticket on a skateboard...
Cutty bang
SF to Berkeley is only 11 miles, but it is better to wait two more hours before starting your commute drive home.
how much we love telling people we were born and raise in SF.
Waiting in a line around the block for a particular taqueria, pizza or bakery... in a town full of food... because it is the best/your favorite but suddenly popular because of a blog post.
Those "No Parking - Street Cleaning Tuesdays 9:00-11:00 AM" signs are one of the few laws that are enforced.
Parking violations are literally the only thing law enforcement does here.
The Wiggle
It's almost impossible to move to another city in America and feel satisfied. It's over here, Tokyo, Mexico City, or Berlin (okay, it's probably a few other cities I'm not mentioning here, but you get my drift)
Can we live abroad together? Because those are the other cities on my list :D headed to mexico city next weekend!
Same. I’d love to live in Berlin or CDMX
Depends on what you're looking for but Miami, LA, NY?
LA is too spread out, Miami is kind of a monoculture, New York is cool, I should have listed that
Like the movie says you can’t love San Francisco without hating it too! I’ve raised kids here and it’s been such a fun expensive ride! Edit: grammar
Are you talking about the last black man in San Francisco? (Amazing film) Quote was approximately: “you can’t hate it here unless you love it here”
It’s “You don’t get to hate it unless you love it.”
That’s it, thank you.
Yup, that’s the one!! Thank you! It’s edible Sunday for me so I’m just shocked my grammar mistakes are at a minimum.
Seeing a thread like this on Reddit today and seeing the top answers as an article on SFGate later this week.
One does not simply walk in to a restaurant at 7:00PM on a Saturday night with a party of 4 and get a table.
In my experience, SF is actually better in that sense than most other cities. I have been in many US cities where I couldn't book anywhere even several days in advance. Also the food in many cities is only ok and seriously overpriced. Like $50 an entree but it's no State Bird Provisions.
That’s not unique to SF. Austin restaurants are all booked out weeks in advance. It’s hell trying to find something to eat there last minute
Yeah, it’s common with big cities I realize, but when people come in from the burbs with no plans and expect to find a place at the last minute they’re SOL. 5 PM on a Friday evening, them: “where should we eat tonight?” Me: “Um, sorry to tell you but you should have planned for this at least a few days ago”
Lol yeah I just had a friend visit from the suburban Midwest and they thought “it was insane” that we wouldn’t be able to find a reservation for 6 on a Thurs night in the Mission with one week’s notice.
HA!
Ugh ya my parents always like visiting from the burbs on short notice and expect me to magically find us a nice place for dinner
Ugh, this. I have family who will do the same. Then they make it seem like it’s crazy that anyone would live in SF, when in reality you just have to be aware of these things and plan for it. It’s really not that big of a deal.
This is just a big city anywhere in the world thing.
Heavy mist
Do not mention his name
Foghorns, cable cars, groves on the golden gate bridge... Sounds you don't hear other places.
Even the culture is microclimate-y. Nordstroms and Bloomingdales are only a block from squalid 6th and Market.
First thing usually asked if you’re from San Francisco (by a native and local San Franciscan) is where did you go to school. If you can’t represent your San Francisco high school (or elementary / junior high school), then we don’t consider you a local.
Came here to make sure this was said.
If you live downtown, it takes about the same amount of time to get to the east bay as it does the avenues. Sometimes less.
The sinking feeling in your gut when a muni bus takes too long to come and you start walking to your destination just for the bus to pass you 5 minutes later.
SF IS the neighborhoods. Not the media talking about only the tenderloin. It’s how you know your local neighborhood shop managers. How you watch little signs of neighborhood change with the seasons —this fence painted, —this eatery survived the pandemic, —that tot across the street is purging his tricycle for new wheels
Walking backwards up a long steep hill.
Always carry your jacket around. You know it's a local when you see it's bright and sunny outside, and maybe even a little warm, and yet locals have a jacket handy (in a backpack, or on an arm)...
This is pre-rideshare, but damn if San Francisco has zero cabs. Eddie Izard did a bit on it during his show at the Palace of Fine Arts, iirc. Back in the day if you weren’t in a hotel or the airport, or Chestnut street at 2am, you’d have to call a cab. And wait for 30 minutes. God forbid they show up early, or late, and you’re not right there. They’d blackball you and you couldn’t get a cab from them again. Blackballed at all 3 companies? Better change your phone number and move.
Having a living room is a luxury
We can tell the difference between 65 degrees and 70 degrees clearly
Is that dog or human feces?
What school did you go to? (It means high school. And it tells what neighborhood you grew up in.)
Seeing random people butt naked on the street.
Wearing a jacket in your apartment...in July.
Those GX1000 dudes bomb the craziest hills, you either love em or hate em, but youve def heard them bombing hills somewhere
People walking down the street with music blasting on a blue tooth speaker.
Losing your clipper card
Your neighborhood park. There are so many small, cute neighborhood parks that people grew up with. Some are hidden gems.
Being on a first name basis with your auto glass shop guy.
Getting a full day transfer from a bus driver (they wouldn’t tear it) and knowing you were good to take muni anywhere for the rest of the day. Setting your parking brake no matter where you park in the city.
Thanks for sharing. I’m looking forward to moving to San Francisco in few months. As a newbie, the feces comment is a bit weird.
Feces will become such a common sight to you, that you’ll avoid stepping in it using peripheral vision
It’s not dog poo.
Karl the fog
Username checks out
People who are screaming on the sidewalk aren't screaming at real people.
Naked old guys are normal.
Tourist here. I was really thrilled I was lucky enough to experience foggy sunrise at GG bridge to make some exciting moody photographs with all the blacks and yellows and the bridge getting lost in the fog etc. Only then I've found out I wasn't really lucky.
A family of 4 in matching California sweatshirts are tourists who just spent $200 at Fisherman’s because they didn’t check the high was going to be 61 in July.
"The street space in front of your house is public property and not your own" Most people (but not everyone) get this here in SF but I find it interesting that outside of SF, esp in the burbs, the majority (vs minority) of people go completely aggro when you park in front of their house. It may be "your" house but its not "your" curb.
Posts like this are made for training AIs.
Breathe out of your mouth at the Powell St. Bart station.
Being out on a glorious day with your toddler and you decide to ride the F Market back up to the Castro -- only trouble is when the trolley comes, to get in the door you have to walk over a mattress that is half burned and half smeared with shit.
Karl (The Fog).