What It’s Like To Live In San Francisco

I moved to San Francisco almost 5 years ago, which was about three weeks after I graduated from college. Before then, I had spent my entire life on the east coast, growing up in New Jersey and attending school in central Pennsylvania.

Moving to San Francisco was one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken. In fact, the first time I ever visited the city was the day I moved in. From that moment, I began noting the various things that made San Francisco different from any other place I’d been or lived, and haven’t stopped doing so to this very day.

There are so many different perspectives from which I could explain what it’s like to live here, so I’ll try to provide as many of them as I can.

First impressions of life in San Francisco: this list contains some of the initial characteristics of the city that I realized upon moving here, and has provided the basis for the rest of my experiences.

• The weather is weird. It was June when I first arrived in San Francisco, and I couldn’t wait to get a taste of California summer. Little did I know, the weather in northern California is nothing like that down south; in fact, it gets quite chilly in the summer. The temperature can change if you travel from one neighborhood to another, but as a general rule, it’s pretty much always spring and/or fall. The perfect San Francisco outfit contains 2–4 layers that can be easily removed and put back on.
• Everyone loves to exercise. It’s next to impossible to drive or walk anywhere without passing numerous people running, waking, riding bikes, or even participating in group fitness classes outdoors. The gorgeous scenery and consistently mild weather certainly don’t hurt the cause. I hadn’t run further than 3 miles before I moved to San Francisco. It only took a few months of living here for me to make it to the finish line of my first half marathon, and two years to finish a full 26.2 miles!
• It is a pretty residential city with a few “main drags” with stores, restaurants, and bars. The different neighborhoods of San Francisco each have their own unique personalities, but they do have something in common that I’ve noticed: the activity seems to be concentrated on certain streets. For example, in SF’s Marina district, there are two “main” streets, Chestnut Street and Union Street. The vast majority of the bars, restaurants, shops, etc. are located within a few blocks on each of these streets. This isn’t to say that there is nothing else in the neighborhood, but I would say that outside of these clusters in various neighborhoods, San Francisco is quite residential and feels much quieter than, say, living in New York City.
• There is a prevalence of tech companies. I’m sure this mostly goes without saying, but one of my first memories of moving to San Francisco was driving on the highway and downtown and seeing all of the tech billboards. I couldn’t believe that the stereotypes that everyone had mentioned were so real! If you’re moving to San Francisco, get ready for every billboard, truck, and bus stop advertisement to be for a hip, trendy tech startup selling the latest on-demand service or video game.

Day to day life in San Francisco: here is a little overview of the daily encounters and life patterns of a San Franciscan.

• Lots of people take the bus. Public transportation is definitely the subject of many many San Franciscans’ complaints, but it is hard to ignore how easy it actually is to use. Although we aren’t able to have an extensive subway system like NYC, there is almost always a bus line that can get you where you want to go, or at least within walking distance of your final destination.
• Everything is expensive. If you plan to buy lunch every day, you’re probably going to be looking at $50–75 a week in lunch money alone (not including coffee, post-work drinks, etc).
• Hills. San Francisco is known for its hills, but it’s really hard to imagine what they are like until you experience them on a regular basis. There’s a reason why everyone here has such nice calves! In fact, there are a few streets in San Francisco (Divisadero and Fillmore being two) where the sidewalk has actually been turned into a staircase because the incline is so steep.
• 90% of the cars you see are Lyfts or Ubers. Most people who live and work in the city don’t have cars. The few who do either (a) keep them in a garage for most of the time, or (b) drive for Lyft and/or Uber. It has become commonplace to see people hopping in and out of the back seats of cars at any given street corner, or arriving at work in a Lyft line every morning.
• There is quite a large homeless population. Without getting too political, it is worth simply pointing this out. I’ve had far more encounters on the street in SF than I have in any other city, and there is a large, passionate, consistent conversation going on about how to handle this situation.
• On the weekends, everyone is outside, either working out or laying in a park somewhere. SF has some of the most amazing parks, from Alamo Square and Golden Gate Park to the city’s most popular warm day hangout, Dolores Park.
• Nobody calls it San Fran or Frisco. It’s either ‘The City’, ‘San Francisco’ or, most commonly, ‘SF.’

Only in San Francisco. Here are a few things that have or would make me say, “only in SF.”

• Overhearing a conversation at a [bar, coffee shop, bus stop] about SaaS conversion rates or Twitter followers.
• Having to step over poop on the sidewalk, unsure if it came from a person or an animal (sorry for the visual).
• Going to a bar at 10pm on a Friday and seeing that it’s starting to get empty. San Francisco has proven to be a “day-drinking city” where most of the partying and nightlife activities happen during weekend days or earlier evenings.
• Spending 54% of your salary on rent.
• Instead of being asked, “what do you do,” the question is, “do you work in tech?”
• Being able to download an app for literally any thing you need to do. You might be the only user of said app, but it’s definitely there.
• Sitting in a park and seeing no fewer than 5 people in some type of costume or otherwise ridiculous outfit (on a normal day. Don’t even think about Bay to Breakers).

Living in San Francisco is quite the experience! I’ve met so many different kinds of people from all over the world with all different interests, skills, hobbies, and stories. I’ve also seen some of the craziest sights, including large groups of naked people riding bicycles on a Thursday night, and still have yet to become desensitized to the beauty of others, like the Golden Gate Bridge.

If you’ve made it this far and are looking to move to San Francisco, I’ve got just the resource.