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San Francisco Essay: Why I Hate This Town (But Love It More) - - Best Of San Francisco - SF Weekly
Admittedly I’ve only lived here three years, but I never see stuff like this. I’ve never seen needles, and there’s not a lot of garbage. And it doesn’t smell—or rather, it smells delicious most everywhere except in BART elevators and that one spot near the bus terminal. I saw one guy peeing on the street, dead drunk, about two months ago, and he was white, and definitely not homeless. When we have huge street parties like LoveFest or Gay Pride or B2B, the streets are cleaned again within a couple of hours, something that never fails to amaze me. I’m also always impressed by how clean Dolores Park is, considering the foot traffic.
Anyway, when I these sorts of descriptions about San Francisco, I can’t tell if folks are trying to out-urban other American cities, or if I am just one of the blessed few who lives in the Mission and gets to see only the good parts.
(via timoni)
Frankly, I’m sick of the “I want to write about how much I love where I live but don’t want to brag so I’ll make it fair and balanced” trend. I’ve read countless articles just like this one about what makes San Francisco not perfect. NEWS FLASH: NO CITY IS. The whole point of that story was that he fell in love with his now wife in SF and is happy and wants to stay here, right? Why hammer home the point that he really really really hates SF (but loves it more)?
The author is obviously a talented writer and I agree with many of the examples he uses to illustrate San Francisco’s faults. But what makes his city so different from any other urban area where there is good and bad? I find the constant pointing out that things aren’t perfect so tiresome.
I don’t hate where I live, and that’s why I choose to live here. I can’t imagine having some sort of internal fight with myself about whether I love or hate my city of residence enough to stay or leave.
(By the way, I live in the Lower Haight, not known for being well-scrubbed, and never see needles or garbage anywhere, nor have I ever felt unsafe walking around the hood at night. I caught a guy peeing in the corner of my garage door once, and when I yelled at him he was truly mortified and apologetic and didn’t rob me or force me to listen to Grateful Dead mp3s. Just saying.)
