Anyone lived , spent time in San Francisco , what did you think?

Gday people.

Got a friend wants to move over to Oz from SanFran, but l dunno, San Fran looks fantastic to me.
She says looks can be very deceiving and she spent 6mths traveling Oz and absolutely loved it and wants to move over.

What do you think of SanFran , US in fact, verses Oz or pretty well anything you have to say , thoughts, appreciated.

Cheers

 

"If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there"....Scott McKenzie

Watched a few docos on San Fran. Interesting place. The hippies turned the place around in the 1960's giving free food away and smoking pot.

The establishment didn't like this and apparently introduced heroin to the weed smokers and that was the end of them.

The other doco was about the first gay mayor candidate who was murdered by a fireman (who got off very lightly).

 

I lived for 12 months an hour north of San Fran at a place called Santa Rosa - innthe Napa Valley.....we went to San Fran for day trips on a few ocasions...very beautiful, very interesting and vibrant City.

As with all big cities; can be problematic to get around if you want to try and drive, and like Sydney; there is also the added issue of getting around the Bay.

They do have ferries which go back and forth from various points though.

The region is beautiful; south back towards Santa Cruz, Carmel, Monterey Bay, and then north to where we were; wineries, Forest of the Giants, National Parks, bushwalks, mountains and so on.

Unfortunately; the beaches up north are not really swimming beaches; water is freezing and lots of fog even in summer, but glorious scenery everywhere

I could live there without any hesitation I reckon.

 

One thing to consider is health cover, make sure you have this sorted if you moved to SF or anywhere in USA

 

good point.

It was crap when we were there back in 2005-08...pre-dated Obamacare.

 

Are you trying to convince your friend not to come to Aus because SanFran seems better? Living abroad for a few years is one of the best experiences you can do in life, imo.

i love SanFran.. in fact the whole west coast (except for LA, bit too big for me).

Although the beaches aren't that pretty and water freezing, the surf is great in some places. A good wetsuit helps.

I'd happily live in Seattle too.. or Montana - the whole state looks like a postcard and the activities are unreal.

 

Right, not surprising.

I am currently in US, we took out medical cover/insurance for one year, cost us around $1000.

Not taking any chances, as we will be spending around 8 months of the year in US. Just keep renewing this. I don't trust the credit cards that provide medical cover

 

Really, thanks, did not realise this... damn. I used travelcover

 

Nope she just often asks me different stuff and l just say ****, l just think oz would be a very very boring nanny state after San Fran. Not to mention our cost of living, over tax over lawed and over everything else.
Although cost wise l was told San Fran is the second dearest state in the US , but hell , looks like fun and has so much.
l know her rent, she sold her house in Jersey and moved over to Cali and renting now, for just a tiny little unit , tiny, it is really nice though , has an open fire and all, is about 1900 a mth and that was the cheapest thing she could find in San fran. ahh , that would allow 2 cats.

 

Just a side issue........Tell your friend to use the funds from the sale of her property and buy another property because USA property market is generally booming and it wont get any easier.

Also, rents are increasing, I keep putting up the rents on my properties in USA, I am assuming this is happening everywhere

 

I've only spent a short amount of time there but it seems like a great city. Having said that - money from the tech industry probably drives up the cost of living so no doubt it's an expensive place to live.

There seems to be plenty of stuff to do outside of the city as someones touched on above.

I could think of worse places to live! But I can also understand the appeal of Oz too We've got it pretty sweet here.

Cheers

Jamie

 

So just what is iy exactly that makes Oz sweet in any way or anything special as compared with other countries, the good ones l mean of course.
l dunno , l've really lost it for Australia last 10 yrs or so with things mentioned above.
We've lost all the things this last decade or two l use to like about oz.
l do still love the land itself though, the country as such, even it's shape.

 

WOW! You met him?!!

Yeah; Amazing life he had...and did you see all the Peanuts statues dotted all over Santa Rosa? Literally dozens of them...I went to his Museum; fantastic...they even named the Windsor airport after him...
charles schultz airport - Google Search

 

I suggest change where you live...move to another part of Aus - it is still great in most areas.

 

As someone that spends a lot of time travelling throughout the US, including SF, I'd always recommend to Americans that they would enjoy Australia. SF is a great place to visit but it has it's own issues. SF is broken up into districts and you can walk two blocks and be in a completely different area and in some cases you can walk one block and be lucky to get out with your wallet. Tenderloin and Mission districts are an example where if you take a wrong turn you'll be in trouble. Likewise, go across the bay to Oakland and see how you fair. They also have a fairly large homeless population although this is true of pretty much every US city.

Australia has a lot of positives over the US. We don't have issues with gun violence, our weather is more stable, our public education and health systems are better, and our cities generally have less pollution. Plus we are culturally similar and speak the same language (sort of) so it makes the transition fairly painless.