Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
3,530 posts, read 5,145,180 times
Reputation: 3145
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCal Dude
Yea I looked into what they wrote because, well, it makes sense to.
I'm from chicaga and I tells it like it is and I calls em like I see em.
I mean go back and read the stuff.
'Local bacon'???
Interesting, I didn't know pigs were raised in sf.LoL!!!!!!!
Where are these 'local' pig farms????
Expensive affordable housing? His words, not mine. You can't make this stuff up!
Now excuse me as I gaze into the night scape fron distant san leandro. I mean we are like right next to vegas! So distant! A whole 30 minute bart ride to the city? It is like iowa, madness, i say! LoL!!!!!!!!
And thank you to the silent majority for the rep points and kind words. Glad some of you comprehend this.
The bacon was called out as from a local farm on the menu board and it was delicious. I have noticed that meat, cheese and produce from within 100 miles of the Bay Area generally seems to be of higher quality and tastes better than what is available in the supermarket. I count that as one of the perks of living in this area and have no idea why it would offend anyone.
My rent is expensive, but I can afford it and still save money every month for retirement, or to buy a home. I can't buy in any area I really want to be in this market right now. I am content to wait for a market correction, or a change of my tastes for life in the City, when I'd be more interested in other areas. You seem to take great issue with this.
As to your degrees and San Leandro home, congratulations. I dreamed of going to Cal when I was in high school. We had a university in the small Texas town where I grew up, though, and my parents were quite conservative. My dad told me that if I wanted to live at home and go to school there, he'd pay for it. Otherwise, I was on my own. Cal was out of the question, so I did the next best thing. I loaded up my stuff and moved to Houston, where I could afford to live and put myself through school at UH.
Incidentally, I made my first trip to SF in 1993 and one of the first things I did was get on BART and ride over to Berkeley, just to walk around the campus of the place where you were fortunate enough to go to school. I even went to the Togo's on Telegraph (there was one there at the time) and got a sandwich. I won't discuss what was on it so as not to appear too smug, but it's safe to say it was a big deal to me to be there in Berkeley if a Togo's sandwich is etched in my memory.
Your house in the hills sounds great, but if you are in the hills, you are more than that 30 minute BART ride from SF, because you still have to find your way to the station. That's fine. You pay extra to be away from things like public transportation and job centers. I pay extra to be close to them. We have different values.
I know your view must be nice, though. The first eight months I was here, I lived in the El Cerrito hills with a beautiful view. It was very nice, but I didn't care for the suburban living and the commute. I much prefer living in the City, even with the added expense that comes with it, yet I understand and appreciate the appeal of the East Bay suburbs.
In no way was I trying to talk down to you for living in San Leandro. I was simply questioning why you have such a problem with people's lives so far removed from your own (figuratively and yes, literally). Why is it "classist" to have different values than yours in terms of city living versus suburban living (a point you inferred, by the way)? If you're such a "man of the people," why live in the hills? The flats are where the struggle is.
I said that you sound like an old, disgruntled, bitter person, sitting waiting to pounce on me for being "classist" because I enjoyed a nice Sunday with some good wine and bacon on my chicken sandwich. You do sound old and unhappy. At 31, with your house, degrees, family and living in the Bay Area, you should be elated.
I am and I shared it with no agenda that pertained to you or the people you purport to represent and defend.
Last edited by dalparadise; 06-02-2014 at 05:44 AM..
I thought this thread was going to be about high mortgage or rent payments and sitting in traffic. That is what the "Bay Area lifestyle" is to many people, including myself.
Chuckling here Surprise. A thread about positive feelings - on C-D California?
Now back to the dungeon with you, Igor!
I've notice a lot of negativity about living in the Bay Area by those who lament that it's unaffordable or restrictively Liberal in its politics. But, what about the rest of us? What about those of us who are good at what we do for a living, and as such, came to the Bay Area to find a vibrant job market full of opportunity, expensive yet affordable housing, and quality of life indices that are off the chart?
For instance, I woke up today and felt kind of lazy. I watched the Giants game (10:30 start, because it was an away game), while I ate a sandwich made at a place on my block, which I walked to get. It was grilled Petaluma chicken, avocado, local bacon, etc. on Acme bread. I drank a local IPA with the sandwich. At the end of the game, my wife and I decided to go over to Treasure Island (admittedly random idea) to do some wine tasting-- there are 5-6 good wineries there. It took us 20 minutes to get to the island. We spent nearly two hours tasting wine and chatting with the winemakers who showed us around their property and explained the subtleties of the six wines they were sampling.
We then took in the view from Yerba Buena for awhile and headed back to the City, across the Bay Bridge. There was a good chop on the Bay and a lot of sailboats were out. I had the sunroof open and could smell eucalyptus in the salt air. The fog was pouring over Twin Peaks and wrapping itself around Sutro Tower. Alcatraz was fully socked in, but the sky was clear over the City and the sun was golden. It was picture-perfect, with lots of activity on the street, cable cars clanging, and tourists snapping shots of stuff I take for granted. We went the long way home, up through Chinatown and Nob Hill. Our soundtrack was acoustic singer/songwriters singing the virtues of California. It was impossible to disagree at this point.
Polk street was busy. We went 5MPH all the way from Pacific to Union. Lots of people were dining at sidewalk eateries, shopping at stores, or just walking. We parked in the basement of our building. Walked upstairs and cracked a bottle of old vine Zinfandel we picked up a few weeks ago in the Russian River Valley. We thought it would go well with the leftover Paxti's deep-dish pie with the fresh ricotta we had from last night.
While heating that up, the sun started setting through the fog advancing over the Presidio. The fog horns were already blaring from the Golden Gate Bridge out my open window. The air smelled like a flower shop. I put on some Miles.
Life was good.
Say what you want about how overpriced or crazy Liberal California is. If it suits your place in the world, there's nothing like a California lifestyle. My above description is the kind of thing people would plan for weeks for their vacation. We did it on a whim without even thinking.
Do I miss my 3000 square foot house in Texas? Not in the slightest.
Wow, great post ! Unfortunately some people just don't like that lifestyle. I LOVE it.
Considering the vast majority of people in the Bay Area live in the suburbs I’d hardly call the OP’s description representative the “real” Bay Area lifestyle. Although I’m not saying that a lot of people don’t or can’t enjoy some of those things as well even though they live in the suburbs. The Bay Area has a decent amount of different lifestyles but I suppose we all can enjoy the same things to a certain extent, some more than others. Obviously the closer you live to SF the more your likely to enjoy the city, same with wine country, the coast, Santa Cruz, etc..
If you don’t bother to take much advantage of what this area has to offer then this place can really start to wear on you as you start to wonder why you pay so much to live here. Sometimes I get caught up living in my little area and grow tired of it and start to hate living here, but usually weekend trip to Tahoe, a little day trip or night out in the city reminds me it’s not that bad lol. I’m sure if I lived in the City I’d be more satisfied with my surrounding, except for the weather, I love the weather in the inland East Bay. I guess it kind of the opposite of how I lived in San Diego. I used to live right by the beach in a popular area and lived a fairly, stereotypical SD lifestyle while people who lived farther inland in the suburbs would complain about the area because they didn’t take advantage of what other areas had to offer. Now I live inland in the boring suburbs and need to remember to get away and enjoy the more interesting parts of the Bay Area.
Be curious to see how other spend their weekends around here, might give people some new ideas what to do such as wine tasting on TI. I really didn’t do anything this weekend except go to an A’s game on Friday. It was cold as is typical for a night game. The Coliseum was ugly, and depressing looking as usual lol, but there was a good sized crowd and fun atmosphere that night and we whooped on the Angels.
i'm not sure why there is such an issue around the 'expensive but affordable' comment.
i think it is obvious that the original poster meant affordable in the terms of he could actually afford it. i think the majority of the people would agree that real estate IS very expensive. i don't think you can argue that fact. however, there are many people that can afford it.
a $100 hambuger is expensive. i can also afford it. i may choose not to, though. and perhaps i would turn my nose at those who would opt to pay for that. however, that is their choice and do not need to be harassed about it.
NorCal, you don't understand the concept of locally sourced food? You somehow missed the whole Alice Waters movement? That's amazing, considering it's one of the primary things the Bay Area is known for across the country.
The Bay Area lifestyle is pretty varied depending on who you are. Here's a few archetypes that are pretty common though.
The White Collars - Techies/Finance Suits/Other White collars who make 6 figures and live in a 400 sqft studio apartment because that's all their salary would qualify them for. Who cares though, they're at work until 10pm every night anyway, just need a place to crash for 5 hours, until it starts all over again. To even get the place they had to submit a full biography of their lives from age 6 to adulthood along with 150 other candidates. When they found out they finally got a place, they went to some random SF hipster hangout to celebrate with their friends, aka co-workers, and paid $12 for beer on tap.
The Faux Cosmopolitans - Generic left wing douchebags who think because they live in the Bay Area, that they are so multicultural, scholarly, and enlightened about everything from politics to gender issues, even though they barely graduated from CAL with a 2.0 gpa for a worthless degree in comp lit. They'll sometimes wear a suit jacket, or even a tie, and sometimes sport a beard to sport an edge, but rarely will have more than $20 in their wallet. Everyone hates these guys.
The Burbies - Struggling dual income earners who spend their time stressing over their humongous mortgage, barely saving a nickel for retirement, or a penny for their children's college fund. They constantly try to justify the 30-40 minute BART commute, getting home at 9pm, and basically letting a nanny raise their children by screaming how great the Bay Area is to anyone who will ask, and will always explain how "it's worth it" to their confused friends and relatives, even though the bone crushing financial obligations are taking 5-10 years off their lifespan.
The no-shoes - Old guys who wear sandals always exposing their crusty and gnarled toe nails. Probably retired or living off disability, these guys will hang around college campuses in the East Bay passing out fliers about legalizing marijuana, or trying to sell stuff from an illegal stall on Telegraph Avenue, or try to chat up random young people who want nothing to do with them. No wants to hang around these smelly losers except people like them.
It's interesting to note that some people in the Bay Area are actually a combination of the above. For instance you get a lot of White Collars who are also Burbies.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
3,530 posts, read 5,145,180 times
Reputation: 3145
Quote:
Originally Posted by Finn_Cool
The Bay Area lifestyle is pretty varied depending on who you are. Here's a few archetypes that are pretty common though.
The White Collars - Techies/Finance Suits/Other White collars who make 6 figures and live in a 400 sqft studio apartment because that's all their salary would qualify them for. Who cares though, they're at work until 10pm every night anyway, just need a place to crash for 5 hours, until it starts all over again. To even get the place they had to submit a full biography of their lives from age 6 to adulthood along with 150 other candidates. When they found out they finally got a place, they went to some random SF hipster hangout to celebrate with their friends, aka co-workers, and paid $12 for beer on tap.
The Faux Cosmopolitans - Generic left wing douchebags who think because they live in the Bay Area, that they are so multicultural, scholarly, and enlightened about everything from politics to gender issues, even though they barely graduated from CAL with a 2.0 gpa for a worthless degree in comp lit. They'll sometimes wear a suit jacket, or even a tie, and sometimes sport a beard to sport an edge, but rarely will have more than $20 in their wallet. Everyone hates these guys.
The Burbies - Struggling dual income earners who spend their time stressing over their humongous mortgage, barely saving a nickel for retirement, or a penny for their children's college fund. They constantly try to justify the 30-40 minute BART commute, getting home at 9pm, and basically letting a nanny raise their children by screaming how great the Bay Area is to anyone who will ask, and will always explain how "it's worth it" to their confused friends and relatives, even though the bone crushing financial obligations are taking 5-10 years off their lifespan.
The no-shoes - Old guys who wear sandals always exposing their crusty and gnarled toe nails. Probably retired or living off disability, these guys will hang around college campuses in the East Bay passing out fliers about legalizing marijuana, or trying to sell stuff from an illegal stall on Telegraph Avenue, or try to chat up random young people who want nothing to do with them. No wants to hang around these smelly losers except people like them.
It's interesting to note that some people in the Bay Area are actually a combination of the above. For instance you get a lot of White Collars who are also Burbies.
Interesting take. Which one is you?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Surprise. A thread about positive feelings - on C-D California?
