Living and working in San Francisco
No-one calls San Francisco "Baghdad by the Bay" any more. The moniker used to mean that the city was seen as exotic and a little rough-and-ready.
These days it is more sophisticated. But it still has plenty of its old energy and bravado, even though these have taken a knock from the events of September 11th.
National Guard troops with M-16s and Humvee vehicles protecting the Golden Gate Bridge make for a nervous population. But San Franciscans wouldn't live anywhere else except the City, as they call their home.
Financial Centre
With much of its focus on technology, the City's financial district - next to the bay - is a little wiser after the dot-com boom and bust. The venture capitalists of Sand Hill Road, the VC epicenter to the south on the way to Silicon Valley, are even more cautious.
The banks headquartered in San Francisco, such as Robertson Stephens, Hambrecht & Quist (owned by JP Morgan), and Bank of America continue to invest, but bankers are resigned to the fact that there is little business to be had outside the Hewlett-Packard and Compaq deal.
Most major houses maintain offices in the city or in Silicon Valley, so the best way for anyone elsewhere to make their way over is to put in for an internal transfer. Europeans must satisfy strict visa requirements and employers have to prove they are indispensable to its San Francisco operations.
Lifestyle and Culture
San Francisco has long had a liberal reputation and is best experienced through its diverse neighborhoods: Chinatown, North Beach, the Marina, the Castro.
If the City is against anything, it's smoking smoking is forbidden in any public place, including bars. One visiting Londoner who wanted to light up was told she'd have to go outside. She took her drink with her but was told she'd have to leave it at the bar - no alcohol allowed on public sidewalks.
So she stood in the doorway, cigarette outside, drink inside, and satisfied at least the letter of the law.
San Franciscans are a bit snobbish and rightly so: they live in a place that lets them do almost anything. Surfing, whale-watching, and sailing off the coast wine tasting, hang-gliding, and exploring redwood forests to the north and skiing in winter, camping in summer in the
Sierras.
Yosemite National Park is four hours from San Francisco by car and the Napa and Sonoma Valleys less than two for visiting the wineries or taking in a therapeutic mud bath. Try that in LA.
The City enjoys the best in symphony, ballet and opera (Carmen and Madama Butterfly are on this summer), museums and restaurants. Many eateries are banding together to offer special prix-fixes menus of up to 50% off some nights to bring back pre-downturn diners.
If you like jazz, look no further than Pier 23 café, a little shack nestled between the warehouses on the Embarcadero and looking out on the lights of the East Bay.
Or you could try Zam Zam in the former flower power mecca of the Haight district. It used to be you took your chances with Bruno, the proprietor. If you didn't order a vodka martini you were out more than likely you were out anyway, but since he recently died, and with the economy the way it is, fewer patrons are ejected and you're more than welcome to order something other than a martini as long as it's not beer.
If beer is what you want, there's the upscale Gordon Biersch brewery and restaurant with views of the Bay Bridge, or the San Francisco original Anchor Steam brewery (no food), which offers an excellent tasting tour.
Irish pubs with trivia nights abound on Geary Avenue, or try Fiddler's Green near Ghiradelli Square (famous for its chocolate factory) and Fisherman's Wharf.
Most San Franciscans do not go to Fisherman's Wharf, which has been sacrificed wholly to the tourists, not even for the crab and sour dough or the sea lions barking for space on Pier 39.
Housing and Transport
The city and county of San Francisco houses just over 800,000 people within its five square miles. The San Francisco Bay Area, however, is home to close to six million. With a median home price of around $500,000 (€565,000), the region is not for the faint of wallet.
The City ranks near the bottom of median income/median house price ratios for the US almost 60% of residents cannot afford to buy a home. So much for the American dream when a 3-bedroom, 2-bath stucco in the avenues will set you back $750,000.
Rent has dipped slightly since the heady dot-com days: expect to pay upwards of $1,500 for a decent one-bedroom apartment. New waterfront condominiums on the bay and
close to downtown are marginally more expensive, as are flats in refurbished 'Victorians' - attractive multi-coloured old houses known as painted ladies.
Districts such as the mainly Hispanic Mission, the area south of Market Street (SOMA, or Media Gulch) and once run-down Hayes Valley are all attracting more well-heeled residents. The really well-heeled head for the hills: Russian Hill and Nob (or 'Snob') Hill.
New homes are rapidly being built in areas outside San Francisco, with whole communities springing up complete with schools, supermarkets and security gates. Older and smaller homes in established neighborhoods, particularly near Silicon Valley, continue to be bulldozed to build grand Tuscan-style "McMansions".
And of course, people get around by car it is still the preferred transportation over the excellent bus, train, ferry, and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) services in and out of the City. Traffic congestion now ranks worse than Los Angeles and New York and is the number one voter concern in polls.
Because of the steady housing expansion, especially north and east of the bay, many commuters have 3-4 hour drives daily.
The best rides in San Francisco ares still on the cable cars.
And if you do plan to work in the city, though tax deductions are plentiful, plan on handing over upwards of 30% of your income for state and federal taxes. Then head back to Zam Zam where it won't hurt so much. If you get in.
