[CrackMonkey] Bay Area Living Info

[Rick Moen]

begin  Chris J. DiBona quotation:

> Man, bring up NYC and that's a city, real public transportation, the
> Strand and that comic book store a block from it, I mean the Strand's
> rare books alone! And restaurants....mmmm. 

And record stores.  And any _other_ type of store you want to find.

> I don't know if assuming cow mentality for millions is so wise, I'm
> sure that these people exist, but I'm sure there is an equal number of
> htem who feel lucky to be juxtaposed between sf, santa cruz and to a
> lesser degree San Jose. 

What I'm talking about is a cultural tendency combined with the
composition of the populace (and their interactions or lack thereof).
In a fairly international/port city like San Francisco, there's an
undeniable stimulation and exposure to the unfamiliar that's rare in
the Land of the Strip Mall -- and in concentrated form.

[motorcycles, and S.F. transit latency]

Even riding on motorcycles as a passenger scares me silly, while
bicycling merely makes me wary.  In my consulting practice, one of my
main clients was at the northeast corner of Telegraph Hill, just off
Bay, and I could reliably cover the four miles from SoMa in 20 minutes
or less.  And you could even walk to Van Ness and Sutter for a movie in
1/2 hour (bicycle parking being problematic, there).  That was about
the maximum transit time, in my experience.  

Not counting, of course, travel to places like Pacific Cafe out near the 
west end of Geary, but that's practically halfway to Hawaii, and not the
Real S.F.

> In my case, and in yours, I suspect, the prospect of a 1 to 1.25 hour
> drive each way to work cancelled out the considerable benefits of
> living in SF, and while the valley is no sf, it's not a horrible pain
> fest. 

Quite so.

-- 
Cheers,     "Not using Microsoft products is like being a non-smoker 40 or 50
Rick Moen    years ago:  You can choose not to smoke, yourself, but it's hard
rick (at) linuxmafia.com     to avoid second-hand smoke."  -- Michael Tiemann