$4 toast and the ruin of San Francisco

But the hills are part of the fun. You drive down Lombard Street for the switchbacks and Filbert for the vertical drop. You walk into Chinatown through the big gate, and eat dim sum. If you're a leftist, you go to Coit Tower and play I Spy with the murals. You take the ferry to Alcatraz. You eat lunch in Sausalito, on a terrace overlooking the Golden Gate.

In case you can't tell, I've taken children to San Francisco. It was wonderful.

 

Boston and San Francisco are two of my favorite cities.

But, you can't compare visiting a city with kids vs. living in a city with kids. Both might be fine cities to raise kids, but a short, touristy visit with kids is not the same thing as living there.

 

Granted I live in the Boston area, but it's also great for kids as tourists. Very walkable, tons of kid-friendly attractions as outlined by another poster and lots of kid-friendly restaurants that appeal to adults as well. If you rent a car, beautiful beaches on the North Shore are very accessible (you don't have to deal with the hassle of the Cape) and great hiking/nature walks dasily accessible to the city too. I didn't grow up here but my experiences visiting as a kid are a big part of what drew me here.

Edit: back on thread topic - the couple of times i visited SF underwhelmed me. Very pretty city with great food but i hated the vibe. It felt extremely monied and pretentious in a way that even NY doesn't project. Honestly, I actually find LA to be more down to earth, friendly and fun despite its reputation.

 

I liked the Bay Area, but there were too many weirdos, too much traffic and it cost too damn much money.

When we moved there, our first house was 2,400 square feet in an OK, but not great school district.

The rent was $3900 a month.

Needless to say, that was not indefinitely sustainable.

 

So what, exactly, makes a city "cool" or "uncool"? And I'm not referring to the weather.

I would suppose it's in the eye of the beholder. But what qualities would one look for?

I've got my own list and it's certainly different than it might have been when I was 20-something. But that's just me.

How does a city get labeled "cool"?

 

That's vacation. Huge difference between vacation and living someplace. I think most major cities are fun places to visit for a few days. Pro sports, musicals, concerts, big shopping malls, theme parks, nice choice of restaurants, etc. Stuff you don't often find in Podunk.

But having lived in major metropolises and small towns, I also learned that day-to-day life was much the same: commuting to work, buying the groceries, doing the laundry, paying the bills, etc. Sometimes it took awhile before I ever got around to doing the touristy things in my own town. Sort of like "gee, I guess I ought go see that on my day off next week."

 

Mark, my late father was born and raised in Washington, D.C. It was a point of weird pride with him (and his parents and relatives, who were several generation District residents) that he'd never done any of the tourist stuff there, visit the Capitol, etc., except the climb the Washington Monument, which was regarded as a teenage rite of passage in his day. I think every big city is like that.

 

I do want to go see the monuments and stuff in DC someday. Want to visit Boston, too. Those are about the only big cities I haven't visited, although New York and some others have been quite a long time.

 

Must have been a while ago.

Today the going rate is $1,850/month . . . for 270 square feet.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment-developments-on-rise-in-S-F-4951775.php

Or $3,650/month . . . for 679 square feet.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/4234507154.html

 

Bingo. It all goes back to a familiar phrase for me. Been to San Francisco twice and loved it, but "nice place to visit... wouldn't want to live there."

 

Yeah, that's insane.

I considered both San Francisco and Boston when deciding where to start my business, but chose Chicago for a number of reasons, cost of living being high on the list.

I have 4,000 square feet, in the city, and don't pay anywhere near $3,650.

People are paying that for full service, high rises, but they're insane too.

 

San Francisco is probably the worst city in America to raise kids, which is why it has the lowest percentage of kids of any city. Lower than Manhattan even (which is surveyed as its own city in that study).