secrets

an old assumption

when i was visiting/interviewing in the bay area (post covid)¹, i stayed in a victorian style airbnb in the presidio with my partner at the time. as it happens, that was the worst mistake i could have made.

as i wandered around pac heights, russian hill, the richmond and the sunset, the city had seemingly infinite charm. it was like strolling through the old town in spain. i blindly assumed that the relaxed elegance applied to the whole city and when it came time to sign a lease, i chose the most luxurious building that was connected to bart, which happened to be in soma².

a new discovery

i think in the last two weeks i’ve finally cracked the secret of san francisco. looking back, i should have known it all along. because like it has always been, the secret is to just look further west ³.

as it happens, i picked a bad part of town to live. granted, i did so without really seeing the area, and the geographical breakdown of neighborhoods in this city is something i still haven’t really learned. but i have made a few simplifying discoveries.

1. nobody really goes to the southern half of the city so you can basically ignore everything from bernal heights down
2. the bart line runs north/south along inner mission and then continues northeast through soma and into the east bay, so it is the most populated and touristic
3. the northwest is very posh and disconnected from transit, and therefore very quiet

now, none of this is particularly novel. but what is novel is the following: it’s no different from vancouver. the touristic areas are the worst areas in town.