SF Residents: question (I used to live there, but years ago) - if you live in SF proper, what are your thoughts on owning a car? Absolutely necessary? Can get by but it's a pain? Totally don't need one? Assume budget is not an issue.

I'll just re-iterate what others have said and stick to the advice in the EDF SF thread...

SF only has like 800k people and is 50 square miles, so it really isn't "the big city". You run into the same people all the time giving it a nice neighborhoody feel.

The two main options for cards are Lucky Chances and Oaks Club, both of which can be traveled to via public transit. I take the BART to LC all the time it is really easy.


I really don't have much advice for someone so young, but I would say move away from that area. Fisherman's Wharf will prove to be expensive and filled with tourists. Move somewhere with a university near by like SFU or SF state for maximum macking.

OP,

What kind of girls do you like? Because if you like hipster/indie/azn/artsy girls, you need to meet some people who go to Academy of Art. That place is just loaded with hot little 18-21yo girls like that. I don't know what they do for fun besides loiter outside their school and hang out and smoke, but I recommend you figure that out and take part in it.

Al,

Totally don't need one due to Zipcar.

You don't need one at all, I haven't had one in 4 years. But the grass is always greener. I always want a car to "get out of the city", people with cars do nothing but complain about street cleaning, parking, cost etc. You'll never be happy.

+1 this is great advice. I'm 28 and I basically follow this advice.

Don't go to Lucky Chances it is cursed, FFS it's across from a cemetery.

Having a car without a garage is a terrible option in SF. It's so stupid too because they do street cleaning every 2nd and 4th Monday, Tuesday, etc... So easy to lose track of what Thursday it is.

Thanks, guys. Just remembered that my buddy who lives in Duboce Triangle lives a couple blocks from a Zipcar (he works in SoMa, so doesn't need a car for work) - that seems very ideal in a city like SF. And having a car without a garage in most neighborhoods in SF must be a huge pain in the ass. (I lived in Marina district, with a car, no garage, was very difficult to find street parking sometimes, can't imagine things have gotten any better over the years, or is much better in say Mission/SoMA/PacHeights/Russian Hill etc.)

I think if I ever moved back to SF I would definitely prefer to have a car if I could afford it (meaning nice SF neighborhood with convenient garage). Public transportation within SF borders is pretty good but not great, cabs are apparently now hard to flag down sometimes (that true?), and there are IIRC enough reasons to drive to want to have easy access to one.

fake id

Well considering I'm moving from a place with 60k people a city of 'only' 800k people is a pretty big change.

The appartment I'm getting is provided by the school I'm going to, so I won't be able to move somewhere else.


Thanks for all comments.

Hiya!

NO VANCANCY

try Oregon.

It can be, but I just call cabs to my door. Luxor and DeSoto cab companies are both world class at getting to your door in 5 minutes at anytime except friday and sat night, and even then they are like 15 minutes. I think Luxor is faster, but the Desoto fleet drives minivans which can be useful if traveling with a crew.

san francisco is such a great litmus test for people.

when you bring up the city and the first thing people start doing is making gay and aids jokes you can just immediately know they are ******ed.

Yep, I said this exact thing to my brother just the other day. I think all my very good friends would list SF in their top 3 US cities. And you never have to worry about socially conservative types even visiting b/c they probably think they'll turn into a pillar of salt just by stepping foot there.