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Why I Live in San Francisco

palladiummag.com · 3,580 words · saved by 1 readers

Anyone who lives here gets asked this question all the time. It’s a fair question for a place where media coverage is often so negative—why would anyone want to live here? “Work” is usually a safe answer that limits further inquiry. But it’s not the whole story, at least for me. The criticisms of San Francisco are legion, and they are mostly valid. The short version of the “doom loop dystopian hellscape” narrative feels accurate in a few concentrated places which happen to be unreasonably close to where all of the hotels and conventions are. The Tenderloin neighborhood is probably one of the most public and shocking concentrations of misery in the world, distinguished by how close it is to city hall, museums, and concert halls. But pervasive low-level criminal activity in certain areas of the city is not exclusive to San Francisco. The city has allowed itself to maintain a reputation for public drug use and widespread mental illness. This is unfortunately not contained to any one place

Victoriano Izquierdo/View from Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco What keeps you in San Francisco? Anyone who lives here gets asked this question all the time. It’s a fair question for a place where media coverage is often so negative—why would anyone want to live here? “Work” is usually a safe answer that limits further inquiry. But it’s not the whole story, at least for me. The criticisms of San Francisco are legion, and they are mostly valid. The short version of the “ doom loop dystopian hellscape ” narrative feels accurate in a few concentrated places which happen to be unreasonably close

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