So You’re Moving to SF from NYC

Congratulations! You’re in for hella change. While apartments in SF cost the same as in NYC and BART is about as reliable as your MTA (but way less encompassing), the weather here is nicer, the produce fresher, and getting to SFO is way less convoluted. As with any major move, there will be some give-and-take. Here’s some of what you can expect.

In SF, you’ll be treated to beautiful days.

Chilly days, but beautiful nonetheless. It’s true, you will need a jacket throughout the year. Take one with you even if you think you don’t need it. Only during our annual two-week heat wave is it permissible to wear shorts, otherwise you look like a tourist. To blend in, grab a six-pack and go to Dolores Park. There’s also Golden Gate Park, hailed as the Central Park of the West; Corona Heights, the Presidio, Glen Canyon Park, Twin Peaks, Buena Vista Park and many more. Take your pick. Warm or cool, you have a plethora of places to enjoy it. 

Where San Francisco beats out New York is in its proximity to stunning natural beauty. Here is where the “outdoorsy type” reigns supreme. You will find Hiking listed in the Interests section of most people’s Tinder profiles. North of SF you have the Marin Headlands and Napa Valley, then miles of stunning rugged coastline to Crescent City. To the south, Half Moon Bay and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Monterey, Big Sur and secretive mountains north of LA. Head east and you’ll reach the forested Sierra Nevada with Lake Tahoe one way and Yosemite, the other. 

San Francisco offers so many breathtaking sights, you’ll shit yourself. 

But you’ll miss NYC’s nightlife.

If you like going out, prepare yourself for disappointment. San Francisco isn’t short on amazing bars. Some of our clubs aren’t half-bad either. Just don’t be surprised when the house lights go up early. Official closing time is 2 AM, but I’ll tell you as a barback, we start closing at 1:30. We can’t legally sell booze after two o’clock, so people get hammered fast before last call. 

For nightlife, the highest concentration of bars and clubs are in the Tenderloin, SoMa, North Beach, and the Mission. Your afterhours option is either a private party at someone’s residence, and underground warehouse space (if you can get invited), or the EndUp on 6th and Harrison. It’s a good club, but they’re still subject to California liquor sales laws. If you can hang, your next drink is legally available to you at 6 AM. If neither appeals to you, your night ends at 2 AM sharp. 

Public transit boils down to its skeleton lines, called OWL routes, overnight. But you can feasibly get home on the bus when you do spill out of a bar at closing. But it might get rowdy on the one you board. The 38-Geary, a major east-west line from downtown to Land’s End, transforms into the Dirty-8 at night. 

If you feel homesick, visit the Tenderloin. Seriously.

You’ll find bodegas and delis tucked between specialty food markets and auto repair shops. My favorite is Salem Market on Geary near Larkin. Their tasty sandwiches will give you a food baby. There’s a corner store on Larkin and O’Farrell with a bodega cat named Smoky. She’ll look you up and down and rarely let you pet her. These spots are the lifeblood of the Tenderloin.

Familiar sights like garbage bag mounds and public urination will be out to welcome you. Trash mounds live for a week at most. SF is getting better at street cleaning. If you own a car, which is slightly easier here than in NYC, pay attention to where and when you park or SFMTA will fine you for obstructing street sweepers, garbage trucks, etc. That’s true throughout San Francisco. 

But no one can keep up with the volume of dog shit (or human shit) that can accumulate in one day. That means your NYC-minted PoopVision will come in handy. 

The Tenderloin is the most NYC San Francisco gets. 

You can easily get by in SF without a car, and this is especially true in this neighborhood. You’re within walking distance of all major BART, bus and Muni Metro lines. It’s a ten-minute walk from Powell Street Station if you don’t feel like dealing with Civic Center but, coming from New York, you might be used to it. I used to commute to the Castro every weekday morning via train. The number of coffeeshops on the way made it easy to grab breakfast on the way to work. 

But beware. San Francisco’s bagel game is admittedly kind of weak. Savor your delicious NYC bagels while you can. 

We too have a homelessness epidemic

Homeless people here are, from what I understand, nicer than their NYC counterparts. That’s not to say you can let your guard down, there are definitely people on the street with serious, untreated mental health problems. Stabbings happen, people get mugged and assaulted, and often, this is not by homeless people at all. New Yorkers come trained to anticipate wild cards, and if you’ve seen one open-air drug market, you’ve seen ‘em all. 

San Francisco gets a bad rap for its homeless population because they subsist in high visibility areas. Union Square, Market Street, the Castro, Golden Gate Park—tourist spots basically. The narrative that SF is derelict and overrun with fentanyl zombies is only partially true. Fentanyl, a deadly-strong synthetic opioid, has polluted the black market, killing scores of people suffering from addiction. 

Some will remind you of home by shouting in your face as you pass. Others couldn’t rob you if they tried. 

And I’m sorry, our pizza is unwell. 

Mexican cuisine here wins over what you’ll find on the Eastern Seaboard. We’re also influenced by Central American countries’ cooking (the Salvadoran pupuseria on Larkin between Post and Sutter, Olivos, is incredible). Fusion joints here aren’t half bad (my favorite: Cantoo on O’Farrell and Leavenworth, Chinese-Venezuelan!) and the sushi here is killer. Swan Oyster Depot at Polk and California offers such good seafood, the line can be hours long. 

But our pizza can be outright disgraceful. That’s not to suggest we’re totally screwed on pies. It’s not impossible to find good pizza in San Francisco (here and here and here). But that good thin crust, that foldable beauty dripping with artery-choking grease? Only in New York. 

But our Asian cuisine is fire.

Chinese (Cantonese, Szechuan, Mandarin), Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, etc. It’s all here and it’s f*cking delicious. Do you want phở so good, you’ll slap your neighbor (Kevin’s Noodle House)? How about dim sum that’ll make you believe you’re in a Miyazaki anime (Hong Kong Lounge)? Maybe you’re into delectable ramen (Kaiju Eats) or some damn-good happy hour sushi (The Public Izakaya)? At any rate, you won’t run out of options here anytime soon.

So we’re not the East Coast. That isn’t what people come here for anyway. 

San Francisco is a cozy city that likes getting tipsy in the park and weed naps at mid-day. We don’t have 24-hour rail transit like we should and yes, we too have rats. If you’re moving to SF from NYC, you’re exchanging one world for another. The sun sets over the water here, which weirded out a friend of mine from Atlantic City. You won’t find a Dunkin Donuts anywhere (well, there’s one by the airport, which isn’t SF proper). Protests are common and earthquakes don’t happen as often as you might think. But in some ways, San Francisco is always moving. We take life as it comes and we go to bed early. We bear our share of troubles while at the same time carrying immense love for this extraordinary place. We’re glad to have you with us.