Ask HN: What do you hate about living in San Francisco (or other US city)? - simonebrunozzi
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ffumarola
Bay Area (Between SF and SJC):

\- Mass transit is awful. This doesn't have to be the way but because of
nimbyism and politics it is. Electrify caltrain? Extend BART? Improve service
levels? Queue years of arguments...

\- If a public good can be privatized, a VC has already jumped on that idea...
creating what feels like a technocratic society.

\- Lack of diversity. Go out in NYC and you'll rub shoulders with people from
all walks of life. Go out in SF and you'll be around mostly techies because
non-techies can't afford to live here.

\- Housing prices are insane and new construction is consistently blocked due
to nimbyism.

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cjhanks
Bay Area (East Bay):

Compared to most places I have been, it's very nice. But there are a few
things about much of the Bay Area that I dislike.

\- Drugs are everywhere. People are smoking pot on the streets, smoking meth
in the bathrooms. And in general you see people everywhere from many walks of
life (and driving) intoxicated.

\- It's a philosophical mono-culture. In New York you will see devout
Catholics going to mass, orthodox Jews working in shops and going to shul,
Muslims heading to prayer. In the bay there are essentially shades of
secularism.

\- People are largely segregated by race and income. There are black parts of
town, Chinese parts of town, white parts of town, Mexican parts of town. And
then they are further subdivided by "Rich {INSERT_HERE}" and "Poor
{INSERT_HERE}" groups. That's not so abnormal and it might be self-imposed;
but it makes the endless protests and riots about equality feel very hollow
and out-of-touch.

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mindcrime
I live in Chapel Hill, NC. There isn't much to _hate_ about living here, but
there are annoyances.

1\. The airport at RDU doesn't have as many direct flights, especially
international, as you'd like.

2\. Our state government is currently run by (mostly) small-minded,
authoritarian twats. You've probably seen the stuff on the news about the
trans-gender bathroom controversy, etc. That's all very annoying.

3\. From a startup perspective, we have a burgeoning scene locally, with a lot
of awesome stuff going on. But this area still lacks the availability of angel
/ VC money of some other communities. A lot of startups here wind up traveling
to NYC, SF, etc. to try and raise from investors there. And while that
sometimes works, a lot of investors are reluctant to invest too far from where
they live and work.

4\. A lot of the startups here aren't necessarily working on hard technical
problems... we get a lot of "consumer" stuff for whatever reason. That's a
minor annoyance only in that if I ever attend "startup" events, I find myself
bored to tears by a lot of the other companies there. That stuff just doesn't
interest me.

5\. "The Triangle" as a whole (which includes Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh)
is very sprawled out, and it's not as bike friendly as you'd like. Chapel Hill
has a lot of bike lanes, but if I want to ride from, say, my apartment to
downtown Durham, a large portion of the route is on roads with no bike lanes,
narrow shoulders, lots of curves, and a lot of auto traffic.

On the flip-side though, we have lots of outdoor green spaces with trails for
running, hiking, mountain biking, etc. And the weather is relatively nice
pretty much all year round. And from where I live I can be at the beach in
about 2.5 hours, or in the mountains in about 4 hours. There are also a number
of good colleges and universities nearby, which attract interesting people.
There's a strong local micro-brew scene, and a pretty good restaurant scene
(albeit not as rich as say, NYC or SF). All in all, there's a lot to like
about this area, despite all the negative attention our government has drawn
to us over the past couple of years.

~~~
smt88
#3 and #4 are probably related

~~~
mindcrime
Yes, quite possibly.

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cylinder
Government dysfunction, disorganization, stupidity, corruption.

Shitty people with no manners littering and bothering others.

Too much of a class system. Too much poverty adjacent to a lot of wealth. Can
feel the tension all the time.

Ridiculous property taxes you must pay in perpetuity.

Crappy tap water.

Complete apathy amongst residents about both random and systemic violence and
tragedies occurring daily, because they happen in "bad areas."

Bad urban planning.

(Not SF).

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sotojuan
NYC:

Subways in the summer + rush hour (no A/C in the station).

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billconan
safety is my biggest concern. I dare not to walk in mid-night in downtown SF.

