Adam-Jackson

When you think of American cities that love coffee, the first thought is Seattle and I don’t think San Francisco rivals Seattle in the amount of coffee shops or sheer volume of coffee fandom there. However, living in SF, and I’d argue that it’s a close 2nd. Sure New York will have more variety, more coffee lovers and perhaps more rabid bean fans but its size makes the coffee community more spread out. With that said, let’s talk about SF and its love for a good cup of coffee.

I’ve been living in downtown San Francisco for nearly 16 months and it’s been an exciting time. However, just yesterday when I had a favorite coffee shop dead set in my mind, I ventured into a popular place called Philz for the first time and was blown away by how amazing it was. I went back today despite it was a 20 minute bus ride away from my place. That’s the point about coffee is that once you think that you’ve found the best cup, the very next day another amazing cup will hit and it will be a revelation in coffee drinking.

I honestly drink coffee for the taste and not for the energy boost. Below are a few of my favorite spots in SF to drink coffee based on taste, service and how well that location can be used to open up your laptop and work. The best coffee places have some of the worst locations for getting work done as an Internet Cafe. These are listed in reverse. The last coffee shop on the list is my favorite.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (4th & Market): Their coffee is drip style, there’s nothing fancy but the flavors are pretty darn good for a chain coffee place. There’s only a few in SF and they’re usually over-run with tourists. Good luck finding a seat but Internet is always fast & reliable. Their selection of Teas are also pretty darn good an I like that it’s an affordable standby for anyone looking for a good cup.
Starbucks (3rd & Market Street): This location is the best Starbucks in the city. It’s not open very late and it doesn’t always have a spare seat but it’s central to my work & home plus the place has high ceilings, comfy chairs and even couches. Plus, it’s one of the only Starbucks locations in San Francisco that has the new $11K Clover Coffee Machine which has a distinct taste. Other than that, it’s just a Starbucks. I like their service though and surprisingly non-rush hour lines are usually less than 60 seconds.
Peets Coffee & Tea (2nd & Mission Street): This Peets has an atrium with over 50 seats and tall glass windows. I like the open atmosphere a lot but it can be quite a wait during the weekday between 8-10AM. Local SF residents know all about Peets. Their coffee is strong with zero bitter after-taste and a distinct full body. They also have an excellent tea selection with tea from all over the world at a great price. I’m also a sucker for their blended ice coffee drinks. Peets can be on the pricy side ($1-$1.50 more than Starbucks) but well worth it considering the extra quality you receive in exchange for the premium.
The Creamery (4th & King): The creamery doesn’t have wifi and doesn’t have power outlets. All of the other cafes to this point do but the creamery isn’t for meetings & hanging out on a Saturday. It’s a place that’s strictly for on the go coffee consumption but I personally don’t like their coffee. Nope, The Creamery has the best Vanilla Latte I’ve ever had and reviewers on Yelp confirmed that I’m not alone. Go to The Creamery, grab a vanilla latte and then head to the office. It’s well worth it!
Sugar Cafe is my 3rd favorite coffee shop for a few reasons but it isn’t the quality of their drinks. I’d love it if Sugar started brewing coffee from my top 2 favorite places but they use some generic stuff and it’s not very good. They do have some good espresso based drinks and they make up for the bad coffee with amazing pastries, breakfast sandwiches & mimosas. Where Sugar Cafe wins is in their seating, myriad of power outlets, hours of operation and super fast wireless Internet. It’s the best freelancer hotspot in the city and one that I couldn’t live without. I can show up at 6AM, eat breakfast, lunch & dinner (keeping my tab open the whole day like a bar) and then at 2AM leave to go home when they close. At 5PM it remains a cafe, but they have a full liquor license and people are there working all day. I love Sugar Cafe and will always keep it in my top 3 but it could be #1 if their coffee improved.
Blue Bottle Cafe (Mint Plaza; 5th & Mission): Blue Bottle was first a dumb thing in my mind because you’d wait for 25 minutes to get a cup of coffee with lines going out the door and a 5 minute process just to brew a cup. The coffee isn’t that expensive either – $2.3 for a 12oz cup of freshly brewed coffee. I’ve never had their pastries but it’s like The Creamery where I usually just go once every 2 weeks for that special cup of coffee and then leave to head off to another location. They don’t offer wifi or power outlets and their seating is scarce so I am only rating it based on the fact that their coffee is just so damn good! They resell their coffee so other shops in town brew Blue Bottle but don’t have the lines and w/ free wifi. I’ll try to find one of those in the near future.
Philz Coffee (18th & Sansome): My new favorite cup of coffee also has free wifi good hours and decent seating. Philz is owned by a guy and his son and they only have around 5 locations at this time. The story is that the founders have spent 20 years mixing beans, traveling and experimenting to find the perfect coffee “recipes” meaning Jacob’s Wonderbar (an actual flavor) is a collection of different beans from all over the world brewed at a certain temperature and ground perfectly as each cup of coffee is made to order just for you. To top it all off, you can get a few mint leaves in your cup which really adds a sweet kick to your cup. Philz is usually open 7AM-8PM. Hey have 8 tables & decently fast Wi-Fi. The staff is super courteous but the coffee can be high. My favorite coffee – The Turkish Blend is $3.50 a cup. There are 4 Philz locations in SF and each one requires a bus or subway ride of 15+ minutes. This is my new Sunday work hangout for sure and it’s always a treat.

There are over 25 other notable and popular coffee places in San Francisco and I’m only going off of what I’ve tried and what my favorites are. If you’re ever in SF visiting, stick to my top 5 and you won’t be disappointed! Maybe I’ll update this in the future when I finally make it to ritual roasters, sight glass or one of the many more coffee shops that people rave about on Twitter / Yelp.

I’ve been very lucky to have a supportive family and a few friends that are always there to give advice. When we embarked on this trip one year ago, it was San Francisco that I thought would bring me happiness. My dream of working in tech (even if only for a short time) and making a difference (and some money) was my key to happiness. This was an important time because what my father told me as a kid was validated that happiness is more than where you live and who you know.

If you’re a kid from a small country town with a knack of development or engineering and SF has turned into your “escape” or chance to change your life, that may be the case but it’s not going to magically happen quickly and without a ton of hard work and you won’t magically become happy now that you’re living here.

To be frank, I moved to SF with a healthy amount of acquaintances who made things a little easier but it’s friends and relationships that bring happiness and enrich your life. Paychecks, acquisitions, inventions and creations are great but the happiness isn’t sustainable.

As far as quality of life, SF can be wonderful if you live in a neighborhood that’s clean, crime free and spacious so choose where you live carefully. I was blinded by technology, people with like interests, the golden gate bridge and possibility of finally fitting in. All of this was great but it’s a quick high that subsides. Laura and I still don’t have “best friends” in San Francisco and I foresee this being far off given our work schedule but we are strengthening non-work relationships every day and building friendships.

I had a family friend who would go to Ireland once a year to “clear his mind” and if he didn’t go, it would cause his work performance to drop and his stress level would be out of control. He needed that escape to “simpler times” and SF to me was a year long getaway from “life” but I was looking at things the wrong way. I know know that there’s a young person like me looking to get away for a change and SF isn’t that city. There are other cities that are “simpler” while still being large and I suggest you travel the world before settling down someplace. I know this section is kind of going on and on but it’s hard to truly explain what I mean.

I’m happy here but I didn’t “find” happiness. I created happiness and that’s my point. You can create that anywhere and it has nothing to do with geography.

Celebrities, Tourists & Homeless

San Francisco isn’t Los Angeles or New York and that’s part of what makes it great. The title of this section does explain what the three have in common. First of all, celebrities to visit San Francisco and a few even live here. The great thing is, you’ll never see them and camera crews don’t follow them around. Celebrities are just like you when in SF and that’s why I enjoy it here.

Tourists are impossible to miss. I’d like to help you not be a tourist. First of all, don’t ever visit Fisherman’s Wharf unless you’re going to In-N-Out Burger. Also, don’t buy a shirt, hat, wrist strap, jacket or thong that has “San Francisco” written on it. Trust me, it’s no cool and you’re a total tourist if you do. Don’t go to Union Square for any reason because it’s all tourists. Finally, don’t wear a camera around your neck, ride the cable car stop on the sidewalk to stare at things. Over a dozen times, I’ve been walking on the sidewalk as a couple of tourists stop randomly to look at a building. Move to the side before you stop please because if you don’t, you’re a tourist.

When our current mayor, Gavin Newsom was elected to SF city office, one of his primary goals was reducing homelessness in San Francisco. Well, it’s up and still rising. Over half of San Francisco is to the point where you can’t walk a single block without being asked for money. I’ve given money but I can’t always give since I’d be broke by the time I got to work. It’s a city problem that must be fixed. All I can do is warn you. Don’t give, say now, don’t play along if someone starts singing to you and always keep your eyes open for suspicious characters, especially at night. I’d go in more detail on this but there’s not much to say for the sake of this post.

I only wrote 15 pages and really was looking forward to writing more of this but there were some things more appropriate for a separate blog entry and others that I’ll save for a special occasion.

Food in San Francisco

I didn’t know this until moving here, but some of the best tasting food in the world is in SF. Of course, I’ve never traveled outside of The U.S., but I’ve been told this by a lot of people. SF cuisine is very diverse. Chinatown is only a mile from Japantown which is only a mile from some amazing French cuisine. Chinatown sits alongside Little Italy which borders Fisherman’s Wharf. Food in SF is amazing if you can afford it but beware of the locals giving you hell for getting Starbucks. Like most of SF culture, I mentioned earlier that you have to be a part of a clique to be accepted here, despite the fact that everyone says feel free to be as expressive and unique as you want. Living in SF can be a pleasurable experience if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, it can be miserable because there is so much awesomeness but you’ll find yourself eating at Subway everyday because that’s all you can afford. Maybe I should start over as I’m coming off way too bitter about this.

I often tweet or post photos of what I’m eating day to day because I enjoy sharing what I’m up to with everyone. Every time I post a tweet, photo or public update about what I’m eating, I’ll get a reply from a local that’s usually negative unless I’m dining at one of the top 25 places to eat in SF. In SF, everyone likes to announce that they know things. I don’t think social networks are to blame but I find it interesting that social networks allow you to tell everyone what you’re up to all started in SF. I can tweet that I’m at Pancho Villa enjoying an amazing chicken burrito and I’ll get 3 replies telling me Pancho Villa sucks and xxxxxxxx is better. If I tweet that I had Subway, you’d think that I just announced I was raped as a child and the comments about how stupid I am and how sorry they are for me that I had to eat such horrible food starts coming in. There are 50 other sub places that I could’ve eaten at but I eat at Subway because it’s $5 for a sub (compared to $9 at other places) and I actually like eating there.

If I buy meat from Safeway (a local grocery store), I’m told there’s a butcher in The Marina that is the best in town and I get some look as if I just bought rotten meat and, once again, they feel sorry for me. There’s a feeling that I’m a horrible person for getting Starbucks instead of drinking Peets and why go to Chevy’s when there are “far better tex mex places within walking distance.” What people fail to mention is that most places in SF have small portions, cost twice as much as chain restaurants and are generally packed with people. I prefer to spend less money and get more for my money. Then they agree with me but have one more thing to say, such as, “Think of the money you’re giving to the corporations and how you could be reinvesting back into the local community.” Oh jeez. Well, they have a point but I’m still not switching because now I have to eat out half as much as I do now (which is about 3 times a month) just so I can support local businesses. That’s why I give up. It’s typical pretentiousness of this city and I have a feeling it’s the case with most cities.

In closing, since I have to offer you some tips, Yelp.com is king here. The reviews are great, categories are perfect and it’s the place you go to find where to eat. Ignore the foodies who make you feel like an ass for eating at a chain restaurant and the one tip that I think is valuable is that you never eat at the same place twice in SF. There’s so much amazing food in SF that it’s best to always go to a different place so you can let your taste buds explore the beauty of quality food.

Getting out of San Francisco

If you’re like me, you didn’t grow up in a city and all of this is brand new. The noise the first month living in the city will keep you awake at night and you’ll realize there’s never a moment when you don’t see or hear another human being. It really gets to you but you’ll get used to it. If your job doesn’t require a lot of travel, then I’d recommend getting out of town for a 3 day weekend once a month. Seriously, it’s healthy and will keep you sane.

SF is a beautiful place but it takes only 2 weeks to do every tourist thing and suddenly you find yourself wanting more. How the heck do you get out of town with no car?

There are a few options here. A bicycle can get you over the golden gate bridge and all the way up to wine country. You can go north to Seattle if you’re overly ambitious, but I’ve gone about 25 miles north of SF on my bicycle and it took about 5 hours. I even took a ferry back into the city, so don’t worry too much about getting home. Just map out the 2-4 ferry areas in north bay and make sure you can get to one of them.

If you’re lucky enough to have a friend with a car, then it’s easy. Pay their gas and plan something outside of the city but there’s still a few alternatives. The first is Caltrain / BART. You can get to a lot of interesting places on these two transportation systems. I spoke about them earlier. Berkley, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Richmond, Redwood City, Millbrae, Palo Alto, San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View and Burlingame are just a few of the places these public transit routes pass through. For about $10-$20 you can go to any of them round trip so those are great ways to get around.

Looking for more freedom? Signup for Zipcar or City CarShare. I use City CarShare and like it, but both of them have their advantages. They offer hourly or daily rental prices and it’s a membership so you’ll find yourself paying monthly to be a member and billed automatically every month for your usage. Go online, pick out a car and pick it up at hundreds of different garages all over the bay area. Cars range from Mini Coopers to Mini Vans or Mid-Size Trucks. This can get very expensive so we just use it for our weekly grocery trips and maybe a once a month day trip to an area outside of the city. Either way, having a membership is valuable for times when you have to get somewhere for work that you can’t get to using public transit. The hourly fees can be expensed in most cases. Insurance and gasoline for the cars is included in the hourly rate.

Flights from SF or Oakland are very cheap. Flights on Virgin America leaving SFO to Seattle, Las Vegas or Los Angeles are $49-$65 each way and flights are only 1-2 hours. If you have a friend in any one of those places, take a $5 BART ride to SFO, hop on a plane and spend the weekend somewhere else. You work for an Internet company so you can work wherever there’s a Wi-Fi hotspot and at 5PM, close your laptop and enjoy your time at your destination. It’s very affordable to get out of town and SF’s location on the map is very convenient for getting away.

Finally, going for a walk is a great way to get out of the city (not quite literally). San Francisco is very diverse and you can escape the foggy wind in Sunset District with a 10 minute walk. Tired of SOMA traffic? Walk to North Beach which is about 30 minutes on foot and suddenly, you can find some quiet parks to chill out in without the crowds.

Getting started in SF is very hard. I was lucky that I came here with an impressive resume, strong business relationships and a network of contacts. Twitter was huge in my transition to SF. I was already following most of the people I was going to meet and taking on side projects was a great way to get started in expanding my resume and knowledge.

This quick tip sheet on getting a job in SF is unproven. Since the economic downturn, California unemployment rates skyrocket and more people are out of work. Companies are still being funded in SF but money is dwindling so I can’t vouch for 2009 being the year you sell your life and move across country.

Networking and referrals from friends is the best way to get a job in SF. Spend 1-2 years building up your name in whatever it is you want to do in SF. Say you live in Chicago. Start blogging about what you are interested in doing right this second, strengthen your online brand, be yourself, clean up any skeletons and work very very hard to become a guest blogger on a website that specializes in what you’re interested in. Connect with people that might one day hire you through Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter (in that order) and start conversations. Get to know these individuals well enough that you have regular AIM conversations, and one day, get invited to a party in SF. The person inviting you may have no idea you live in Chicago. This is what happened to me on a weekly basis and many people were convinced I lived in SF. This was when I knew I had made my mark.

Make your resume as impressive as possible and hopefully have real world experience with what you’re trying to get a job in. Send that resume to your network of friends and ask them to put out their feelers. Put your resume on your blog and ask people to tweet it out or hold a contest, giving a MacBook Air to the person that helps you land your dream job. Use social media to get the job done and don’t waste your time coming to SF before you have leads on the job you want.

Line up 10 interviews and come to SF for 3 days to interview and apartment hunt. Stay at a hostel for $30 a night and live as cheap as possible those few days so you can save your money. If you’re offered your dream job, take it but know the interview processes take a very long time. Google and Cisco positions can take months so I advise not to move to SF until you get that final offer. It’s easier financially. You can snag last minute plane tickets to SF for pretty cheap, so instead of paying $2,000 a month in rent while waiting to get a job, keep your old job and apartment, save your money and fly out for job interviews or do them via Skype.

There are old-fashioned ways of finding that great job. Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder and Craiglist are great websites but that referral from a friend is much more valuable. You have a 10% chance of getting that job your friend referred you to, opposed to a 1% or less chance of getting the job posted on Craigslist.

Once you’re hired, work your ass off and make your mark. Love your job, work long hours and continue your education by going to day conferences and tech events. Always try to convince your boss to pay for the events because they’re investing in your professional future but also investing in skills you can use on the job. There are excellent day conferences for less than $100 and a flight from SFO to LA for a barcamp is more affordable than you think.

You Found a Job. Now What?

Congratulations. You’re probably making less than you thought. Rent isn’t cheap and suddenly you’re spending $300 a month on groceries, $400 a month on just a few dinners and daily lunches and $1.50 per bus ride (which adds up). As I said before, always work your ass off at your day job. The job that pays your bills gets the highest priority but always be involved with more than 2 projects at once. It will pay off in the end. Having a small part in your friends weekend side project can pay off big time one day because that company might get funding and now your friend is asking you to be his co-founder. You might pickup a few advertisers, by writing a blog in your spare time and your work at your day job might lead to speaking gigs, a book or consulting work on the side.

By the way, this is my story and exactly how I have been able to stay ahead since moving here. Expenses in SF are insane. 65% of my paycheck goes to rent and the rest is spent on groceries, a cell phone and miscellaneous travel expenses. It’s the side jobs that actually help me save money. I’m writing a book, I get some advertising via Twitter and my blog and I speak at conferences. I’ve done a few consultant gigs and I plan parties for startups. My side jobs only take about 10 hours a week which means working every Saturday for that extra 20% every month.

You can’t become stagnant in the startup world. I had a friend who was laid off from her job. For a few days prior to being let go, she was telling me how concerned she was that she might be laid off. I told her to update her resume, update her blog and start feeling around for other jobs but she didn’t. Five days later, she was laid off and after 14 days of searching for another job, she left SF and moved back home. If she had kept her ties at other companies and maintained her authority on what she was good at, she’d have no problem picking up some consultant work or a part time job to make ends meet while she found her next job.

I’m not saying to not be committed to your job and love your job but always be aware in the startup world, companies die, reduce spending or change direction month to month and at any time you can find yourself jobless without a warning so it’s always best to be prepared for that. Have a month’s worth of rent in the bank and always remain an authority in your profession. Remember that blog you started in preparation for moving to SF? Keep it up. Keep blogging, networking, making connections and update your resume every single month with places you spoke, projects you worked on and conferences you attended. This is the most important thing you can do to ensure you don’t end up like the 14 thousand other homeless men & women in SF.

I moved to SF from what seemed like a decent size town in Florida. We had about 50 thousand people in our city and 125 thousand people in our county. Of course, our city was about 24 square miles. In comparison, SF has nearly 1 million people in 7 square miles and I’ve heard during big tourist weekends, the number can spike to nearly 2 million people. That’s a huge difference. Yes, you read that right—SF is only 7 square miles, so biking across it, around it and through it is super easy if you avoid the hills. I’ve walked 12 miles all over SF in one day and it was a total breeze once my feet stopped hurting.

If you’re moving to SF to be yourself, expand on your ideas and be creative, step carefully. Like many cities, SF is home to many micro-cultures and small groups of people that each have their own agendas, so it’s difficult to maintain a balance. Imagine comparing the delicate balance of a rain forest to a dense city such as SF.

I’ve noticed the things I failed to learn in high school continue to be problems today. In high school, it’s either fit in or be a freak. Even the people you see in SF that you may call freaks, might be geniuses within their own culture or clique. There are guys who do something called “steampunk,” build “art cars” or have sex dressed up as furry animals. There’s exhibitionists, users of all kinds of drugs, photographers, videographers, pornographers and even men dressed as women. It’s okay to be yourself, creative and expressive as long as you do it as a member of a group. Local residents will call me out and say that I’ve over analyzed this but it’s true and maybe a few stories will help you understand this better.

I wanted to be a part of the club scene in SF as I’m very interested in house, trance, new age and jungle beat music. I consider myself an avid fan of dance music but I’m not such a fan that I’ve heard of obscure DJs or own thousands of dance albums on vinyl. I’ve noticed in SF, nothing’s “casual” and it’s all or nothing. I tried going to a few clubs and realized that everyone is dressed the same and I was just a normal guy wearing what I was comfortable in. I’ve heard it’s okay to be yourself but when everyone is dressed all in black, has piercings and some are doing drugs, I leave realizing that I’m just not into the crowd. I heard about this club that’s an all night place and when I went, the music was great and I decided to dance but instead, I was given dirty looks by people by the way I danced. I’m a horrible dancer but isn’t it about self expression?

Giving up on the house scene, I decided I wanted to be a part of the party crowd of cool kids. “The cool kids” is a made-up phrase that applies to a lot of people, but when I say cool kids, I’m referring to the web celebrities that party and spend their company’s VC funding on drinks and ski trips. I lasted about 3 months in this group. The issue was that I just couldn’t afford to live up to their lifestyles. It wasn’t a casual group and became an issue of having to be at too many events. The conversations always passed me by and I realized that I wasn’t a part of this group either. People would be nicely dressed, order high-end beer and cocktails, hang out at fancy places in SF like the W Hotel or The Redwood Room and conversations would center around their travels, getting funded or speaking at conferences. On over a dozen occasions, I found myself being asked, “Where have you been lately?” My response, “Um, I went to Los Angeles for work for a day back in January” while everyone else had been to China, London, Japan or Hawaii in the past 3 months.

I tried to be a part of the bicyclist crowd. There are actually two kinds of these groups. Members of one group ride bikes that cost no less than 5 grand, wear expensive clothing, can bike hundreds of miles, are non talkative and love biking. You can’t just show up and start hanging out if you’re still an amateur. My bike was only $800 and there’s no way, at my skill level, that I could keep up. So I tried to be a part of the bike messenger crowd. Most bike messengers ride fixed gear bikes, they wear very tight clothes and are super skinny. I weigh 260 pounds, while these guys are around 175-200 pounds. They all wear messenger bags and somehow fit their bike lock in their back pocket. I’ve tried and I can’t get it to fit because my butt is too big. They hang out at bars like Zeitgeist and ride in packs. There’s a level of arrogance to this crowd, so it was obvious my multi-speed bike and Levi jeans weren’t going to cut it. I was basically shunned with no feasible entry point for starting a conversation or a friendship.

I’m running out of social circles, but I have a couple of other options for groups I can “be a part of.” The first is photography. Even though I’m an amateur, I’m really good at it and I’ve been told I have a good eye and just need work on my skills. The photo groups in SF travel a lot, have very expensive camera equipment and mostly consist of students or experienced photographers, so they’re groups I can’t really mesh with.
I’m also trying to get in with the conference crowd. These are people that spend 20% of their work week at conferences, either as spectators or speakers, in order to soak up a ton of information and network with others. How is that a clique? It’s hard to explain, but by attending conferences, when I meet someone new I can say, “Yes I was at Web 2 last week. John Smith delivered an excellent speech.” It’s a conversation starter when the person I’m speaking with also attended or was familiar with the conference. The conference crowd is pretty small so it’s easier to get to know everyone.

My last chance at being a part of a clique is through the Burning Man Crowd. It’s an artistic group, and I hear several of the members are older, have money and are known for doing drugs out in the dessert. I’m only basing this off conversations I’ve had with others and photos I’ve seen, but no one’s confirmed that theory yet. When I say money, I don’t mean “wealth.” I mean they have 5 grand in the bank, and that’s it. To me, having 5 grand in the bank is “money” and these people have it. I always thought artists were totally broke but I’m realizing a ton of SF artists aren’t broke at all and that’s why they can spend all day building things.

To be honest, I’ve given up on fitting in. These cliques, crowds and circles are great when you are really interested in one thing or you want to meet new people and make friendships, but lately I’ve given up. I have spent the last year trying to fit in, met a ton of people and added about 600 friends on Facebook, but I don’t have one person that I would consider a real friend. By friend, I mean someone I can call at 5AM when my apartment is broken into, someone who will let me sleep on their couch for 2 days if I have to, or someone that will listen to me and offer advice when I have a problem. There are tons of people out there that would offer but I don’t consider anyone enough of a friend to ask for those kind of favors. Cliques are great and circles are nice but friendships are very important and I’m realizing that SF is a difficult city to settle down in when you’re really seeking friendship.

I told my Dad this last night and he agreed with me, saying that when he lived in a city at my age he realized that it’s all about business, networking, alliances and money. It’s very hard to build a lasting friendship in the city because everyone is looking out for themselves and trying to strike it rich. Individuals meet, find out they can’t professionally offer each other anything and you move on. That’s how it is. He said a lot of people spend their entire life this way and he recommended I get some real friends and seek to enjoy life more because my career doesn’t mean anything if I don’t have friends to share it with.

To be honest, I didn’t have any friends in high school because I was always the free spirit and never had enough qualities to be a part of one single group so I found myself bouncing around different groups. I was fine with it in high school, but now I need something more and it’s time to meet some real friends. This was possible in my small hometown, but in SF, business comes first and making friends when you’re not a part of their clique is very hard and has a high failure rate.

I’ve responded to over a dozen emails from future SF residents asking me where they should move. The response always seems simple, and then I pause and realize that where they should live in SF depends on so many personal factors! I also find myself realizing that I’m not yet a local and probably don’t know enough to give a good answer so I generally describe to them the different parts of town.

Here are places that I would like to live and why:

“The Tenderloin” is where I first lived when I moved to SF. It has flavor and it’s very real. What I mean is, people’s lives are transparent because many families are living on the streets and with the small apartments, kids find themselves playing on the sidewalk because there’s only one small park in the Tenderloin. It’s an area of low income families, those with disabilities and those that, despite their hard work and perseverance, were never able to move to a safer part of town. There are a few people that live there by choice and they have their reasons. The Tenderloin is pretty noisy and not too safe at night, but there is an excellent selection of family owned restaurants and cafes. The neighborhood is bordered by a mall, two movie theatres and some of the best clubs in town. Despite everything, it’s my favorite neighborhood because there’s so much potential and has variety like no other neighborhood in SF.

“The Mission” is known for its Hispanic population, burrito joints and sidewalk markets. In the past 10 years, the young “cool kids” have invaded The Mission but its flair, architecture and cuisine remain the same. The Mission has cheap housing like The Tenderloin but many argue there are more families and thus it’s a step up in terms of safety. Also, The Mission has more parks, more schools and apartments are larger because it’s not as concentrated. I like The Mission for lunchtime burritos and afternoon naps in Dolores Park.

“The Castro” is a relatively new neighborhood and was formerly known as Eureka Valley. The Castro is known as The Gayborhood as the 60s and 70s saw a rise in openly gay individuals and many of them found Castro to be their home. Today, the cafes, restaurants, bars and gyms are full of same sex couples living their lives without fear of persecution for being openly homosexual. I love The Castro for many reasons, but overall it’s a great place to hang out with friends. the party never stops. It’s a very clean neighborhood, full of friendly residents and you can walk the streets at night without fear.

“The Haight” is amazing and the most cultural neighborhood in town. I guess you could consider it a neighborhood of “hippies” but that’s not necessarily true by most people’s definition of hippy. Haight Street is long and is lined with locally owned everything. You won’t find a chain restaurant, cafe or clothing store here, the street is dominated by bicycles and the crowd is very young. It’s hard to describe this neighborhood but a Flickr search of Haight will provide a pictorial description.

“SOMA” (South of Market) is a neighborhood that starts at the east side of SF, south of Market Street, and continues along to 12th Street where The Mission begins. SOMA goes south to “Mission Bay” so it’s a pretty large area that was, for a long time, known for its industry. A few years ago, the dot com boom revitalized the area. SOMA has seen old warehouses transformed into million dollar lofts / offices and now it’s home to some of the priciest real estate in SF—but it’s nothing compared to Pacific Heights or Nob Hill. SOMA is where you will find the highest concentration of startups and some fantastic (pricier) lunch spots. This is also where you can hop on CalTrain, see an SF Giants baseball game or look across the water to Oakland.

“Potrero Hill” is one of my favorite neighborhoods. It is directly south of SOMA so you’re just a bike ride away from The Mission, SOMA or The Tenderloin (less than 10 minutes on a bike). Potrero hill has some decent food (nothing breathtaking) but it’s more suburban with larger houses, more parking and epic views of the city if you’re up high enough. Personally, I love Potrero Hill but if you go too deep into the neighborhood (away from SOMA), you’ll find yourself in the neighborhood, Bayview, which is notorious for high crime.

There are just a few neighborhoods. There are certainly more options when choosing an apartment. North Beach, downtown, Financial District, Cole Valley and a few dozen others.

There’s an excellent site that I read every page of when I decided to move to SF. http://www.dreamworld.org/sfguide/ This guide has helped me TREMENDOUSLY and if you’re serious about moving, read the entire site because it will help you with the most common questions.

Geography, Price, City-Life

Most of the people I’ve spoken to that are dead set on moving to SF are between the ages of 17 and 26 and they have an interest in technology. In my opinion, they’re already half way on being qualified to live in SF, but a great number of these people also come from small towns, just like me, and coping with the changes between rural living and city living can be scary.

Night one in SF, we flew in late and our apartment wasn’t available until the following day so we stayed at the Adelaide Hostel. I’ve been staying in this hostel since 2005 on a yearly basis and it’s the most affordable and clean hostel I’ve ever experienced. Single beds are $30 a night which is about 10% of what most hotels cost in the city and they have free wi-fi and breakfast. I came to SF mid-May to scout out an apartment and see what our options are but that trip turned out to be a waste. Apartment hunting on Craigslist is easy (sometimes) and you can reserve an apartment over the web since most landlords are tech savvy and emailing a PDF of an agreement is very common.

If you have the cash and a guaranteed job, move now. When I came to SF, it was at the very peak of a web 2.0 bubble. Vacant housing in SF was under 2% and it wasn’t normal to see someone with a great resume not have a job. Most companies were hiring and things were booming. As we all know, Fall of 2008 was a collapse on a global scale and finding a job in SF this summer is nearly impossible but if you land a job, I’m happy to say that housing is dirt cheap and there are plenty of choices available. I’m saying “dirt cheap” from a San Franciscan point of view but it’s still twice as much as you’re paying back in rural America. As an example, I lived in a middle-of-the-road beach town back in Florida. It wasn’t the hustle that I’ve seen in SF but there are enough tourists and enough sunny days to make beach front houses cost upwards of 10 million. However, our rent on a 2 bedroom, multi-level town home built in 2007 was only $750 a month. In comparison, we are now paying $1600 a month for a 250 square foot studio apartment in downtown SF. Better deals can be had but don’t expect to pay less than $700 a month for a room in a house full of people. I chose to have my own space with privacy and I paid extra for that.

Living downtown has had advantages but there are downsides as well. Most startups are in SOMA or the Financial District so being near the action is great. I can walk or bike to work without taking the bus or subway, where most that live in The Mission, Potrero Hill, Hayes Valley or Haight have to find a way into town or walk for half an hour twice a day. If you are starting your own company or working freelance, there’s a huge value in being in the center of what’s happening but that’s the only advantage of living downtown.

In my opinion, live outside of downtown and deal with the 15 minute bus ride twice a day because you’ll save money and live a more fulfilling life outside of work. Not a week goes by that I don’t see someone publicly using the restroom and I never know if water on the sidewalk is from light rain or someone’s urine. I’ve stepped in human excrement as well and that’s never fun. I can’t unload groceries without being asked by a homeless person if they can have some food and even finding a parking spot to unload my groceries is nearly impossible and usually results in double parking and throwing bags of groceries to Laura as she props open the gate that enters into our apartment. There are two dance clubs near our house so drunk club goers stumble around when we go food shopping Friday and Saturday nights.

Other disadvantages include noise, traffic, crime, poverty and never having a moment alone. If you like to have 20 feet of personal space, downtown living isn’t for you and it took about 3 months for me to adjust to having no space. All of this is outweighed by the convenience of living 4 blocks from Twitter and 6 blocks from Myspace’s SF office. Google is 0.9 miles away and Friendster operates at the apartment above mine. Living downtown sounds great but it’s still equally as bad as it is good.

My advice: Get a one-month short-term rental downtown and try it out while you search for apartments that aren’t downtown. This will give you a chance to get the Web 2.0 fanboy-ness out of your system, soak up the city life and learn the bus routes. After two weeks of noisy streets and sleepless nights, you’ll be happy to have some peace and quiet in the west side of town.

Geographically, SF is great! I’d like to point out a few things you might find interesting.

Half an hour drive from wine tasting
15 minute drive to SFO
One hour from Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, NVIDIA and thousands of other companies that shape our lives
2 hours from skiing in Lake Tahoe
3 hours from gambling in Reno
3-5 hours from Yosemite National Park
1.5 hours from Santa Cruz
A solid 6-10 hour drive from Portland and Seattle

You can wine taste, surf at Maverick’s and ski the slopes all in the same day. That’s why SF has been a ton of fun. I love having the ability to hop on a bike and ride 30 miles up to Marin for epic views of the city and amazing parks. If I ride 65 miles, I find myself near wineries and I can always take a 40 minute ferry ride back to SF if I’m too tired to bike home.

An underground subway called BART connects me from SF to SFO and “East Bay.” I’m 10 minutes from having coffee in Berkley and 25 minutes on BART from being at the airport and the fare is only $5.50. BART is the easiest way to get around to many of the places that you need to go. If you’re from the country, “public transit” or “mass transit” isn’t something you hear everyday, but in big cities it makes getting around very easy. BART connects most of the “East Bay” to a small portion of “South Bay” and SF is right in the middle. A BART train ride is a mix of above ground and underground and a ride from SFO all the way to Walnut Creek is cheaper (after paying tolls), and usually faster, than driving—especially during business hours. BART wins in my book.

CalTrain is another form of mass transit and an option for people who need to travel a little further, but it’s also limited. CalTrain starts in SF and all of the way down to San Jose, which can take over an hour, by train or car. CalTain fares are based on the number of zones that are traveled. An average one-way ticket is around $6 or $12-$15 for a day pass, but when you consider traffic and the cost of parking, gas and maintaining a car, it’s actually a great deal. CalTrain travels alongside the interstate and even has a top level that elevates you about 15 feet from the ground. It’s slightly pricier than BART, but goes further south and is a little faster and more convenient.

Honestly, BART and CalTrain are evenly matched and are excellent forms of mass transit.

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), a.k.a. “MUNI,” is most commonly heard in SF because it’s how most locals get around within city limits. MUNI consists of busses, streetcars, underground and aboveground rail cars and the world famous cable car system. All MUNI fares are $1.50, except cable cars, which are $5 for a single ride (it’s a tourist thing). You can buy a monthly pass for $45-$65, giving you unlimited rides for the month. The system is 24/7, but after 2AM, service is very limited. No public transit is perfect, however, MUNI has a ton of problems with scheduling, speed, cleanliness and overall quality of service.

When I moved to the city, I attempted to use cabs, which was a complete fail. Taxis Cab fares start at $3.20 as soon as your butt hits the seat, and a 2 mile ride can easily cost $12, so unless you’re late to a meeting, don’t bother. On the other hand, that same 2 miles on MUNI can take 45 minutes, depending on what part of the city you’re in, so and walking to your destination is can be faster (and free). A lot of people don’t like walking, but when paying $12 or taking an hour to get somewhere are your only options, a brisk walk is a hell of a lot more appealing.

I always strive for getting the most bang for my buck so I bought a bicycle and started riding everywhere. It was challenging at first, with the amount of steep hills, but soon my body adapted and it’s been a terrific way to begin and end the day. I get exercise and arrive at my location right after a taxi cab would have arrived. It’s a hell of a lot faster than MUNI and I’m not spending any money. I’d recommend a bicycle to anyone. If you can be safe and obey traffic laws, it’s a perfect way to get around.

My investment in a bike will pay off in under 2 years. It isn’t immediate, but the health benefits of owning a bike and the time saved are huge returns. My bike is the best purchase I’ve made since moving to SF. MUNI is fine, but invest in a bike, if possible.

May 31st, 2008 at 7:30PM – Laura Wiggins and I arrived at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). I was comfortable and calm despite just leaving my family and traveling across country with little knowledge of what was going to happen next. This was my 10th time flying into SFO which isn’t too shabby for a country boy. It was Laura’s second time after she accompanied me to Macworld 2007 and had a blast.

I’ve written a great deal about this move on this blog and my travel blog but I learned a few things since moving that I want to share. I’ve composed five blog entries for the One Year in San Francisco (SF) series and these are written for travelers and tourists but the real value is for the young men and women who plan on moving here. I’ve met over 50 people online that are planning or desperately want to make the move to SF and I don’t blame them. In theses posts, you’ll learn about my successes, failures and knowledge that most San Franciscans take for granted but never write about.

Stay tuned because every day at noon (Pacific Time) I’ll post an entry that you’ll want to read again and again.