[malyk]

I moved here in 2008 and absolutely love the city.

What I like:

* There is always something going on. As many tech meetups/lectures/etc as you can stomach. Hell, there's an incredible amount of art/history/science/etc things going on every single day. This is probably true in places like NYC, but I didn't have the same experience in DC.

* The weather is awesome. Coming from DC I couldn't stand the hot and humid summers and the winters that were cold but without anything to show for it. Plus every time it was going to snow a 1/4" the entire town freaked out. Sure, it's foggy sometimes...but the eastern half of the city sees sun for long periods on most days. When the sun is out the weather is perfect.

* The topography of the area makes for some absolutely beautiful views. If you don't like the outdoors you probably don't care, but there are so many amazing places to go hiking/biking/camping that are absolutely stunning. It helps coming from the east coast since most of the plant life is totally different than what you find there.

* Traffic in the city proper is pretty damn good. There are a few places that are congested every day, but once you figure those out getting around the city itself in a car is a breeze.

* I love the biking/public transportation culture. I own a car and use it to get around on the weekends mostly, but I prefer the idea of using other forms of transportation. I quite frankly can't figure out why people hate on MUNI so much. Sure, it isn't up to NYC standards, but I've very rarely had any trouble on MUNI in the 2 years I've been here. Back in DC I was lucky to have a bus come by my place once and hour. Here there is a bus coming at least every 10 minutes. I can go from western SOMA to most places in the city in under 45 minutes. Sure...I could drive there in 20, but I'd have to find and pay for parking once I got there and risk parking tickets. 45 minutes on a bus with an iPhone is nothing.

* The tech/startup scene. I'm only an observer, but I've never felt so inspired to do cool things as I am now that I'm here. DC just didn't inspire me to try to use my skills as a developer to make fun things. I was caught in the fed.gov contracting scene (still my day job) and it doesn't really push you to excel...especially outside of work. Here I can't help but want to try my hand at new things.

There's more...but that will do for now.

Things I don't like...

* Parking enforcement. A necessary evil, but seemingly arbitrary in the rules.

* My place is near a bunch of clubs and people have no problem using it as a bathroom. Definitely on the gross side of things.

* Traffic outside of the city. The Bay Bridge always seems to be backed up. Same with 101. I wouldn't want to commute by car in or out of the city proper. Caltrain would have to be available to me if I were to work or live outside the city.

* The lack of green space around my house. We chose to live in this particular location, and generally it's a great place to be, but would it kill the city to toss some planters or something nearby? I haven't asked them too, but man a little green on the streets around here is seriously needed.

There's probably a few more things I don't like, but they aren't coming to mind.

Basically this place is far superior to where I came from and I love it.

[tptacek]

I've spent some time in DC, I have friends in DC, I'm pretty familiar with the knocks DC takes... and lack of "art/history/science/etc things" has never been one of them. Isn't DC actually pretty amazing for that stuff? And, can you clue me in on the art/history/science stuff you've found to do in San Francisco?

[malyk]

To be fair, I lived in the burbs of DC and I live in SF proper. So it's not really an apples to apples comparison for me. There is certainly tons of museums and such in dc to see and they all have various programs. I may very well have just not been clued in to what was going on, but it didn't take long for me to find those types of things here in SF. I never really found them living near dc my whole life (and 7 years after college).

For science stuff in the bay area the best resource is probably http://www.bayareascience.org/ Follow the twitter feed and you'll see there are generally 4 or 5 things a day going on just in science related fields.

For art/social things I generally check out squidlist.com, but many other sites like sfist.com have a ton of things to do listings daily.

Plus there's just a ton of orgs in and around the city that have ongoing lecture series type of events. Asian Art Museum, Cal Academy of Science, Grey Area Foundation For the Arts, Friday's at the DeYoung, etc.

Tons of stuff...and a lot of it goes on outside of SF proper too with Berkeley and Stanford being so close.

[wtracy]

I'm not the parent, but for starters, there's the Academy of Sciences, the DeYoung Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Legion of Honor, and Fort Point.

[tptacek]

Has SFMOMA gotten better? The Cal Academy barely qualifies as a wing of the American Museum of Natural History; the Legion barely a wing of (even) the Art Institute.

I concede that there are museums. I question whether they're in the same league as their DC equivalents.

[malyk]

Went to the Moma a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed to be honest. I don't think their collection is that great, but I also think I'm just not a fan of most modern art. Oh well.

DC's museums are world class. SF can't compare very well in most instances (The asian art museum is really nice...the shanghai exhibit was great...but now gone). Also, DC museums are free which is really nice.

In the OP I wasn't really talking about the museums themselves though. More about lectures, book clubs, science/art/literature cafe's, etc.

[startupcomment]

There are tons of such activities in the DC area. I have lived in DC for a few years, and I suspect that the OP was not keyed into such activities in the DC area. There is a very large population of highly educated individuals in the DC area across a wide range of professions, industries, etc. There is a thriving private sector in the DC area, and it is not just government-oriented. Hilton and Marriott, for instance, are based in the DC area. The DC area has one of the highest, if not the highest, proportions of knowledge workers in the country, including a very large IT community and a healthy startup community. Also, the OP must have been too far out in the 'burbs. The DC Metro system is one of the best in the country, and it extends out into the suburbs. In many areas of DC and closer-in suburbs, you could easily get by without having a car if you live near a Metro station. Zipcar also has a very large presence in DC. Overall, the DC area offers a very high quality of life professionally, culturally, and educationally and in terms of opportunities for a range of outdoor activities and professional athletics.

[malyk]

I don't disagree with any of that. Maybe it's because I was born there. It just felt old and crusty. Moving to SF was a shot in the arm in all kinds of ways for me and it just feels a lot more energetic than the DC scene did.

I grew up in Alexandria and lived in Reston for 6 years. Yes, reston is far out...but that's where work was. 5 minute drive to work in the DC area? Sign me up!

[yankeeracer73]

Agree on DC's Metro system, it's fantastic. I go to DC regularly and never really have to take a cab, even if I need to get somewhere in one of the suburbs. People in DC tend to rip on the Metro because of occasional outages, but I don't think they've experienced other systems in larger cities. I love living in Chicago, but the "el" could definitely learn from some of Metro's practices.

[percept]

"Isn't DC actually pretty amazing for that stuff?"

Enough to spoil a person. Thank you taxpayers!