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by Wolfenstein98k 2205 days ago
San Fran is a bizarre place. I'm an Aussie, an Americanophile, and I was in the States for months last year. San Fran was simply unpleasant - the people were rude (young and old) and everything cost too much. The taxes were insane too.

I couldn't bear to live there - Salt Lake City seemed to have the most similar upsides with next to none of the downsides.

5 comments

> San Fran was simply unpleasant - the people were rude (young and old) and everything cost too much. The taxes were insane too.

Tangential, but I feel the same way about NYC. I have lived in SF for ~3 years and have now been in NYC for ~4 years. I guess cities, that are HCOL, tend to exacerbate the (low and high income) class disparities, and maybe also heighten residents' stress and reduce their patience levels?

Are you a west coast native? As a new yorker (and nj native), I've found that west coasters often think we're rude but I see it as just our communication style. We often interrupt and speak over each other, and really don't like being interrupted on a commute (which is often just walking somewhere).

Since working more with west coast devs, I've learned to be "nicer" when communicating. But still have the same habits with my family. To be fair I think that some these habits are good to break.

I grew up on the East Coast. When I moved to the West Coast, I found folks on the West Coast much nicer.

One of the first people I met on the West Coast was about to move to the East Coast ... "because everyone's so much nicer there".

Either the people are always nicer somewhere else or something else is going on.

Canuck here who spends a lot of time in the States (or used to). SLC also has some of the most underrated and inexpensive skiing just 30 minutes out from the airport.
Underrated it is not, just search for Cottonwood Canyon traffic jams to see what skiing really is like here when the snow flies. 30 minutes no traffic, can easily be 3+ hours now.
I'll take three hours over 12 hours which is how long it can take to get to Tahoe from SF on a Friday when it's snowing.
Exactly, a normal drive from my apartment to Brighton or Snowbird is about 45-50 minutes, I've had several times where it was just short of 3 hours one way, this past season.
>"I couldn't bear to live there - Salt Lake City seemed to have the most similar upsides with next to none of the downsides."

SLC seems nice in theory, until you realize Utah is a theocracy. Not a great place to live for anyone outside the LDS church.

I assume you're trying to use hyperbole, but there are no theocracies in the US. LDS definitely has a great deal of influence in Utah, but there are plenty of non Mormons who live there and have no issues living there.
Ohh hogwash, I live in Salt Lake for half the year and I am non religious and I love the place. Salt lake city is one of the best cities in the country for people who love the outdoors, particularly mountains.
That’s changing rapidly.
There’s actually people who will be rude or give worse service if they hear it referred to as “San Fran” rather than sf or the full name. I hope that didn’t happen to you.
There they have the sexy underwear in Utah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_garment

I used to live in the US, but I'm back home in Germany. I have 0 interest in going back.