[skyyler]

No. It is the good weather capital of the country.

Mild winters, mild summers.

Not too much rain.

No serious threat from tornadoes or hurricanes.

That’s a very big draw and it wouldn’t go away by making more dense housing, even if the rest of the peninsula was developed like Manhattan.

[xipho]

And it lives on a series of incredibly active fault lines. During my undergrad I had multiple geology profs adamantly mention that when not if aspect of this, and on time-scales of 100s of years, not 1000s. YRMV.

[xvedejas]

My friends in the geological sciences have told me there will be a big earthquake, but it will be capped at around magnitude 8.0; the faults here are not capable of a 9.0. Buildings in SF have been constructed or retrofit for modern earthquake safety by law.

[20after4]

An 8.0 would still cause massive devastation. Even if structures mostly survive there is the threat of fire and tsunami. This antenna tower looks like it is likely to survive though.

[skyyler]

A lot of people would take earthquakes over hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, hail, 120f summers, -20f winters, and more.

[twolf910616]

Yeah...it's so close to other beautiful nature. not to mention two world class university near by.

[yieldcrv]

And it should be, given that they built the CBD on landfill which has the specific instructions of “do not shake”, since a seemingly solid foundation turns to liquid during an earthquake

The buildings should go somewhere else, on bedrock

[swayvil]

My first thought, sitting by the bay : Beautiful. Perfect. Now they just need to get rid of all these damn people.