[Swizec]

> Yet I can still go out any day of the week to any one of a sizable number of bars and expect them to be decently full. I've run into all kinds of interesting people...though I don't expect to ever run into anybody famous.

In my experience there is a big difference between "sizable number of bars ... decently full" and "a lot of bars/clubs/places ... full".

In my home town (300k people) you get many of bars that are pretty full a lot of the time, some bars that are full-ish some of the time, and a lot of bars that are mostly empty most of the time. And nightclubs, god help you if your taste in music is not mainstream. You will go to a club on a super duper full night and there will be 20 people there.

Compare that to SF. More bars than I could visit in my lifetime. Most of them decently full most of the time. Most of them packed on party nights. No matter what music I decide to listen to, the club will be packed. As obscure as I can bear, club will still be packed.

And SF is not even a giant city. It's got less than 3x the population of my home town.