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mishalakDon't read this if you think SF the greatest place on earth with nothing wrong with it. I will only piss you off.
San Francisco has a lot of potential. With some serious work it could be an above average place to live. Right now I would rank it as being in the bottom third of cities in the United States to live in. Not that I am not having fun out here, but I have been working on my positive attitude and finding the positive in being in any situation. SF would not be my first choice of places to live (nor even my 10th), but I am here and the city certainly has a lot to offer.
What it does not have is a public transit system equal to the misery of its auto traffic condition, a friendly and welcoming community, or a healthy and safe environment. I don't know that as an outsider (and someone who is likely to remain so) that I am qualified to say that it should change. After all it still attracts lots of people who move here with no job who just want to live here. And I see it is eating a lot of them up and spitting them out.
First of all this is not a good place for gay men. The friendly ones are mostly the guys who want to get in your pants unless they also are newbies here. A quarter to a third of all gay men here are HIV positive. Stop and think about that for a moment. The national rate is under two percent and even among gay men it runs at maybe ten percent. And a heck of a lot of those guys are looking to bareback guys new to the city who do not know what to look for yet, like that facial fat loss from the anti-viral drugs. And that's just the obvious ones, here of all places a guy should use a condom every time, but often the newbies do not know this and the barebackers know it. Gay Mecca? More like gay masque of the red death.
And aside from the locals looking for easy sex they will not be friendly to you. Supposedly there is a program called SNAP to help with this through the local Queer Center, but they have yet to return my calls. If you come here you are on your own. If I were giving advice to a young gay man I would say go to some other city with a gay population, they do not want you here. You will be happier and healthier somewhere like Denver, Seattle, the Twin Cities, or Austin. Think all the mid tier cities, they still have city problems, but they are not ungodly expensive or coldly hostile to anyone who cannot take care of him or herself.
More when I feel like writing on the topic again. Also keep in mind that I am enjoying myself here. I have the best job I have ever had and being a tourist every weekend will keep me occupied for the next half a decade or more. The thing is that if I ever lost this job I would leave this city so fast that I would make a contrail.
San Francisco has a lot of potential. With some serious work it could be an above average place to live. Right now I would rank it as being in the bottom third of cities in the United States to live in. Not that I am not having fun out here, but I have been working on my positive attitude and finding the positive in being in any situation. SF would not be my first choice of places to live (nor even my 10th), but I am here and the city certainly has a lot to offer.
What it does not have is a public transit system equal to the misery of its auto traffic condition, a friendly and welcoming community, or a healthy and safe environment. I don't know that as an outsider (and someone who is likely to remain so) that I am qualified to say that it should change. After all it still attracts lots of people who move here with no job who just want to live here. And I see it is eating a lot of them up and spitting them out.
First of all this is not a good place for gay men. The friendly ones are mostly the guys who want to get in your pants unless they also are newbies here. A quarter to a third of all gay men here are HIV positive. Stop and think about that for a moment. The national rate is under two percent and even among gay men it runs at maybe ten percent. And a heck of a lot of those guys are looking to bareback guys new to the city who do not know what to look for yet, like that facial fat loss from the anti-viral drugs. And that's just the obvious ones, here of all places a guy should use a condom every time, but often the newbies do not know this and the barebackers know it. Gay Mecca? More like gay masque of the red death.
And aside from the locals looking for easy sex they will not be friendly to you. Supposedly there is a program called SNAP to help with this through the local Queer Center, but they have yet to return my calls. If you come here you are on your own. If I were giving advice to a young gay man I would say go to some other city with a gay population, they do not want you here. You will be happier and healthier somewhere like Denver, Seattle, the Twin Cities, or Austin. Think all the mid tier cities, they still have city problems, but they are not ungodly expensive or coldly hostile to anyone who cannot take care of him or herself.
More when I feel like writing on the topic again. Also keep in mind that I am enjoying myself here. I have the best job I have ever had and being a tourist every weekend will keep me occupied for the next half a decade or more. The thing is that if I ever lost this job I would leave this city so fast that I would make a contrail.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 07:11 pm (UTC)