It is the most irrationally designed city in the country with some grid-like blocks surrounded by fabulous Dr. Seussian roads and neighborhoods. This randomness results in wonderful moments where you’ll end up on a street you’ve never been on before, that winds through a neighborhood you never knew existed and yields a view of a part of the city or bay or ocean, that will continuously amaze you even decades after you first move here.

San Francisco is dominated by small neighborhoods with single family and multi-unit homes, a smattering of low-profile apartment buildings, and a batch of boutique coffee shops, restaurants and absurdly expensive mixed with amazingly cheap second-hand fashion retail. Depending on your age and preferences chances are you’ll live in one of these little hamlets. Younger, tech go-getters are flocking more to the newer high-rises in the Market Street, South-of-Market areas that are driven by: proximity to work, gyms, organic food, and massive quantities of coffee and THC distribution centers.

While the great majority of the city is bereft of the unhoused there is no question that the homeless are surrounded by stratospheric wealth. This can signal both the hypocrisy of tech culture and the difficulty in tackling wealth inequity, housing shortages, and a mental health crisis.



The Random Beauty is Unsurpassed

LookyLOO Review of San Francisco

San Francisco exists for many residents as a jumping off point for everything that surrounds it. Set on, and surrounded by, what is possibly the most beautiful land in the country, San Francisco residents in many cases work to get out and play in the outdoors when not plugging away on their computers. This “play” can include everything from hiking in the hills of Marin to hitting the beaches of Santa Cruz to hanging in Golden Gate or Dolores Park and enjoying the fresh but often foggy air. One of the great things about these playtime activities is they are all free. Which means if you can afford to live here you do get the benefit of much of your recreation time not costing a penny. 

While people do drink in SF it isn’t a raging city in the way east coast or midwestern cities can be. The degree to which people are grinding to try to strike gold here probably contributes to some of that more mellow night-time vibe. Expect music events, performing arts, hanging out with friends at brunch or drinks after work to dominate the non-outdoor playtime. 

A typical weekend day/night might include: waking up for a workout, getting a cup of joe at your neighborhood boutique coffee shop, meeting friends at the park or the Headlands for an afternoon of chill hanging/hiking, and then grabbing a Burrito in the mission and a beer(or two) at a local bar before calling it a night. 

One oddity of San Francisco: it has the lowest per capita for people under 18 for a major city in the country. An old running joke. Question: “what do you get a kid in San Francisco for his 5th birthday?”. Answer: “a house in Marin”. While that is a privileged answer (Marin is really expensive), the truth remains that it is hard to raise kids in SF due to cost of living and either quality of public schools or cost of private schools. So, a lot of people hit the eject button when their kids reach school age. Given a lot of people sell their homes when they are older, and use the $$ for retirement, SF can feel a bit like a college, or maybe a grad school. The population runs hard to older Gen Z’s, Millennials and some Gen X’ers who bought early in the housing market or struck it big in the tech scene. 

If you're interested in good ways to meet people in SF check out [**this handy guide from Timeout.com**](https://www.timeout.com/san-francisco/blog/5-ways-to-make-friends-as-an-adult-in-san-francisco-021616).


Work Hard, Play Hard (outside)

Lifestyle 

San Francisco is an amazing city for landing a job. It has the largest concentration of tech jobs in the world, a big banking and finance industry, massive healthcare and BioTech companies, and plenty of jobs via the largest category of employers in the city -- tourism. 

What’s nice about the majority of these businesses is that they follow the lead of the leaders and offer amazing perqs and extremely employee-friendly policies. What’s also nice about many of these companies is they are aggressively shifting to wfh policies so do you need to move to San Francisco to work “in” San Francisco? The idea of being able to hang at home and enjoy the perks of the city without having to wrestle with commuting or public transport seems kind of dreamy. Again, provided you can afford the housing costs. 


The Grind

Worklife

The [**San Francisco Unified School District**](sfusd.edu) scores well on the standardized rankings system, receiving an [**"A" on niche.com**](https://www.niche.com/k12/d/san-francisco-unified-school-district-ca/). As with most big cities, the district has a reputation for having some great schools and many underperforming schools. Also in common with many city districts, the issues seem to arise at the middle and high school levels. 

The district has largely operated on a lottery system, with some geographical weighting factoring in but not in the way it does in most other school districts. This is great if you live in a neighborhood/zone that has poor-performing schools and you crave winning the lottery into a better school, and creates risk if you live in a district with a great school but don't win the lottery for that school. 

Ultimately, most families who live in the city and send their kids to public schools will fight to get into the better schools and they make it work. There are also amazing private and parochial/religious options whose price tags vary from insanely expensive to reasonable, for independent schools. 

Some of the great public options include:
- [**Lowell High School**](https://www.sfusd.edu/school/lowell-high-school): a famous public magnet that has fought some battles to maintain its highly test/qualification-based system for entry. It receives an [**"A+" on niche.com**](https://www.niche.com/k12/lowell-high-school-san-francisco-ca/?map). 
- [**Lincoln High School**](https://www.sfusd.edu/school/abraham-lincoln-high-school): after Lowell, Lincoln High is typically one of the two publics most sought after by parents/kids to attend. It receives an [**"A" on niche.com**](https://www.niche.com/k12/abraham-lincoln-high-san-francisco-ca/?map) and is considered an excellent education for a public school option. 
- [**Washington High School**](https://www.sfusd.edu/school/george-washington-high-school) is the other coveted public option. It also receives an [**"A" on niche.com**](https://www.niche.com/k12/george-washington-high-san-francisco-ca/?map) and is a much loved for being a more "well-rounded" experience than some equate with the pressure-cooker experience at Lowell. 

Schools

Although this might sound a little like a “Yogi-ism”, San Francisco is most compelling to move to when people are leaving. The most innovative, affordable, and interesting times to be here are right after the busts. Cost of living gets better, people get more creative, and the city seems more kind and less $$$ motivated. The recent AI boom is pulling techies back into the city into neighborhoods like Hayes Valley (now affectionately known as "Cerebral Valley) so that short-lived exodus may be ending. 

Everyone Moved To Denver (or Austin or Boise)

Why You Should Move Here Now?

**In the words of Gary Kamiya, who said it far better than we have:"

*At any moment, as you move across this city’s convoluted terrain, behind a storefront or a neon sign, a strange hill or piece of unfamiliar water will suddenly rise up in the distance, as mysterious and enticing and otherworldly as one of those unknown landscapes in the background of a Renaissance painting,” he writes. “At every step, San Francisco offers you the universe, for free."*

For more reviews of what living in San Francisco is like from locals check out: [**The Reviews**](https://lookyloomove.com/locations/san-francisco/reviews)

Reviews of San Francisco from Locals


**The Best Thing About San Francisco?**  Random Beauty
 
It is the most irrationally designed city in the country with some grid-like neighborhoods surrounded by fabulous but Dr. Seussian roads and neighborhoods. This randomness results in incredibly bizarre moments where you’ll end up on a street you’ve never been on before, that winds through a neighborhood you never knew existed, and yields a view of a part of the city or bay or ocean, that will continuously amaze you even decades after you first move here. 

In the words of Gary Kamiya: 

“At any moment, as you move across this city’s convoluted terrain, behind a storefront or a neon sign, a strange hill or piece of unfamiliar water will suddenly rise up in the distance, as mysterious and enticing and otherworldly as one of those unknown landscapes in the background of a Renaissance painting,” he writes. “At every step, San Francisco offers you the universe, for free.” 

**The Worst Thing About San Francisco?**  Homelessness 

The homeless population is surrounded by stratospheric wealth and calls out the hypocrisy in San Francisco and the difficulty in tackling wealth inequity and a country-wide mental health crisis. 


**How You Living?**   In A Charming/Or Not So Charming Neighborhood

San Francisco is dominated by small neighborhoods with single family and multi-unit homes, a smattering of low-profile apartment buildings, and a batch of boutique coffee shops, restaurants and absurdly expensive mixed with amazingly cheap second-hand fashion retail. Depending on your age and preferences chances are you’ll live in one of these little hamlets. Younger, tech go-getters are flocking more to the newer high-rises in the Market Street, South-of-Market areas that are driven by: proximity to work, gyms, organic food, and massive quantities of coffee and THC distribution centers. 

**Why You Should Move Here Now?**  Everyone Moved To Denver (or Austin or Boise)

Although this might sound a little like a “Yogi-ism”, San Francisco is most compelling to move to when people are leaving. The most innovative, affordable, and interesting times to be here are right after the busts. Cost of living gets better, people get more creative, and the city seems more kind and less $$$ motivated. 


The Bay Area includes everything from the northern wine country cities of Napa and Sonoma, the city of San Francisco, San Jose and the peninsula region to the south of SF, and Oakland across the Bay. The three big cities in the area include San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. San Francisco is perched on the end of a peninsula and surrounded by the Pacific to the west and the San Francisco Bay to the north and east. 

The closest areas to the city include Marin north across the Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland to the east across the Bay Bridge, and the peninsula south down either the 101 freeway or the 280 freeway. There are commuter trains running around the city, into the east bay and south a bit. That’s supplemented by Caltrain which runs from SF down to San Jose. San Francisco has the largest ridership of buses in the country which help with getting around the extremely hilly city. If you live here you’ll get to know these methods of getting around. 

People head north into Marin for hiking and outdoor recreation, some of the best in the world, or farther north to do some wine tasting in Napa or Sonoma, also some of the best in the world. They go east to Oakland or Berkeley for culture and different, less tech-heavy social scenes. Or they go south to the peninsula, mostly for work. 


The Bay Area

San Francisco is silly with Young Professionals and they live throughout the city but some popular places for them include the Marina district on the north side of the city (more finance types), South of Market, for the tech and health industry peeps, the Mission for the hipster/groovier types, and even out to the Outer Sunset for the surfer/beach types. 

The Marina is just blocks from the Bay with plenty of walking, running, biking, dog-walking, volleyball, frisbee throwing and general play along the waterfront area. The walkability of the neighborhood is top-notch with tons of casual bars, restaurants, coffee shops and stores (including an apple store) on the main commercial strip along Chestnut street. The neighborhood is filled with apartment buildings, split level homes and single family homes. You have the added benefit of being right near the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge so you're minutes from Marin when you're up for a hike or a bike in the hills. 
- Marina
- SOMA
- Mission
- Outer Sunset


Young Professionals

Marina District

When youngsters tire of living in the Marina or SOMA they often put Hayes Valley on the shortlist of neighborhoods to move. If you're read that SF is falling apart then someone forgot to tell the residents and shopkeepers of Hayes Valley. The ultra-hip boutique shopping, cafes and restaurants are as casual hip as anywhere in the city and more grown-up locals flock here even if they live elsewhere. 

This area is also right at the edge of Market Street so access to public transportation is ideal for heading downtown on Muni or the rest of the Bay Area on the BART system. The housing is generally apartment/condos in split-level/divided homes with bigger buildings going up along Market St within a short walk to the center of the action. Side note: Hayes Valley is also referred to as "Cerebral Valley" because so many AI startups are in the area. So, that's kind of interesting. 
- Hayes Valley
- Cole Valley
- Russian Hill 

DINKs/SINKs/AI'ers

Hayes Valley

The Castro neighborhood is probably the best known LGBTQ+ area in the country (maybe the world?). It was ground-zero for the original civil rights struggle and you can feel that activism and ongoing support throughout its streets. The area is home to some of the best gay bars in the city but also a multitude of coffee shops, restaurants and markets that are popular with everyone (locals and tourists) so all should feel welcome here. 

The housing is a mix of pricey single-family Victorians and sub-divided homes with single floor flats. Increasing numbers of apartment buildings are going up along Market Street on the northern border of the neighborhood and the public transport is excellent with Muni trains running right up into the heart of the area. 

Bernal Heights is another interesting choice to put on your list. It attracts young families and the lesbian community who flock to the community gardens, cafes, fruit markets and cool casual restaurants lining the commercial district of this hillside neighborhood on the southern side of the city. 
- Castro
- Bernal Heights
- SoMa
- The Haight

LGBTQ+

The Castro / Bernal Heights

Given the price of housing it is hard to say anywhere is good for young families in SF but let’s start with the assumption that if you’re looking at the city then you’re ready for the sticker shock. 
The city tends to pull young families south towards neighborhoods like Noe Valley (Stroller Valley) Glen Park, Bernal Heights, west towards the Sunset and Richmond districts, or even kind of Southwest into neighborhoods like Lakeside or Ingleside/Oceanview. The original homes in these neighborhoods tend to be smaller than the north-side “wealthy” areas but many of the good public and parochial schools are here.

Noe (as locals sometimes say) is popular both for its wonderful commercial district stretched along 24th street, and its perfect location not too far from the rest of the city to the north and the freeways to the south for the tech commuters who don't want to cross the entire city each day. It is known as both kid and dog-friendly with a couple of convenient dog-parks and kid-parks so everyone gets to play. The housing is primarily single-family with the occasional split home and small apartment building sprinkled throughout the blocks. 
- Noe Valley
- Cole Valley
- Bernal Heights
- Glen Park
- Sunset
- Richmond
- Lakeside
- Ingleside/Oceanview
- West Portal
- Outer Mission/Excelsior


Young Families

Noe Valley

The neighborhoods with the largest and priciest homes tend to be centered on bedrock, and they start on the north side in Pacific Heights, through Presidio Heights and Laurel Heights and then down into Ashbury Heights. Again, these neighborhoods tend to have much bigger homes, great commercial districts of their own and many private schools are in their midst. 

Pacific Heights is locally famous as the most expensive, fanciest of the neighborhoods although Presidio Heights and Laurel and Ashbury Heights and others give them a run for their money. Several excellent private schools are in the neighborhood so if you want your munchkins to walk to school and can foot the bill for private this is a desirable spot. Fillmore is the primary commercial street in the neighborhood and is filled with high-end shopping boutiques, excellent restaurants and a 1/2 dozen or so cafes. 

While plenty of the housing is single family homes there are also mid and high rise-ish apartment/condo buildings in the area so you get a mix of families and young finance types hanging on Fillmore. 
- Pacific Heights
- Presidio Heights
- Laurel Heights
- Jordan Park
- Ashbury Heights



Established Families

Pacific Heights

**Parks, Parks, Parks**

Inner Richmond is a beautiful neighborhood between Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. Seriously, it’s so easy to walk to both of these parks, so you’ll never be short of things to do on the weekend. Golden Gate Park has the de Young Museum and Cal Academy, and the Presidio is home to the Walt Disney Family Museum, making this area especially family-friendly. Its proximity to USF and UCSF means that the dive bars on Geary Boulevard get overrun with students occasionally, though most weeknights this is a fairly quiet neighborhood. Sure, you can find your classic Victorian homes here, but there are also quite a few Edwardian-style buildings, giving Richmond its own architectural look. Clement St has the best restaurants in this neighborhood, and it even has a farmer’s market every Sunday. There are a few different MUNI buses that will take you downtown, though the 5 and the 38 are the most reliable. This neighborhood has a charming little public library branch, so many diverse restaurant options, and none of the crazy-steep hills that make walking in other parts of the city so strenuous. The BART doesn’t come this far west, and the parking here can be a little annoying if you don’t have a driveway, but getting around is still fairly easy with the buses. While the west side of San Francisco gets more weather than downtown and the Mission, the fog in Inner Richmond usually doesn’t stick around for too long, and there are plenty of sunny days where this neighborhood really shines.
- Clement St
- Uncle Boy’s
- The Bitter End


Families/DINKs/Young Professionals

Inner Richmond

**Foggy Beaches**

Outer Richmond has the honor of being right next to Ocean Beach, making it a little colder and windier than other parts of the city, but also a great place to go to see beautiful sunsets and surf. This is where you can find the Sutro Baths and the (unfortunately shuttered) iconic Cliff House. This neighborhood is also right next to Golden Gate Park and Lands End, making it a perfect spot for dog walking and outdoor activities. Outer Richmond continues the theme of putting museums in parks, with the Legion of Honor Museum being a great place to see Rodin sculptures in Lands End. Outer Richmond also has some not-so-hidden gems when it comes to restaurants, including Aziza and the world-famous Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant. Little Russia is nearby, meaning there are some great Russian bakeries in this area, as well as the beautiful Russian Orthodox Holy Virgin Cathedral. This neighborhood offers a relatively quiet, family-friendly vibe. The housing paradoxically gets more affordable the closer you get to the beach. Being further from downtown, this area is great for those who want a more relaxed vibe. 
- Fiorella’s
- Outside Lands Music Festival
- Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden


Families/

Outer Richmond

**What a View**

On the eastern side of San Francisco, you can find the Potrero Hill neighborhood. It borders the Mission and SOMA, with the 101 and 280 running along either side of it, making it commuter friendly. This area has great food and above-average public schools (though good luck navigating the lottery system). The further up the hill you go, the more neighborly and family-oriented Potrero Hill becomes. This neighborhood doesn’t see as many tourists as other parts of the city, so it generally has a much calmer vibe. Although the hills are steep, the view of downtown and the Bay from the top is worth the hike. Public transit may leave something to be desired, with the main bus routes being the 10 and 19, but the Caltrain makes traveling south much easier. The southern part of this neighborhood has decent parking, at least. The median age for this area is around 36 years old, so you can expect to see plenty of working professionals.
- Alimentari Aurora market
- Third Rail
- Provender


Families/Young Professionals

Potrero Hill

**Bus, Club, another Club**

SOMA, aka South of Market, is a neighborhood with a high concentration of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. It's home to a historic LGBTQ and Leather district, and it has the feeling of being in the center of the city when it comes to public transportation and commuting to work. SOMA also has a plethora of museums, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the American Bookbinders Museum, and the California Historical Society. The downside to living in SOMA is that the housing crisis is evident here. Some areas have “sketchier” vibes than others (6th St and 9th St), so living in a luxury development or between 4th St and the water in Rincon Hill may be your best bet. The commute is unbeatable, though proximity to the Tenderloin scares some people off. 
- Cat Club
- Folsom St
- Oasis


SOMA

**Did you know that you can actually tie-dye anything?**

Haight-Ashbury is a centrally located neighborhood in San Francisco with a history of being home to the hippie movement in the 1960s. The effects of this are still visible, especially on Haight St, where there are still plenty of funky vintage stores, crystal shops, tattoo parlors, and tie-dye splattered cafes and restaurants. Of course, now there’s also a Whole Foods on the corner of Haight and Stanyan. Haight-Ashbury doesn’t offer a lot in the way of parking, but it is a great biking area, with most of the city being only a 30-minute bike ride away. This neighborhood has decent public transportation, including the Caltrain, so it might be easier to forgo having a car altogether. Haight-Ashbury sees some of the effects of the housing crisis, so car break-ins can happen if you aren’t careful, and it can be louder if your bedroom faces the street. On the positive side, this neighborhood has some beautiful areas, with Oak St bordering the panhandle, and Stanyan bordering Golden Gate Park. The areas toward Lower Haight tend to be more upscale. The beautifully detailed and colorful homes of this neighborhood make it easy to see how this neighborhood has inspired so much creativity.
- Janis Joplin’s House
- Grateful Dead House



Young Professionals/DINKs/Families

Haight-Ashbury

San Francisco

**milkandsalsa**
Living in San Francisco
1y ago
✭✭✭

SF is fantastic for small children. I am walking distance from three safe, new, playgrounds. SF is very park oriented, and nowhere in the city is farther than a ten minute walk from a park.

People often move out of the city when they have kids, but that’s because the city is so expensive. The school system is also a bit unusual because it currently uses a “lottery” system where you could end up assigned to a school nowhere near your home. They are supposedly changing this system in the next few years, though they keep pushing back this deadline. The schools in the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods are good, and there’s always private school if you can afford it ($40k a year, per kid). Mine are not yet school age so I can’t weigh in, but my many of my friends have their kids in public school and love it.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2022/best-new-san-francisco-parks/

https://secretsanfrancisco.com/best-playgrounds-sf/

**Practical_Pirate_207**
Living in San Francisco
Updated 1y ago
✭✭✭✭

I don't think it's changed much. The biggest change is just downtown which has always been a much different feel from the rest of SF. Even the downtown problem isn't as much homelessness as it is a problem of businesses closing & lack of foot traffic.

90% of the city is lovely. You'll find a stray crazy person here and there. The really nice areas that are fun / lowkey are Lower Pac Heights, Hayes Valley, Noe Valley, and Inner Richmond.

The other 10% are ares that are uncomfortable or areas you should definitely avoid. The thing about SF is that some nice areas are next to kind of sketch areas. For example, 19th and Valencia is really bougie, but the adjacent parallel Mission Street is just a little uncomfortable. Upper Haight is generally pretty nice, but may encounter some homeless on Clayton.

Then there are areas that you see in the news. These are really specific blighted areas like Hyde & Eddy or Mission & 6th.

I'm just one perspective of many, but I love this city and all the surrounding geography.

**emasculine**
Living in San Francisco
2y ago
✭✭✭

The media is hysterical; that's their job. the bay area is still great even though it has challenges. San Francisco is great even though it has challenges. no, there is not shit and needles covering every sidewalk in the city. yes, there are problems with both in some areas., most of which are pretty easy to avoid. do we wish that just once we could get a competent government to deal with a lot of the structural issues? yes. is it the dystopian hell that republicans -- especially ones who have never even been here -- want to hype up? no. considering they have issues with homelessness in their enclaves too, it shows they don't have any better ideas.

**malavois**
Living in San Francisco
2y ago
✭✭✭

I think it depends. All the things everyone has been saying about the income inequality are absolutely correct; the housing market is bonkers and you do have to have a fairly fat income to live the classic American middle-class lifestyle. I work a state government job and have lots of student debt, and if I wasn’t in a relationship with someone who makes a lot of money and paid off all of their loans, I would never be able to live in a house.

But, it depends on what you want. It’s totally feasible to live in an apartment, even one that’s close to the heart of the city. Public transit hasn’t shrunk or grown much, so what you remember about how easy/hard it is to get around is basically the same. For the most part, most of the great beautiful amazing things in the city haven’t permanently closed or fallen into decrepitude due to COVID, certainly not as many as I feared. Drinks and meals cost about the same as they do in most other big affluent cities.

Obviously, COVID changed a lot, but I’ve come to appreciate the city so much more since being stuck at home all the time. I’ve taken so many walks and drives and have a truly renewed appreciation for SF history, architecture, micro-climates/neighborhoods, natural features, etc. etc. It helps to be politically liberal since many policies that get discussed and implemented are social and environmental programs (though there’s still a long way to go in terms of using those programs to correct many of the destructive actions of the past). If San Francisco ever seemed like a place you’d want to be, you can still find that here.

**What it's really like to live in San Francisco (one year later)**

my unfiltered, honest review of what life is actually like in SF.

not trying to sell you on the city, not trying to create any propoganda for San Francisco, just providing my lens of what your first year of living there may look like. i can't possibly speak for the hugely diverse array of voices in the city, just offering my perspective. 

Gentrification resources: https://www.urbandisplacement.org/res...

My SF apartment hunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQoNt...

What I spend in a month in SF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic2OM...

San Francisco, California

Karl The Fog

Looklyloo Score: 95