Anyone travelling to San Fran this year?

DW and I fly to CA frequently to visit various wine AVAs, historical areas, and parks from the East Coast. We made the mistake of flying into SFO, at wrong time of day which IIRC, was about 12:30 pm. The airport was swamped, lines were long everywhere, it took 2 hours to get my rental car. When we finally got out of the airport, as it is located south of the city on the coastal finger, it was right in the start of rush hour. Very bad experience.

We generally fly into Sacramento now, and can be out of the airport with rental car in about 45 minutes. San Fran is an hour away, but we travel and stay near Fairfield. When we have the need to travel into San Fran, we wait til after rush hour with a car, but never tried the ferry as Skippro mentioned but I'm sure that would work nicely. It is a beautiful city, with very much to do. While I usually travel in the other direction of crowds, traffic, and ignorant folks, I have had pleasurable experiences visiting the city, but not staying there. Have a good time and enjoy yourself!

skipro33 said:

The view of the GG Bridge from the Presidio is the tops. Rent a room at one of the hotels over night. The city at night is spectacular, especially the new Bay Bridge lighting.

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The Presido Yacht Club has amazing views and the pub part (Travis Marina Bar) is open to the public for drinks and dining.

Dtail said:

Although there are some very steep hills.

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Riding the trolley up and down the streets is an absolute blast.

First time my family and I visited SF many years ago we caught a taxi at SFA to take us to North Beach. During the trip the taxi driver was very nice and pointed out some landmarks. When we got to the hotel a while later we found out from the front desk employees at the hotel the taxi driver scammed us by driving us on the " scenic" route instead of the most direct route from the airport to the hotel. No wonder the taxi ride cost a lot of $$.

Was thrilled to see this thread title, until I read through it.

Unless a better offer appears in next few days, youngest DS will enroll in University of San Francisco for MFA this fall. Having never visited SF, I am leery, but hoping the best for him.

...will continue to follow.....

joeea said:

Very true. You need to learn how to turn your wheels into the curb when parking, too.

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Only when parking downhill. Park facing uphill and you turn the wheels away from the curb. They LOVE to write tickets for this and there is ZERO areas that are flat. Don't think you are parking at a curb and it doesn't go up or down. It does even if you can't see it and you will get a ticket if you don't curb your tires.

Denverite said:

From what I understand the SF homeless problem is far beyond "seeing a homeless person here or there" and is worse than in other large cities due to the permissive policies of the city's government.

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Do you have a source for permissive government issue? Studies I have seen link homelessness to rent prices: "In a study contained in the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast, released Wednesday, UCLA found that higher median rent and home prices are strongly correlated with more people living on the streets or in shelters. The research backs other studies that have found a similar relationship."
Source:
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-anderson-forecast-20180613-story.html

LA has a homeless crisis as well and is spending $4.5 billion to try to end the crisis.

ohyes said:

Was thrilled to see this thread title, until I read through it.

Unless a better offer appears in next few days, youngest DS will enroll in University of San Francisco for MFA this fall. Having never visited SF, I am leery, but hoping the best for him.

...will continue to follow.....

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Don't be concerned. It's a wonderful place for a youngster (as long as the rent is paid). I got there in my 20s and have loved it ever since. It's expensive but there are lots of cheap eats and things to do once you know where to go.

Things like homelessness don't bother kids as much as older adults. They brush it off. And it's mostly confined to certain parts of the city where your son wouldn't bother going anyway.

So relax. He's in for a treat.

daylatedollarshort said:

Do you have a source for permissive government issue? Studies I have seen link homelessness to rent prices: "In a study contained in the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast, released Wednesday, UCLA found that higher median rent and home prices are strongly correlated with more people living on the streets or in shelters. The research backs other studies that have found a similar relationship."
Source:
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-anderson-forecast-20180613-story.html

LA has a homeless crisis as well and is spending $4.5 billion to try to end the crisis.

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Have you been here? Rent is not the problem, drug use and the fact that police are not allowed to police (do to the political powers that be) is the problem. The homeless population is not the working poor. Laughable

No offense but the articles you sighted are definitely [mod edit].
We just watched an interesting documentary on Seattle which apparently has a growing homeless problem.

I am a recent SoCal transplant to NoCal my hubby has spent many a weekend showing me the sights up here. Beautiful scenery in parts but worse than any third world country we have visited. It's shameful.

Our rents are skyrocketing and they tore down most of the weekly motels where seniors and the working poor were living. A 1 bedroom apartment rents for between 1-1300k /month and the average family of 4 makes 48k/year. Yes high rents correlate with homelessness.

I first had a chance to visit SF in 1977 or 1978, after the hippies were gone. But I knew of the following song long before my visit.

PS. Holy cow, I did not realize it's been more than 40 years since my 1st visit!

Thanks for the interesting discussion.