What Los Angelenos Think San Francisco Is Like

The rivalry between LA and SF isn’t on par with, say, the East Coast–West Coast divide, but the residents of both cities have strong feelings about each other. I’ve actually lived in both and have mad love for both, but they’re definitely different. (And no, I won’t choose a favorite…at least publicly.) I reached out to some Angelenos to get their feelings about the foggy city to the north.

“It’s really gone mainstream since Bummer and Lazarus died.”
— Brandon, Fullerton

“San Francisco almost got their streets onto a grid, so people could know where they are going. Then someone must have thought, ‘You know what would help make getting around our city easier?’ ALTERNATING FIVE-WAY INTERSECTIONS OF ONE-WAY STREETS WITH A TRAIN DOWN THE CENTER. Also let’s not grade our streets but instead just pave up hills so steep that you need a modified urban ski lift to have any shot at public transportation. Come to think of it, for a city that makes getting on a bus so easy at any time of day, you need a slide rule and a sun dial to know where that bus is headed.”
— Andrew, Santa Monica

“The Mission District is their Silver Lake, and it’s too cold to surf or go to the beach often. [In] San Francisco, you can be anything you want to be. LA is a place for that too, but judgment comes with that. As liberal- and Millennial-attracting as SF is, it’s super-expensive, and some areas are gentrified, but we still go there to spend money and feel like we are doing meaningful things with our lives.”
— Ariana (pictured), Inglewood

“I’ve lived in both cities but can only attest that both cities have coffee shops where people pretend to work.”
— Kevin, Long Beach

“SF has the nicest people. I drove through it, and this woman stopped in front of us, got out of her car at a stoplight to get a water bottle out of her truck, turned to us and offered us a bottle of water. Where else does that happen? Also, the parking is insane. Where does anyone park there?”
— Theresa, Sherman Oaks

“My favorite part about living in LA is that I don’t encounter human feces on the street on a daily basis.”
— Dustin, Venice

“I feel that the city has everything I love about Los Angeles, but in a much smaller space, which makes visiting and doing the tourism thing much easier and more rewarding. All in all, it’s a city I would love to live in, if not for the cost of doing so. Los Angeles is great, but trying to get a sampling of various things from the buffet that is this city is daunting because of how spread out everything is and how the public transportation suffers for it. Meanwhile, SF is seven miles across, and the only thing stopping you from walking literally everywhere are the immense hills.”
— Christopher, Pasadena

“It’s the ‘New York’ of the West Coast. Everyone is from the East Coast. Everyone works in tech. Their summer is like winter here in LA. Where’s the sun? Also, shit’s gonna fall when there’s an earthquake—too many hills!”
— Veronica (pictured), Mar Vista

“San Francisco is the only place that makes living in LA feel cheap.”
— Elaine, North Hollywood