This article is part of I Love San Francisco, a feature series of essays that highlight what makes San Francisco iconic and irreplaceable.
SF has been my home for 54 years, and I don’t see that changing. But people say they’re leaving all the time; in fact it’s so ubiquitous as to spawn many jokes over the years:
Among the reasons people give are living costs, rich people, and the noise, to name a few. The pandemic also inspired the rise of remote work culture, which, in turn, led Austin, Boulder, Missoula, Seattle, and countless other locales to see an influx of workers from San Francisco. Then of course there’s the recent “doom loop” stories.
So why am I staying?
Climate is my dealbreaker. My first winter in SF, I heard people use a term that was alien to me: “Going to the snow,” by which they meant skiing. It was an odd locution to me, since I had always lived in places where the snow had come to me.
But I did recognize one important aspect about that term: it meant having a choice of either going to snow or staying away from it. I love that choice, and I have made mine: No snow! Ever!
Others have said, “There are no seasons here.”
Our seasonal changes are subtle. They are so subtle that you can be excused for not noticing them. But, over time, you begin to take notice of the times when it is more likely to rain, when it is more likely to be foggy, when it is more likely to be warm and sunny.
San Francisco is well-known as being a place where artists have been welcomed, supported, and encouraged. They lend their copious talents everywhere, from the many murals that grace our buildings to the one-of-a-kind offerings in shops and galleries. I love living in a city with world class museums, performance venues, theaters, and music, all of which are relatively easy to get to.
I enthusiastically have memberships in SFMOMA, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young and Legion of Honor), and the Asian Art Museum. I enjoy visiting the smaller museums for their wide-ranging exhibitions, such as the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
I revel in seeing our San Francisco Ballet. Though I don’t go to the San Francisco Opera or many performances of the San Francisco Symphony, these institutions certainly indicate a level of culture that is enviable and hard to match outside of a major city such as ours.
I enjoy having friends with a variety of origins and backgrounds. I love the lively atmosphere that ensues when the citizenry emanates from all over the world. Not only do they bring a variety of languages, cultures, and perspectives to a city, but they also create a marketplace for a wide variety of food, both in grocery stores and restaurants.
In San Francisco, we respect and value the differences between ourselves and the other people we meet, mingle with, and live with, whether those differences may be in religion, skin tone, national origin, language spoken, sexuality, or status of citizenship. I would find it stifling and oppressive to live in a place where there is either no variety or where there are citizens whose contributions to the local society are not valued or respected.
I am fortunate to be a healthy 76-year-old. It is common for people to increase their need for health care as they age. One never knows what tomorrow may bring. In any event, the prevalence of a variety of top notch health care options is an important aspect of my equation for staying here. I would not want to live in a place where I would have to travel long distances for routine medical examinations or procedures.
No place is perfect, and I’ve been lucky in an important way that’s much harder for SF residents nowadays: I was able to purchase my first home here in 1972, at age 25, after my third year of teaching in a local public school.
I am very happy here after all these years, and even though San Francisco has its issues like any city, I continue to love living here.
Jay Davidson retired from teaching in SFUSD for 34 years, after which he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Read his stories on Medium.
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