15 Things You Should Know Before Moving To San Francisco

1. Our summer is from mid-late August to late October. If you live anywhere but The Mission, Noe Valley, Upper Market, Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, Bernal Heights or SoMa, expect to be engulfed with fog for most of the day.

2. Most people here actually don’t mind the fog — in fact, many people grow to love it, and can’t wait for it to roll in. There’s nothing worse than sweating while commuting, and Karl makes sure that’s almost never the case.

3. There are maybe four days in the entire year that you can actually go to a beach in The City and get a tan, but there are always beaches to the north and the south that are generally warmer than San Francisco beaches.

4. Speaking of names for San Francisco, you should never call it, “San Fran,” “Frisco,” or even “SF.” It’s only known as San Francisco, or The City.

5. San Francisco is as strikingly beautiful as you think it is and it lives up to its title as “the Paris of the West.”

6. The Mission really isn’t like Williamsburg, even though people will have you believe that it is. You won’t find any good burritos in Williamsburg, and you won’t find 50+ condo units in The Mission. To find the Brooklyn in San Francisco, one must cross the Bay Bridge to Oakland.

7. Locals are extremely protective of their city, and there is a huge sense of pride behind being a local.

8. The City is small — like, less than a million people small. In fact, more people live in San Jose to the south than in San Francisco. However, the influx of people moving into San Francisco has created a challenging housing shortage, which leads to my next point.

9. Rent here is ridiculous — it’s easier to find a surrogate than it is to find an apartment. I dedicated a month of my life to finding a place and we showed up with paystubs, resumes, writeups about ourselves, and a checkbook. It’s a very intense process, but apps like Lovely make it somewhat manageable.

10. There’s almost too many choices when it comes to a weekend getaway — between Tahoe, Napa, Stinson, Half Moon Bay, Big Sur, and even driving down to LA, choosing a mini-vacation can sometimes be difficult.

11. San Francisco is as expensive and tech-oriented as everyone thinks it is, and with the onslaught of tech buses and Salesforce conferences, there’s no sign of that slowing down anytime soon.

12. The City has changed remarkably in the last 10 years, which isn’t necessarily shocking considering the tech boom and the people associated with tech. With that said, you’ll encounter many people who hate the change, and others who love it — I’m in the boat that thinks cities aren’t static, and they are constantly evolving and changing. Whether that’s for the good or for the bad remains to be seen.

13. There are hordes of homeless people here, and they aren’t your typical homeless people that like to keep to themselves. They will most likely try to talk to you and potentially get too close to comfort for you, but as my mom always said when I was growing up, “They are harmless, just ignore them and keep walking.”

14. People here love the San Francisco Giants, and the home of the Giants — AT&T Park — provides for one of the most amazing settings for any sort live sporting event.

15.Despite the outrageous rent and the homeless people (and for some people, the fog) and the tech bros, San Francisco is an extremely unique and interesting city, one that not many people are fortunate to be able to call home. If you do get a chance to live here, cherish the The City and try to remember how lucky you truly are.