If you grew up in San Francisco, you’ll know it’s the best city in the world

Don’t let New Yorkers tell you that New York is “the city”. Anyone who knows their “hellas” from their “hyphys” knows that San Francisco is The City. Despite the increasing amount of media attention San Francisco has received surrounding gentrification, tech influence, and the growing fear that the city is losing its free spirited identity as an oasis for misfits, I can tell you from first hand experience that San Francisco still has a place for all the free spirits and open minded everyday people who help maintain the good vibes that make me so proud to call The City my home.

We like to hang out in parks

I was born at the UCSF hospital and grew up in San Francisco, or “SF” as we natives call it. SF is the kind of place where you start taking public transportation at 11 years old (or earlier), whether it be hopping on MUNI to bond with friends at Dolores Park (“DP”) or taking BART downtown to get the best dim sum around, in the OG of Chinatowns. You might bus over to order burritos in Spanish on Mission street, and make conversation with local homeless folks in the parks (who help you remember that they’re really no different from us), then you run into a friend who’s headed to her taiko drumming rehearsal.

SF is a city of hustlers, maintaining that Gold Rush mentality which started this city so long ago. Take the bucolic Dolores Park, where the Truffle Man sells gourmet Marijuana edible truffles and the Coconut Rum man sells coconuts that he busts open with a machete and pours Captain Morgan into. These merry men walk around hawking their goods and eats to the tech bros and to locals, who come to the Mission to enjoy sunnier weather, than the neighborhoods further West. (Yes, I’m talking about the Sunset District.) We’re all about sustainability in California, and DP is no exception to that rule, for elderly folks also aggressively scan the park for empty beer cans and other bottles to recycle for money, in effect creating a self-sustaining eco-system of consumption and recycling.

Partying can be a city-funded activity

The gentle grassy slope at the eastern end of Golden Gate Park, known as Hippie Hill, right near the historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, famously celebrates 4-20 each April. Over 100,000 people come there from all over California to consecrate the medically legal herb together. There’s music, a hippie drum circle, and dancing, next to the Janis Joplin tree, under which Janis allegedly used to sit and serenade young passersby. The Gay Pride Parade (or Pride) is another amazing event, in June, for which the City shuts down traffic on streets downtown around our golden domed City Hall. Pride boasts a massive dance party, with each block featuring a different DJ or performer, as well as a parade down market street celebrating the LGBTQ community. People walk around naked (not an unusual sight in the gay-friendly Castro neighborhood), wear crazy costumes, and generally enjoy a day and night of the celebration of love and pride for who you are. I first went to Pride the summer after my freshman year of high school, and have fond memories of dancing with dozens of strangers on top of dumpsters to blasting techno music. The warm(ish) California sun blesses Pride, just days before fog starts to descend upon the City, ushering in our “summer” months.

The food is cheap and the sights are amazing

San Francisco isn’t just about the good music, good vibes, and good times, however. It’s a multicultural melting pot with stunning scenery and architecture, a place where anyone can express their minds and enrich their souls. I’ve walked down the street and not only heard Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, Filipino, and English within the same block, but have also frequented restaurants and small businesses run by people from a wide variety of backgrounds such as these (Kevin’s Pho). If you ever got bored during the summer, you could hop on any bus to get some boba and take a walk at Land’s End, passing by old bath houses consumed by the raging waters of the Pacific, only to turn a corner and behold the stunningly beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, connecting our stunning city with Marin.

Warm weather means bonfires

By virtue of being on the coast of California, our winters are warm and mild. SF high school kids take advantage of this, hosting the majority of our parties outside in parks like Glen Canyon, Stern Grove, or Ocean Beach. I can remember when one of the most popular kids in the city brought together almost a thousand of us high school kids from all across the city for these massive bonfire parties on the beach. When the cops came to break them up, everyone would scatter across the Great Highway, only to reconvene across the street in Golden Gate Park Gate and continue the after party, amid flowers underneath Dutch-donated windmills. On New Year’s Eve, San Franciscans go to the Embarcadero, along the waterway which passes under the Bay Bridge. People drink with random strangers on the bus ride there, welcoming the New Year with thousands of other people as fireworks glimmered above the Bay.

The pride for our sports teams is infectious

Growing up in the generation of the San Francisco Giants’ baseball heyday wasn’t half bad either. Our Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014. After each Series win, there was a massive parade held on the main streets downtown. All the kids would cut class, people would skip work, and everyone celebrated as our beloved players passed by, each group on its own cable car. More recently, the Bay Area has been blessed with the fantastic success of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and other team members from the current NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

In short, San Francisco is an amazingly beautiful, diverse, open minded, and fun loving city. Although it’s a major metropolitan area, it covers a space of only 46 square miles in area. Only 13 percent of the population is under 18, allowing the kids who are fortunate enough to grow up in The City to feel like they’re connected with each other through shared experiences like the ones I’ve described. With each neighborhood carrying its own distinct vibe, but inviting everyone to come, be accepted, and share in the opportunities of success, any native or adopted San Franciscan will tell you that our city feels more like a small town than a big city.

Although outsiders haven’t necessarily embraced all of our open armed and open minded attitudes, the children of SF have fought to keep our crazy and beautiful city from becoming yet another mediocre, corporate American metropolis. As I would say to my friends back home, SF is hella lit bruh. Let’s keep it that way!