It is no secret that I love San Francisco. It is a great city. Walkable urbanism with lots of restaurants, specialty stores and nightlife. There are about 809,000 people living in a 7 by 7 mile square, and also has great weather.
I was in San Fran on Friday visiting friends who live there. They are 31, have no children and work in and near the city. They own a three story condo in the city, do not own a car (no gas, car payments, car insurance, or parking) and use public transit. Instead, they use monthly transit passes, which are good for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), bus, streetcars, cable cars and all other transit. They also walk a lot. They grocery shop at the street market and at specialty stores. They get seafood from the dock (instead of buying the same seafood marked up at a supermarket!). How do they visit friends or take a vacation or do big shopping runs (it is hard to bring big bags of groceries on the train)? They use zipcars…a car-share program where they get a car anytime they need one. Walkable urbanism, my friends.
But, San Fran isn’t just for millennials and empty nesters. Apparently, the San Fran schools are some of the better urban schools in the country. They are looking to RE-OPEN schools that were closed because of the huge enrollment. That is amazing. San Fran also has a ballpark (AT&T park), and Golden Gate Park which has museums and massive greenspace. Oh, and the streetcars…they are from all over the country. We saw one from Boston, and rumor has it that the old Detroit streetcars are now in San Fran. San Fran isn’t perfect. It has its share of inner-city issues like crime. It also has massive hills that are hard to walk. But this seems to me to be a great model for our cities!
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