Some cities reveal what I cherish about them much more immediately than others. I've noticed that what I love about SF can be hard for visitors to see. How do you visit "weird people taking ideas v seriously"? How to put that in a guidebook? You've gotta go to the dinner parties.
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Last Sat I met someone on their first visit to SF, at a small informal event. An attendee gave a lightning talk on computational theories of consciousness; I thought: aha, excellent! Weird, sure, but *now* this visitor got to see the SF I love!
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By contrast I feel like what I love culturally about LA and NYC are much easier to "visit".
(But maybe if I moved there I'd develop some more niche "taste" for the city which would be hard to "visit".)
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Somehow forgot: I absolutely got my heart broken when I visited SF for the first time at 16. I was quite isolated growing up, pinned my hopes on SF as a place where I'd feel culturally at home. As an outside visitor (who didn't know how to travel), I was so disappointed!
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Sure, great views, great food, fun to walk around, but… where was the magic? I couldn't find it!
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A relationship with a city is remarkably similar to a relationship with a person, to me.
There are first impressions, times of happiness, times of despair, and times of bonding. And with time, you get to know them better.
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Interesting point.
Dinner parties sounds like a feature only experienced by a subset of a certain social network. Are there any other ways to experience this aspect of SF for those not in that network, especially visitors?
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Long Now Foundation, Foresight Institute, Embassy Network, and Burning Man?
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also, language barriers play a huge role, even when speaking the same language as the people from the region. What passes as small-talk on the east-coast is considered plainly rude in the west. Don’t get me started on european communication discrepancies 🙃