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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What an amazing city.
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This. I love the same SF you do, but I also fell in love with it on my first visit, somewhere around 10, just because it felt like the kind of place you launched adventures from (so, same still, I suppose)
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I’ve never lived in NYC but spent considerable time there; i can attest the soul of nyc can be found in house parties and politically weird and imaginative people. I never liked LA but some artist friends keep claiming that the undercurrent of the art scene to be magical.
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NYC was traditionally both the obvious cultural amenities *and* parties full of weirdos who take ideas seriously (though often different ideas to the ones fashionable in SF).
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