SF/NYC Lifestyle Differences

ivy4meI went to college on the east coast and spent 3 summers in NYC before moving to SF (originally from the area).

Here are a few thoughts:

-Expenses are 30-40% cheaper. My fellow analysts are finding apartments for under 1000, food is way cheaper, and a lot of bars and clubs dont have cover.

-nightlife is definitely way weaker. alcohol stops being served at 2am and places do their last call as early as 1:15. there are only a handful of places to go to and maybe 2-3 neighborhoods to go to. as you said, girls here don't dress as nicely, and in general it's a slightly older crowd

-SF is beautiful. new york is a truly filthy city with a weird stench in the air, dozens of trash bags piled up over the course of a block, and rodents galore. SF is clean and it's right by the water which is awesome

-more crazies in SF. there are a lot of homeless people in NYC but many of the homeless people in SF and will scream to themselves on the street, etc

-everyone here is on a health kicker. ive actually gotten in better shape since moving out here. everyone in my office watches what they're eating and exercises. at least 50% of the restaurants advertise healthy ingredients and food is less oily. the restaurants here are pretty awesome and have a very different feel than nyc.

-people are nicer and more open. if you work in finance, it's refreshing to not be surrounded by finance people all the time

-that said, if you work in finance, it's still an exciting place to be because of a booming tech industry and a thriving finance community across hedge funds, PE firms, and VC firms

-no subway. by the time i left NYC i hated the subway. it's a small city so it's easy to set yourself up to bike/walk most places, and cabs are cheaper for when you need to get around on weekends

-if you gave SF a theme, it would be "casual luxury". spacious restaurants, laid back style with a lot of smart cal and stanford people, great jobs, wineries, opportunity to move out into big houses, etc

Hope that's helpful. I like it a lot here and even though i have a ton of friends in NYC i never want to go back. i think it's a pretty hard lifestyle and it's more materialistic. obviously i have a bias being a native of the area but i think it's a great place to be, and absolutely the best place to settle down when you're 30+

Great post, I've been wanting to hear some lifestyle info about SF/NY. SB for you

ivy4meI went to college on the east coast and spent 3 summers in NYC before moving to SF (originally from the area).

Here are a few thoughts:

-Expenses are 30-40% cheaper. My fellow analysts are finding apartments for under 1000, food is way cheaper, and a lot of bars and clubs dont have cover.

-nightlife is definitely way weaker. alcohol stops being served at 2am and places do their last call as early as 1:15. there are only a handful of places to go to and maybe 2-3 neighborhoods to go to. as you said, girls here don't dress as nicely, and in general it's a slightly older crowd

-SF is beautiful. new york is a truly filthy city with a weird stench in the air, dozens of trash bags piled up over the course of a block, and rodents galore. SF is clean and it's right by the water which is awesome

-more crazies in SF. there are a lot of homeless people in NYC but many of the homeless people in SF and will scream to themselves on the street, etc

-everyone here is on a health kicker. ive actually gotten in better shape since moving out here. everyone in my office watches what they're eating and exercises. at least 50% of the restaurants advertise healthy ingredients and food is less oily. the restaurants here are pretty awesome and have a very different feel than nyc.

-people are nicer and more open. if you work in finance, it's refreshing to not be surrounded by finance people all the time

-that said, if you work in finance, it's still an exciting place to be because of a booming tech industry and a thriving finance community across hedge funds, PE firms, and VC firms

-no subway. by the time i left NYC i hated the subway. it's a small city so it's easy to set yourself up to bike/walk most places, and cabs are cheaper for when you need to get around on weekends

-if you gave SF a theme, it would be "casual luxury". spacious restaurants, laid back style with a lot of smart cal and stanford people, great jobs, wineries, opportunity to move out into big houses, etc

Hope that's helpful. I like it a lot here and even though i have a ton of friends in NYC i never want to go back. i think it's a pretty hard lifestyle and it's more materialistic. obviously i have a bias being a native of the area but i think it's a great place to be, and absolutely the best place to settle down when you're 30+

Great post. I've only been to SF a few times, but this seems pretty accurate. The homeless people in SF are downright nuts!

SF is definitely more laid-back and less conscious about prestige and status than NYC.

Regarding finance, obviously venture capital is huge there, but what hedge funds and PE firms are in SF? The big ones I can think of are farallon and clarium capital (peter thiel's macro hedge fund).