The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: What’s the best thing about living in the Bay Area, and what’s the worst?
Talk about it….
Weather probably the best attribute.
Worst are pernicious, short sighted and feckless liberal DEM politicians at all levels of government in CA.
Attempting to micromanagement knee jerk reacting to latest media coverage.
But, they did save us from plastic straws yet we buy meat wrapped in plastic, cooked Costco chickens in a plastic package yet plastic bags are bad for the environment ? ? ?
The weather best. Woke politics the worst
The moderate weather is the best while traffic and bridge tolls are the worst. The Bay Bridge if it had started replacement within 3-5 years of Loma Prieta probably not have cost so much as to require tolls raised tolls put back on bridges that were paid off.
One of premier examples of CA government expertise,
‘Ten Years Late/$5 Billion Over Budget—Bay Bridge Riddled With Problems’
https://tinyurl.com/yeytb4mz
The Best: Weather
The Worse: Woke Politicians
Best: It’s where my family is
Worst: It’s the Bay Area (no need to explain)
The best thing about the Bay Area will be when I move. Same goes for California.
Clearly the best thing about living in the Bay Area are all the things that we can do locally, or within a 3 hour drive. Symphony, ballet, live music, hiking, pro sports and college sports, Napa/Sonoma/Marin, Yosemite, Tahoe, Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur.
The worst thing are actually two things that diminish quality of life here. Rampant homelessness is everywhere. Also is how rude people have become. Driving, personal interaction, on-line interaction.
Whatever the case, I love it here. I’m not going anywhere.
I agree with all the things available within a few hours or a few days.
Best: None of it…Worst: All of it…
The 3 best things are the climate, the natural beauty, and lovely places to go hiking.
The 3 worst things are cost of housing, traffic congestion, and the threat of earthquakes.
.
Best: The temperate Mediterranean climate.
.
Worst: Liberal policies and laws.
.
Best is the weather worst is the stupid politicians and homeless camps if you can call them camps. Crime, six dollar gas. Not enough huge jails
I’ve lived in other states. As a young adult I moved to CA for a 6 month gig, after the 6 months I decided I’m not going anywhere. That was 20+ years ago. Waves, wine, mountains all nearby and all the other beautiful places. The people I’ve met and become friends with are really cool. I hike and mountain bike in the local open spaces. I enjoy the weather in my backyard. Every time I hear about people saying they want to move, I think about where I would go to get what I have today. I don’t think that place exists. Cheaper places for sure exist. Politics…. I don’t pay much attention as they really don’t impact my day to day and you can’t do much about them anyway.
Best – weather Worst – how bad the cancel culture, woke culture, and progressive dems have ruined the area
Best: the rugged, hard-working individuals who grew up here and contributed to society.
Worst: the whiners who moved here and cannot hack it, who whine constantly about the beautiful Bay Area and brag about leaving. Yet stay.
Best: My whole large family lives here.
Worst: My whole large family lives here. As I get older, they get more annoying somehow. Is that normal? Plus democratic politicians and traffic.
@Paranoid Pablito
Lol.
My entire life spent here. I remember the opening of pier 39 and the embarcadero fwy. going over as it was still a working port. Very good memories of growing up here. I remember as kids we got into everything, going through fields,creeks, abandoned places and feeling like we had nothing to fear. Now it does not matter where you go there will be someone living there or selling drugs or a hundred other things that did not exist when we were kids (70’S not 50’s) Might simply be a fact of life as the world gets smaller (more people) but I don’t think so. I believe we (political leaders) allowed this to happen and you cannot even go to 7-11 anymore without someone asking for something outside. How do we get this back on the rails or do we simply walk away (nearing retirement). Voting counts but also holding policy makers responsible for choices does as well. Calling S#!t bags like Governor Grease ball out for pandering would be a start but I believe it needs to be harsher than that. Just because people want something does not mean it is good for everyone and to pander to them is what got us here in the first place. We have the best state, the best people and the opportunity to lead yet we chose the wrong direction almost every time. we need to fix this.
stepping down from my soapbox now
I was born and reared in California and we could go anywhere and do anything without fear. How times have changed. Even in “nice” neighborhoods you can be assaulted in your front yard. And, making cheap, affordable housing isn’t going to help matters. Too many people per square foot spoiled the scenery.
Too poor to live here, too expensive to leave
When I first moved here, it would have been so much more tilted toward the good reasons for living here. Now, it is tilted way toward the bad aspects of living here, and that is a shame. Of the good things I could list, there lies a significant negative that impacts or impairs each one. Of the negative things, there appears to be no respite from them. These very things have been described by the majority above who have opined on this topic.
Positive:
If you have the right skills, you can make a lot of money here.
Very interesting people. Arguably, too interesting.
An incredible diversity in restaurants and types of food.
No tornados to speak of.
Redwood trees.
The new Bay Bridge at 3:00am at 90 mph. East bound.
No toll roads. Yet.
Pretty Indio-Mexican women. Those cheekbones make me stupid. 🥰
You can buy liquor in grocery stores. On Sunday.
It’s not Florida.
Negative:
Incredible intolerance for opposing points of view. Which are all I have after all. 😝
Traffic, traffic, traffic.
The lack of competent organized crime to get large projects done. Kinda half kidding.
Lack of 1,000 yard rifle ranges.
No I don’t want any %&!§# guacamole!
I can walk down a crowed street with five drooling, snarling pit bulls, but God forbid someone sees my Makarov in a store while I grab my wallet.
Maybe get a second opinion before you go out in them yoga pants.
Open toe foot wear where there shouldn’t be open toe foot wear.
I have lived in 4 countries and 5 states. Every place has its postive and negative sides. I lived in Westport for 2 years, (a fairly affluent suburb of New York, located on the Long Island sound) and loved it, loved the beach, loved I could be in New York City in about an hour. I lived in New Orleans, good food, too hot and humid most of the year. Lived in Milwaukee for a short time, close to my then in laws, could get to Chicago in a relative short time. I moved to California from Milwaukee. At first I didn’t like it that much, didn’t seem like much of a City compared to New York where I lived off and on for 4 years. However, over the years I have of course come to love it. Love North Beach, love the Coast line from Sonoma to Carmel and beyond, love Tahoe, the Wine country, Half Moon Bay, and especially the Gold Country and my all time favorite not just in California, but of the many places I have visited Yosemite. Of course then there is the weather. In California we have good weather about 70 to 80 percent of the time, worst is the excessive heat, I can deal with the rain etc. In Denmark we have good weather about 40-30 percent of the time. Negative of course traffic, cost of housing, and lately crime. When living in Foster City and Benicia and didn’t feel much impacted by crime. Even when I moved to Concord in 2008 it didn’t seem to impact me much, now it is different, could be because I work retail and everyday we have people stealing, sometimes right in front of us, infuriating, makes you feel helpless.
We enjoy more than we know here in California with all the liberal, Democrat-leaning policies that people love to complain about.
If you go to the ER in Oregon, you’ll find their over-crowded patients lining the walls of the waiting room. They’ve even introduced a new type of hospital bed/chair to accommodate the overflow.
California maintains a nurse-to-patient ratio of 30 to 1, while the rest of the US typically operates with a ratio of 60 patients to 1 nurse. There’s talk of a universal healthcare bill going into effect, which may influence the entire country, as California often does.
Many people from here fail to fully appreciate how great it is. The globally renowned universities and colleges throughout the state contribute to our population’s exceptional intelligence, almost through osmosis. Living here, surrounded by the highest-quality education on the planet, makes you smarter.
In contrast, people in Alabama are still using flip phones. Our technology is often available here first, offering cutting-edge innovations compared to what the rest of the world uses.
What truly sets the Bay Area apart are its people. It’s delightful to meet those who have deep roots and heritage here. They bring accountability, tradition, substance, and culture with them. When you meet someone, you often find their entire family living nearby. **accountability
To me, the only negative is how pricey everything is, but then again, wages here are the highest in the country, so.
“Our population’s exceptional intelligence” lol. How disconnected from reality can you be!? It’s true we have high level universities. We also have some of the worst public school outcomes in the US.
And all these so smart people, when confronted by the biggest decision of our generation, got it very, very wrong: CA’s treatment of kids during COVID is a generational disaster and a black mark on the institutions of our society. The most damaging and regressive thing that’s been done to American kids in … forever?
The absolute only reason that I’m here is because of my job. I am just a few years from retirement. There is nothing else here, except maybe for the weather that has any redeeming value. Days after I retire, I will be on my way out of this place to my permanent home in the Rocky Mountains. I will never set for here again after that. Crime, liberalism, pollution and a morally corrupt culture in California, have destroyed the Golden State. It’s too bad, when I got here in the early 70s it was pretty great.
So absolutely SPOT-ON! I want to go back to those FAR better times in CA and the U.S., too. The Eastern Sierras and or the Rocky Mountains have been calling me for years but, unfortunately, my wife just loves the challenge, punishment and pain of living amongst a bunch of braindead left-leaning and immoral people that have destroyed our once enjoyable city, not to mention county and vast majority of state.
Such a shame!
Funny you should ask … “I was talking to a man the other day ..,”
https://youtube.com/shorts/dK43yHIUMKA?feature=shared
Maybe 30 seconds