Arthur Patterson shares why he is leaving San Francisco.
After 25 years, nearly to the day, I find myself leaving San Francisco. Why? It wasn’t the purported doom loop that drove me out, nor the AI boom. It wasn’t the soaring housing costs, nor the five-dollar iced teas. While the shifting tech job market did play a part, it wasn’t the deciding factor.
For me, it was time. Time for me to make a change, but also a reminder of how I wanted to spend my time. My first year in San Francisco was a tough one; I was missing Los Angeles and the community I built there. As soon as I gave this city a chance, however, by beginning to volunteer, joining a running group, attending street festivals and being pelted by corn tortillas at Bay to Breakers, I fell in love with the place.
I got to know the city, its neighborhoods, its institutions, its vistas and its many, many amazing restaurants. San Francisco taught me to savor and appreciate what was right in front of me. In other big cities one spends their time underground or on freeways, being whisked from one destination to another, oblivious of what’s in between. I still angle for a window seat on the J Church train so that when it summits Dolores Park, I can be wowed by the view of downtown and beyond.
Take any bus or light rail here and you will see diverse architecture, adjacent to a vibrant mural, with a slice of the bay or the Pacific in between. You just don’t get that in many places. San Francisco has definitely changed in the last 25 years, but so many of its constants are what set it above.