New Contributor Interview: Nick Ross

Name
Nick Ross

Introduce yourself in one sentence
One Sentence? I'm not that clever.

Age and Occupation
26, Student.

Home Town
Danville. Pennsylvania, not California.

How long have you lived in the Bay Area?
Off and On for a few years.

Favorite place to spend time online
Ummm.. Do you even have to ask?

Favorite local business
Juan’s Place or Vic's Chaat house, both in Berkeley. Staring at a Craigslist all day makes me hungry.

What I'm currently Reading
"Home brewing for Dummies", "The Professors Guide to Racetrack Betting" and "My First Summer in the Sierra", by John Muir

Best Deal in San Francisco
Anything involving rents less than $550 dollars, meals less than $4 or beer less than $2.

Favorite mode of transportation
Motorcycle. Lane Sharing is so awesome. Screw you Traffic!

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Big Brother and the Holding Company on the merits of the album "Cheap thrills" alone.

Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
By far the best is the communist hippie stoner. Each time I go home I am asked at least once how I can live "With those hippie freaks." I don't buy it, however, as I think we all spend way too much time staring at the back end of BMW's on 101, unable to find anything "hippie" on the radio for it to be true.

Favorite local hangout
Bean Bag Cafe. It's close, there always seems to be one more seat free, and the staff never hassles you.

SF has the BEST
Burritos. duh.

You've never lived in SF until
Visiting home requires you to answer "How do you live with those hippies (or commies)?" at least twice.

Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
John White Geary. Postmaster general of SF, then the city's first mayor. Followed by stints as Governor of the territory of Kansas and Governor of the state of Pennsylvania. Oh, yes and Civil war general (and one of the many hero's in the battle of Gettysburg) in between. Also, he gave the city the land that is now union square.

Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
No idea. I'm a terrible matchmaker. Maybe I'd put up an ad on Craigslist:

"Do you like my Hair?"

My hair never moves. Never waves. Never looks out of place. I live in a coastal, fairly windy city and I have yet to be seen with anything other than a perfect top. BTW, I'm also the mayor of San Francisco.

You can tell someone is a local here IF
Nothing that happens on BART or MUNI fazes them. Ever.

SF would be soooo much better if only
Everyone had a cell phone camera and used it. Though that does apply to places other than the bay area. For SF, I think that everyone needs fastrack, Muni needs to work better and we all should hop into the ocean at least twice a year to see the actual damage we are doing to it.

Best Burrito
For size? Juan's Place's Super Burrito is the best deal in the bay area. But purely for taste, Pancho Villa's in the Mission blows my mind.

Best Restaurant
Wow. There are way too many to name.

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
Gotta be Bullit. Not only are the Car Chases scenes classic --- but Steve McQueen is a believable driver and the fact that he has a hot psychedelic wife makes sense.

Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Gracie Slick. Painter, Singer and truly gorgeous. What more could you ask for?

Favorite author to come out of the bay area
Steinbeck. Luckily I didn't have to read him in high school, or I would probably hate his guts, but since moving here I've started on his books and found them spectacular. For an awesome take on the nature of Northern California I recommend John Muir. His books on hiking to, in and around Yosemite are a treasure trove of what this place was like before smog made it impossible to see the sierras from the central valley.

Place you always tell visitors to check out
Vik's Chaat House, Alcatraz and Crissy Fields, the view of the Golden Gate are spectacular.

Favorite Bridge in the area
Bay Bridge. It is the single largest monstrosity of architecture in the bay area. The coldness in its staggering lack of design almost, almost makes it seem human.

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Driving Range in Tilden Park, up above Berkeley. The view is gorgeous, the club house and people there are unpretentious and they have clubs that you can borrow. If you can do it at night during the late summer, even better.

I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
You're kidding? Right?

I want all the SFists out there to know
Be careful when using Craigslist. A lot of bad people out there. If you don't like the way a sale/purchase is going, just pull out. (I know that sounds like a public service announcement, but I think it should be said more often than it is).

Who would you like to see interviewed in the future:
Craig Newmark, with the caveat that he actually talks about craigslist.