October 6, 2008
Decision 2008: Boston or San Francisco?
Those worldly folks over at Travel and Leisure are having their annual America's Favorite City. San Francisco, of course, is winning. But not by much! Some place called "Boston" is creeping up on us. And we need you, readers/SF cult members, to get San Francisco high atop of yet another pointless top-ten list. Our tourism industry and fragile egos depend on it!
So, what is San Francisco known for, you ask? Well, San Francisco is known as the City of the Future. Its people are rad. Its food is, arguably, the best. Our mayor is, indisputably, gorgeous. The weather here is cloudy and crisp yet phenomenally energizing. We survive natural disaster after natural disaster. Frank Chu lives here. So does the sublime Vanessa Getty. We love us some crazies. And Garland never sang like this for any where else.
Boston is known for their tea-steeped harbor, an inferior baseball team compared to that of the Los Angeles Anaheim Angels (because the Giants: oy), and for Hangin' Tough.
The choice is clear.
Anyway, it's your last chance to vote for the overall winner of America's Favorite City. It's come down to Baghdad by the Bay and Beantown. You can vote here.
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
This is a hard one for me, as I am a Bostonian, turn San Franciscan via NYC.
Did you have to make the Boston skyline look so squaty?
sorry about that. i just pulled both images from wikicommons.
Still no contest. See opening cinematography from Boston Legal, Nash Bridges, etc.
Oh please! I have one word for you all: snow. SF wins.
Nice to know that they had to find one of the places in the US that actually manages to have even worse weather. Then again, at least they manage to get an actual summer.
Face it, the weather here is absolutely terrible and there's simply no way to polish this turd. Our one benefit is that it doesn't get especially cold during the winter (it's always cold anyways so who'd notice?) and we don't have that vile snow that so many other places are forced to deal with.
We just need to find a way to steal LA's weather and we will be complete.
Even before we get to that, Boston won out over NYC and Chicago in the previous bracket? Shenanigans!
Does Belgand breathe through a catalytic converter? That's the only way LA's weather wins.
As someone who's lived in both Boston and SF, I can say with some authority the best city is: Portland.
I've lived in both places and SF wins hands-down. And I never will understand people who bitch about the weather in SF. The weather is awesome here!! Never too hot, never too cold, and even on foggy days the fog usually burns off by noon. What's not to love?
@KatyG
The snow ain't so bad; it's everything that comes with it: hail, sleet, freezing rain, dirty nasty slush, bitter cold. Plus you gotta deal with an army of college students, masshole drivers, and New Hampshire. Yuck.
I also do not understand how anyone can say our weather is terrible here. We have the most perfect weather imaginable.
I've never been to Boston, but I find it difficult to believe it could top San Francisco. And anyone who wants to bitch about the weather here is welcome to spend the summer in Oklahoma: hot and humid in the summer, freezing cold in the winter, and a shithole all year round.
"hella" vs. "wicked" in the War to Settle the Score
I guess technically that would be Oakland vs. Boston.
interesting how we talk about the weather.
is that what makes a city great?
i think the people play a big role.
now before you go ape $hit on me.
just my opinion, people in sf can be hard to take.
a little self absorbed, arrogant and frankly snotty.
just sayin.
Besides the Red Sox, Boston doesn't have shiiiit on SF. Go Sox!
Right about now, people in Boston are starting to get depressed as they realize a brutal 6 month winter is about to descend on them. Come February, they are ready to slit their wrists as they just can't handle more freezing grey days and can't drink any more Sam Adams. Only 3 more months till spring...
Here in SF, maybe I'll go to the beach in Feb...or maybe I'll go skiing. Whatever.
agreed, jimbobklyn. we can be "hard to take. a little self absorbed, arrogant and frankly snotty." we can't help being californians.
I live in SF, but I am voting for Boston. Why? Because I have never ever encounter human fecal residues in Boston. In fact, I have never had such encounters in any cities I've been to except San Francisco!
If I could, I would vote for Portland for being a really nice city to live in, or NYC as the most exciting city to visit.
Move to the Marina. It's San Francisco, but all the peeps are from Boston. Best/worst of both worlds. Boston did give is the Warlbergs though. What have we got? Cheech Marin
seriously, why do so many transplants from boston live in the marina. it's strange.
As a SFer living in Boston the choice is clear...
I can afford to go to a Giants game.
Bostoners in SF live in the Marina, but where do SFers in Boston live? I guess I should ask Bostonist that.
Bostonians live in the Marina because they're WASP preppies and WASP preppies are clannish and standoffish and while they don't really mind associating with people of different backgrounds, they don't actually want to have to live around anyone who didn't go to Miss Porters or Choate before donning a toga at Dartmouth. Besides, the Marina is so tidy and clean, all little boxes made of ticky tacky that all look the same, like everyone who lives there.
I vote for Boston because the last time I was there I was only in town for 10 hours (business meeting) and I still managed to get laid. My particular brand of anger was of some interest to the men of Boston in a way that gets me zero attention in San Francisco, thank God.
I like the people here. I find most people I meet to be really friendly. In fact, it's funny, since I come from an area that a lot of people is just brimming with southern hospitality or whatever, but I know more of my neighbors here and am friendly with many more people than I ever was back there. (Possibly because I'm not biting my tongue so often.)
The first night we got here, it was raining, and really just shitty weather. We were trying to move into our apartment with the rain and my husband fighting the flu. We had no fewer than four people stop us and offer to help us move our stuff in. We didn't want to put anyone out, so we declined. Finally, a homeless guy insisted on helping us. this guy worked his ass off. Because my husband was feeling so crappy, he finally sent the guy on his way, and said we'd finish the next day. We gave him the cash we had on us ($25, I think). He thanked us and said he was going to go get something to eat and asked if he could bring us something back! None of that would have ever happened back "home."
Maybe we have just been lucky, but I love the people here. And I love that I'm not surrounded anymore by avid believers in sky fairies. Viva San Francisco!!!
I attended a private college in Beantown and abhor the Marina. Mostly because it reminds me of BC and the YAHDOOD jocks who took my beer money ::sniff::
They don't even know where the Outer Sunset is, so I'm safe now.
If you don't like the weather where you live, shut your trap and leave.
Personally I enjoy the moist, cold air.
Between it and Boston, San Francisco wins hands down, but I think Seattle and Portland should've been options. I may be an SF native but my pride is a little lacking, I guess.
SF beats Boston because they don't have ass-fisting in parades like we do.
Let's take that vote in the middle of January when there is ice on the ground everywhere, freezing rain and 10F degree temperatures with a wind chill of -10F in Boston.
For you native Californians, the "wind chill" is what happens when it is ridiculously cold out and then the wind blows making it "feel" a whole ass-load colder.
I'll take SF, 55 degrees AND sunny in January sans frostbite and wind burn thankyouverymuch.
The surf is better here.
@ mysterhie: Actually, I like snow when it's coming down. Then it should sit powdery and puffy on the ground in piles no deeper than three inches, and vanish at the next dawn.