I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Rainy day at Crissy Field

Here's a writing exercise I completed for one of my writing classes. The task was to choose something - anything - and write a) what everyone knows about it, and b) what you know about it. I chose San Francisco. 

What everyone knows about San Francisco

Techies, entrepreneurs, and hipsters rule the streets and have turned this sleepy city of fog into a playing field of fierce competition and an arena for big businesses to duke it out. Rent is astronomically high - it escapes me how one can afford to buy organic, fair-trade, and local produce after paying thousands of dollars for a little shoebox apartment. The famous, crimson bridge often hides behind dense clouds. Trolley cars shuttle people up and down steep hills. Nestled in the bay is one of the world’s most famous prisons - Alcatraz - which you can visit and pretend to be a prisoner in. If you go down to the piers, you can sample fresh seafood while admiring the sea lions that lounge and loiter on the docks. It’s a lovely, little tourist city, complete with shopping and museums. There’s something for everyone.

What I know about San Francisco

• If you’re hungry late at night, there are at least a dozen restaurants, minimum, within a block that are open and can serve you moules frites, or a Mission style burrito, or hot dumplings, or even a freaking kale salad if that’s what you want.
• We’re the first city to ban plastic bags and plastic bottles. You won’t find a Chick Fil A anywhere near the city because we banned it. We also banned segways and sitting on sidewalks. We’ve banned a lot of things.
• Locals rarely use the cable cars; it’s all about that BART life.
• Crissy Field and the Presidio are two of my favorite places in the world - they are absolutely breathtaking and the best places for flying kites, going for a bike ride, or having a picnic and catching up with friends. The views of the Golden Gate Bridge are also spectacular.
• We never say San Fran, only San Francisco, SF, or “the city.” Just like how no real Californian ever calls our state Cali.
• San Francisco is gorgeous at any time of day, on any day of the week, and in any season. Whether it’s a rare warm morning spent by the sparkling bay, or a freezing, rainy winter afternoon where the visibility is probably at 0%, or a perfect crisp autumn night where you can walk the streets and browse boutiques, San Francisco is perfection. I definitely have left my heart there, and intend to keep it there forever.