Ellis Live

Happy Saturday. Sorry for the delay in posting but things have been busy. I’ve been settling in and things are going well. First of all, I got a lot of comments after my weather post. Most of them were something along the lines of “Yeah, but the weather is better outside of your neighborhood.” Fair enough. It’s also better where I work in the East Bay. Either way, I’m not displeased with the weather so far, rather a bit surprised. At any rate, I said I’d follow up with some more info and so I shall.

It’s been around a month since I made the move. I thought that I would answer a few of the most common questions I get and also make a few (hopefully) witty observations. Without further ado and in no particular order:

• Pedestrians - San Francisco is the most pedestrian city I’ve ever been in. Pedestrians wander everywhere and they have the right of way in pretty much any situation. Also, they are fun to watch since anything goes here in the wardrobe and mobility departments. You never know when you’re going to see a guy with dreadlocks, a cowboy hat and a suit on a bike (I actually saw this).
• Food - It’s actually harder to eat badly here. You can still do it if you try but organic stuff is in all the grocery stores, ethnic food is everywhere and good luck finding a fast food joint. I think McDonald’s is actually a swear word here.
• Most words don’t get me ridiculed. Here’s a few that have. Buggy (shopping cart), ‘boggin (beanie), coke (soda). I was at a gas station and asked the guy if they had a coke machine. He looked at me strange, said no and sent me on my way. On the way out, I got a Diet Pepsi out of a machine right in front. He said “Oh, you wanted a soda”. True story.
• There are lots of Guitar Hero fans here. I’m considerably worse at it than them. I’m going to have to practice a lot or else they may take away my official geek status.
• I’ve been trying to see Transformers for 2 weeks and it hasn’t worked out. The last time I tried to see it, three movies straight were sold out. I saw Ratatouille instead (which is also great.) Average Price of Movie Admission: $10.50.
• Everybody I’ve met here is really outdoor-sy and loves to travel. It’s easy to find people to go do just about whatever you want. Climbing, rafting, hiking, and biking are all great distractions and easy to find companions.
• Public Transportation - I’ve taken MUNI once but it’s a little more difficult than taking a cab since I don’t know the routes very well yet and it can be kind of sketchy, depending on the route and time. The MUNI system is much more useful if you live and work in the city and use it daily.
• Gas - The average price for a gallon of gas right now seems to be around $3.29/gallon. I’ve only filled up my tank twice in the last month. Most weekdays, I only drive to work and back and most weekends I drive little to none (if I can help it.)
• Taxis - Eddie Izzard said it best. There are four and they’re all taken. We usually can get a taxi in a few minutes by walking to a busier intersection so it’s not too bad. They also drive just as crazy as you’d expect from a metro cabbie.
• Driving and Commuting - I drive about 25 miles each way to work. In the morning I take the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County (Highest Income county in the US during the 2000 census) to the San Rafael Bridge to Point Richmond. It takes me about 25-30 minutes to get to work and the drive is very scenic. On the way home, I take the Bay bridge straight into the city. The distance and time are about the same unless the Giants are playing, in which case all bets are off. The Bay bridge is only a $4.00 toll (versus $8.00 the other way) so I go broke just a little slower. Mission Cliffs is also on the way home. Drivers in the city seem to have more responsibility than most places I’ve been. There are fewer lights, multiple intersecting modes of public transportation and pedestrians everywhere. The intersection of 11th and Judah near my house has something like 4 lanes of traffic and 2 MUNI lines and no traffic light. You have to be very aware of your surroundings. Most lights are on the sides of the intersection instead of overhead, just like in New Orleans. Sometimes there are stop signs but you have to train yourself to look for them. I still find myself stopping at intersections that don’t have stop signs and almost running intersections with lights. It’s like learning to drive again. Speaking of which, apparently the driver test is ridiculously difficult. Doh.
• Parking - There’s an art to parking. My neighborhood is mostly street (parallel) parking. A lot of the surrounding neighborhoods are permit parking. You pay for a yearly permit to street park. Everyone who doesn’t have a permit parks near my house. Since 9th and Irving has a lot of bars, restauraunts and shops, parking can get bad sometimes. Most days it takes me 5-15 minutes to get a spot within 3 blocks of my house. Thursdays, Fridays, or late at night it can be up to 15-30 minutes. You also have to learn the street cleaning schedule. Each side of each street is assigned a day for cleaning. You can’t park there on that day between 8-10 AM or else you get a very expensive ticket. Since I leave before 8 AM every day, that hasn’t been much of a problem for me yet. I’ve also found that my car is approximately 1 foot too long for a third of the spaces on the street. If you end up potentially blocking a driveway at all, the department of transportation has the option of towing and/or ticketing you with a $150 ticket.

So, that’s about all I can think of right now. I’ll keep posting stuff as it comes to me. Later!

By the way, Google Docs rocks. I was editing this in Google Docs and accidently wiped the entire thing out. The Docs section had saved revisions automatically every 60 seconds or so. I was able to roll back to a few seconds ago and lose no data. ROCK.

0624070538, originally uploaded by cisellis.

Right after I moved to the city, I had the good fortune of watching the sun rise from Twin Peaks. You can see the entire city from there and I took a few great photos like this one. You can see the rest here.