Who doesn’t dread the throwback to reality that follows the end of a vacation? Home feels far too ordinary after being blown away by one wondrous city after another.
Thankfully for me, that impact has always been muffled by the beauty of what I come home to: San Francisco. For many of you, it’s a long trip to America’s west coast. Allow me, then, to mold your impression with an honest native’s perspective.
If I had a dollar for every time gay people are brought up when telling someone I am from San Francisco, I’d be fairly rich. I don’t actually get a dollar, but I’m happy to settle for the richness of being exposed to so many walks of life. Homo or hetero, living here has demonstrated that the difference hardly matters. They all make fine friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
I always took that belief for granted until stepping into the world outside San Francisco where such views were, to my disappointment, not shared by everyone. How unfortunate, I thought, that these people had not the opportunity to simply have a gay or lesbian friend growing up. That would have made a big difference.
San Francisco also puts ethnic diversity on display. And unlike in some other places, foreign groups are not marginalized, but firmly entrenched in the city’s character. Whereas many people are still skeptical of a melting pot society, I think we do well demonstrating progress towards that end. To count so many ethnic origins among my circle of friends is, in my mind, a luxury of the modern day.
Oh, and let’s not forget the culinary payoff of diversity. I don’t exaggerate when I say the food in this city is outstanding. The foreign menus are inspired by the very people who enjoyed these dishes in their native lands, so count on quality and authenticity. Any country’s cuisine you desire is yours, if you know where to look.
This wouldn’t be a completely honest perspective if I didn’t gripe about San Francisco even a little. The diversity I’ve been praising also takes form in a less pleasant way: inequality.
San Francisco’s homeless are notorious, and plenty more live in perpetual poverty. Some of these areas are hidden from view. Others are in plain sight, separated from downtown’s liveliest neighborhoods by only a few blocks. It’s a jarring display of wealth and poverty coexisting side by side, a sight that disturbs me. Witnessing this poverty within my own beloved city inspired me to volunteer and study social welfare. America as a whole has serious inequality issues to tackle, but that’s a tiresome discussion for another day.
If you have any hesitations about visiting, don’t fear; San Francisco will never be unwelcome to outsiders. That’s because this young city (barely 150 years old) has always been a place of opportunity for outsiders. No one claims roots here longer than a few generations, and new faces are an everyday sight.
So think about paying us a visit. Listen to our theme song to encourage you. And bring a coat!
