SF is a great place to live if you are young, footloose and fancy free. The food is excellent and the booze is sublime. To quote a famous NYer, San Francisco is a two-fisted drinking town.

Another reason reason San Francisco is great is the weather. Also, the sports are very good.

Things that suck: local politics are a modern Tammany Hall, you'll be taxed and taxed and see no benefit, if you have kids, the schools are horrible, getting around by public transpo is unpleasant, and the cost for everything is high although wily folks can find bargains. Chronic inebriants are ruining the city. Everywhere there are tents and bicycle chop shops. Piss, puke, shit, and old shoes litter the sidewalks and make walking a frogger-like experience. There is an entire homeless-industrial-complex that prevents any meaningful change.

Newcomers with cars get the San Francisco fuck you! You can't find parking. You will get a ticket. You'll mess up and get towed. Your windows will be smashed. As SF becomes gentrified we are losing gas stations, service stations, car washes, tire shops and oil change shops. If you don't have a car getting out to the Northbay, the Central Coast, or Tahoe is harder. You'll need to go to these places to reaffirm your humanity and to sober up. Hell if you don't have a car and don't work at the largest and grandest tech companies, getting to work in the Santa Clara valley is hard.

The reason for high property crime is the cops don't care. By and large the cops are conservative. They live in Santa Rosa. San Francisco is thoughtlessly liberal. Cops have no skin in the game. They want to do the bare minimum and not get shot until they hit that sweet sweet retirement and leave on disability.

The cops are well paid and there are enough cops. Every thread that mentions cops has some cop apologist spouting off BS about the poor cops. Ignore the sock puppetry.

I'm entering my 26 year in San Francisco. I was assaulted once. My car was broken into once before I got a garage. Someone drove though my garage door and robbed me. My door was levered open and I was robbed. My various cars have been hit by people with no insurance or who simply drive away. In the past, there were numerous murders in my neighborhood. Lately those have diminished greatly because gentrification has forced out the gangsters.

If you are older, it just doesn't make as much sense to live in San Francisco or California for that matter.