San Francisco’s skyline meeting the bay is beautiful. Photo courtesy of sophomore Aidan Field.

  San Francisco is one of the closest major cities to San Luis Obispo, and because of that, it’s a common destination for San Luis Obispo High School students. However, in recent years San Francisco has been attacked by many people who consider the city dirty, expensive, and crime-ridden. 

  San Francisco deserves so much better.

  One of the largest criticisms people have of San Francisco is that the city itself is dirty and overcrowded.

  “I don’t really like the city, like at all… it’s just too busy,” said sophomore Sophia Bates.

  While yes, it is true that San Francisco has had issues with cleanliness, being around dirt and grime is just another product of being in a densely populated city where people both live, and work. 

  If one is exposed to a multitude of people, they are obviously going to be exposed to other people’s trash.

  People have also criticized San Francisco for being expensive. In reality housing prices in San Francisco are expensive, but they aren’t significantly more expensive than in other places in California. Places like San Diego, which is the most expensive city in the U.S., is more expensive than San Francisco. San Francisco also isn’t considerably more expensive than San Luis Obispo.

  Expensive housing, food, and services isn’t a San Francisco problem, it’s a problem that faces our state and many other states in our country. 

  Personally, I find that the prices of products in San Francisco are comparable to what can be found in San Luis Obispo. In some cases, especially in Chinatown, items are much cheaper than what can be found in SLO. 

  San Francisco has also been criticized for having a high crime rate. It is true that San Francisco has a higher crime rate than average, San Francisco doesn’t even rank in the top twenty for dangerous major U.S. cities. This contrasts to San Francisco being brought up so frequently in news and media for being dangerous. 

  Not to mention, San Francisco has made some major strides and improvements, and their violent crime rate has been dropping since the start of the millennium, and especially after 2020. This contrasts to many narratives that draw on the perception that San Francisco has been dropping off and progressively getting worse.

  San Francisco still has so much to offer. 

  “I love San Francisco. It’s one of my favorite cities,” said junior Lucy Field.

  San Francisco is very dense, which makes it a walkable city. This means being in San Francisco doesn’t require a car, which is expensive. The U.S. in general needs more walkable communities. 

  Also, the city itself has huge diversity in people and products, something that SLO struggles with. In San Francisco students can find products and items it is impossible to find in a place like SLO.

  Personally, I find it so easy to find products that I can’t find here in SLO in San Francisco. San Francisco’s diversity makes it a breeze to find goods and services impossible to find in other cities. 

  San Francisco is also a beautiful city with beautiful architecture and plenty of space and greenery.

  It is time people start appreciating San Francisco for what it is, a beautiful city with so much to offer. 

Sources: sfgov.org, realestate.usnews.com