Moving up in the ratings

Posted on June 12, 2005 by Gene

Spurred on by “I Hate DC“, I took a look at surveys and compared my old home, Washington, DC, with my new home (or as close as I could get), San Francisco. The results are extraordinary, and tell me a lot about the unease I’d had for seemingly my entire life living in DC: San Francisco is heads above DC when it comes to people, quality of life… everything that matters. Some things are hard to believe — finding your way around, city beauty — but when it comes to people, I have to agree: DC is at the bottom of the list. I never realized how unfriendly people in DC are until I began to travel to other cities… my eyes were opened, and now here I am!

Oh, and my aunt Susie this morning points out that Reader’s Digest has named San Jose as the #2 cleanest city in America. The cleanliness of this city has always been in the back of my mind, even when I was a little kid. It made an impression on me back in the 70s and 80s when I’d visit my grandparents here; and it’s still just as clean today, despite the huge growth since then. (By the way, remember my rants about trash pickup? Well, it turns out that probably 80-90% of my trash is recyclables, so one small trash bin per week is just fine! However, I might need a bigger recycle bin…)