This comes back to transportation a bit. Living in the outer sunset or outer richmond and commuting to soma or the financial district is either a really long bus ride on packed buses or an N/T/etc fraught with delays getting onto and down market street. It takes me 35 minutes to get from my house in north oakland to work off the embarcadero station. When my wife and I lived in the inner richmond (6th and fulton) it took her 55 minutes to get to her office near 16th and bryant.
I think transit here generally gets a bad rap (my wife and I used the muni basically without issue for 5 years living in the city and loved it), but when considering where to live the commute from (and the colder weather of) the western neighborhoods is a big deal.
Yeah that's totally fair. I live at Geary and Stanyan, and made liberal use of the 38L and 38[A,B]X busses, which cut that time down a lot. I used to go to the gym every morning before work and could be door to door on the 38BX in about 25 minutes most days. If you can get a seat on the busses, I kinda enjoyed the time on my phone or with a book, but that's not always possible too.
I commute by bike now, which is certainly the fastest way to get around the city - perhaps just not the safest or least-sweaty way.
Yup, public transit in areas like Outer Sunset is pretty bad. I've never lived there, but I did stay in a hacker house there once while searching for an apt, and it takes a good 40 minutes on a crowded bus to get to Market St. Also I rarely ever find an Uber or Lyft nearby.
I think transit here generally gets a bad rap (my wife and I used the muni basically without issue for 5 years living in the city and loved it), but when considering where to live the commute from (and the colder weather of) the western neighborhoods is a big deal.