I’ve lived in Berkeley, Oakland, and now San Francisco. Can confirm this is roughly true.
The best way to get integrated into the community is to live in a group house. If you’re moving to the Bay you might have to do this anyway for financial reasons. Most of those are in Berkeley or northern Oakland.
When I lived in downtown Oakland I was already pretty far away from people (could no longer walk to my friends’ houses), and I’d less often bump into folks in the community on the street.
Now I live in San Francisco. Thankfully I have access to a car, because that makes it reasonable to come to things in the East Bay. However because I don’t live in a group house anymore and don’t live in Berkeley, I’m definitely less plugged in to what’s happening. Lots of new folks have come to Berkeley and I don’t really know them. Partly this is because I’m getting old and I’m already happy with my friends and don’t need to find a bunch more so am less incentivized to spend time socializing to get more friends, but also because I’m just not organically meeting new rationalists as often as I used to.
I’ve lived in Berkeley, Oakland, and now San Francisco. Can confirm this is roughly true.
The best way to get integrated into the community is to live in a group house. If you’re moving to the Bay you might have to do this anyway for financial reasons. Most of those are in Berkeley or northern Oakland.
When I lived in downtown Oakland I was already pretty far away from people (could no longer walk to my friends’ houses), and I’d less often bump into folks in the community on the street.
Now I live in San Francisco. Thankfully I have access to a car, because that makes it reasonable to come to things in the East Bay. However because I don’t live in a group house anymore and don’t live in Berkeley, I’m definitely less plugged in to what’s happening. Lots of new folks have come to Berkeley and I don’t really know them. Partly this is because I’m getting old and I’m already happy with my friends and don’t need to find a bunch more so am less incentivized to spend time socializing to get more friends, but also because I’m just not organically meeting new rationalists as often as I used to.