Obviously the issue has been politicized and some people exaggerate and mislead because they care more about their own careers than they do about love and the truth.

I'm wondering if anyone has lived in the above mentioned cities and how livable and affordable they are presently.

I am curious and I am asking because I want to know more about the world.

A lot of San Francisco sucks, but it's not the crime-riddled hellhole that the media likes to say it is. Rents have fallen a lot due to the pandemic. Lots of empty storefronts.

I've always preferred Oakland, but it's not cheap either and has its own problems.

I've heard so many different opinions about San Francisco.

One of my cousins went to a bar there and met a lunatic at a bar. They were walking down the street and the dude started vandalizing poo poo for no reason. Despite this, my cousin described SF as a gorgeous city.

My other cousin went there in 2017 on a research field trip with his university and said his fellow students were smoking medical grass in their hotel rooms. He described the city as a total dump.

Another dude I know said it was the filthiest city he has ever been to and far worse than anything he has seen in South Asia.

A girl I was acquainted with said that it was the most amazing place she has ever visited in her life.

I always thought Oakland was a ghetto area. I should make a trip to California and see how things are really like there.

It's like every other major city, it has its good parts and not-so-good parts and it tends to be area and neighborhood dependent. If you do the touristy thing and go to the wharf and see Alcatraz and spent time around the Presidio and so on you'll probably have a nice time. If your idea of bold adventure is walking the streets of the Tenderloin, well, good luck to you!

SF does have issues with trash, homelessness and vandalism which is mostly a failure of local government. A couple good examples from this year:

5 years to develop prototype public trash cans - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/22/san-francisco-cost-trash-can-struggle
$1.7m to build one public toilet - https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Celebration-for-S-F-s-1-7-million-toilet-17520998.php

In Oakland, traffic enforcement doesn't happen, car theft/broken windows are totally out of control and homelessness has gotten worse. On the other hand, Oakland is doing a lot better than SF regarding building new housing (also true of neighboring towns, even Berkeley). Both cities have tons of good food, museums, art and parks. I can't imagine leaving the Bay Area at this point.

San Francisco is the Lisbon of America

What's your favorite part of Portugal?

What's your favorite part of Portugal?

Brazil 😈😈😈😈

God Meepington shut your face

Seattle is a crime ridden trash covered poo poohole. Very liveable 10/10

Seattle is too clean

Seattle changed a lot during the pandemic.  Entire parks and highway underpasses became homeless encampments, to the point where you had to drive at single digit MPH to avoid hitting a tent on some parts.  The problem was always there, but the lack of traffic allowed those spaces to be taken over, forcing people to deal with it rather than continue ignoring it.  Unfortunately, that just led to more stupid punitive actions rather than any real meaningful change in a lot of cities.

They're all eminently livable places and any narrative that they're burned out hellholes is a joke.  I lived in Capitol Hill during the CHAZ/CHOP days and a few months after they tore all that down you wouldn't even know it happened, shops were open and it was a wonderful place to live (aside from the insanely barricaded police station to prevent another embarrassing takeover).

I've changed my mind, they all suck, just move to NYC instead

NYC is kind of dirty and the cost of living is too high. Why do you like the city?