"a little late in feedback, I guess. but I wonder if you've ever actually lived in SF, or if you were just a (maybe not-so) frequent visitor from the Valley. Your quick and blatantly inaccurate portryal of SF's ghettos (Mission for Mexicans, Sunset & Richmond for Asians) betrayed a true ignorance of the city's makeup. And I'd have to remind you that when people are describing NYC they make just the same flippant comparisons about the various neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Having also lived in London, I can say that the same goes there. People who have never really lived in the city assess the various neighborhoods based on distant and limited understanding that they've picked up from residents, tour guides etc. Every city has its gay neighborhood, its "insert race here" neighborhood; the problem is, none of those neighborhoods ever quite fit their rash descriptions. The same is very true for SF. Calling my neighborhood (the mission) a mexican ghetto, just shows that you don't get it. If anything, it has taken a giant and perhaps unfortunate step away from its latino influences, with Valencia street offering up a slew of restaurants bars and night clubs to fairly wealthy, wanna-be hip white people."
   "As for your assertion that you never meet people who ignite a conversation, etc., it seems you just haven't met the right people. And if ballet isn't your thing, the theatres and galleries of the mission and portrero hill (ATA, Cell Space, etc. etc. ) offer up some nice little alternatives to corporate and conventional art. As a native of SF, I'd point out that while it is not the bohemian emerald city that every East Coaster fantasized about as a misunderstood child among New England preppiness, the city is pretty fantastic if you go in without tired assumptions."