San Francisc---Then and Now

2026SF

San Francisco:  Now and Then

     Why was San Francisco such a desirable place for young people, including myself, to live in during the 1950s?  Looking back, I’d say the basic reason, aside frm its natural assets, was its affordability, especially its apartment rents.  If you are young and just starting out in the job world you have a starting salary or maybe a bit more and if you want to move out of your parents’ place you need a rent you can afford.

     In my own case, I moved to San Francisco from New York City, where I’d lived all my life.  I’d graduated from college, been drafted into the Army because this was during the Korean War, returned to New York, got my first job doing research in an ad agency and found New York not such a desirable place to live.   I might have barely been afford to move out of my parents’ apartment in the Bronx but wouldn’t have had much money left over to, for example, take a girl out on a date.  So I commuted by subway to my office in midtown Manhattan, not the most pleasant way to start the day.  There were other things.  This was before New York became a crime capital but I found the city to be hot, noisy and crowded.  I might also have had in the back of my mind that, although I’d grown up there myself, I couldn’t imagine raising a family there.

    I mentioned that I’d been drafted into the Army during the Korean War.  I was posted, not to Korea, but to Germany and there I’d met a fellow, Ron F---. who was a UC Berekely grad and who thought San Francisco was the greatest place in the world.  I’d kept in touch with Ron and he kept urging me to move out there.  I’m not sure if I’d gone to San Francico otherwise but I’d heard good things about it from other people and knowing Ron clinched it.  At least I knew one person there and I was able to stay in a house that Ron and some other Berekley grads rented in Telegraph Hill until I got a job  and moved into my own place.

     The job I got was with another ad agency.  I didn’t especially want to work in the ad business but it seems I was already type-cast.  At that time a typical starting salary was $60 a week.  This added up to about $3,000 a year.  Living with my parents I think I’d managed to save up about $3,000 so when I moved to San Francisco, besides knowing Ron, I wasn’t penniless.  I think my salary there was something like $75 a week.  Not much and almost impossible to believe today but the rent on my first apartment, a studio, wass only $60 a month.  It was in a good neighborhood with a bakery on the corner, a couple of nearby restaurants and movies and, best of all, I could walk to my office downtown, a much better way of starting the morning than riding the subway.

       Having gotten my own place, finally, and feeling like a grown-up, there was the matter of getting a car.  My job with the ad agency was in the media department and involved outdoor advertising so I thought I might have to drive around evaluating posters and billboards.  It turned out that the outdoor company salesman did this.  Still, although San Francisco was a relatively small city and theoretically I could ride busses and its famous cable cars, having a car would be much more convenient.  And, it would be another milestone on the road to being an adult.

     I wrote that when I first came out to San Francisco I stayed in a house with Ron and a few other Berkely grads.  I thought of them as the Berkeley gang and I became kind of their New York adjunct.  I became friendly with one of them, a fellow named Gwynn Ch--- who was one of those people who knew someone in everything.   Gwyynne steered me to a used car lot where I bought my first car, a Chevy, with of course automatic transmission.  As I’ve written, I think I’d saved about s year’s pay so I had enough money, maybe a used car cost a few hundred dollars at that time.  Then there was the matter of learning to drive.  Gwynne steered me to a driving school  where I took three lessons and then went to the DMV and got my driver’s license.    Of course I didn’t really know how to drive so practiced on my own and luckily didn’t run into anything or anyone in the process. 

    I mentioned San Francisco’s natural assets.  These were due to its location on the bay. The winter there was never too cold, certainly not like those back East, and the summers weren’t too hot, thanks to the fog rolling in from the Bay, certainly not like the hot and humid summers back in New York.  There were also Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park and the ocean, all within easy driving reach once I had my car.

     San Francisco had other assets, first being any number of good and inexpensive restaurants.  New York had these too if you sought them out but  not as good or as inexpensive.  I remember buying a book on these restaurants and  following it faithfully.  At that time, it didn’t occur to me that I might learn how to cook and make some meals to save money.  I don’t think any restaurant meal was over two dollars. One that I went to often was a San Francisco institution, Original Joe’s, where I discovered abalone, later to become too expensive, but then about two dollars a meal.

      Another restaurant I went to often was the Universal Café in Chinatown, recommended by my Chinese laundryman, where I could get a six or seven course dinner for almost nothing.  Another favorite was another San Francisco institution, Tommy’s Joynt on Van Ness and Geary, a brauhaus where you could get a good inexpensive roast beef dinner.  Then there was the venerable Cliff House overlooking the Pacific Ocean where you could get a Ramos Fizz and a filling bowl of clam chowder while looking out over the ocean and listen to the seals barking.

     San Francisco had other good things besides restaurants.  While it could not rival New York in cultural attractions there was the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, the acquarium across from it, and the Palace of Legion of Honor, which had an a fine collection of French Impressionist paintings.  It aso had a theater district on downtown Geary Street. 

     Equally as important as all of these there was  the social life at the time.  Maybe as a natural consequence of all the young people being attracted there the city seemed to be teeming with parties.  On Friday after work I’d drop into a downtown bar named The Office where I’d meet with the other members of the Berkeley gang and almost  invariably someone would have heard of a party that night.  You didn’t have to be invited.  The parties were BYOB, bring your own bottle, and you did this and was admitted, no questions asked.  In my first couple of years in SanFrancisco I went to more parties than all before in my life and all since, too.

     There were also places to go outside of the city.  On Sundays the Berkeley gang often met at the Buena Vista, still another San Francisco institution, where it was said Irish coffee was invented (the Irish disputed this).  If it was foggy in the city we would usually go over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sam’s in Tiburon, where you could sit in the sun, have a beer and a Samburger and enjoy thw view of San Francisco across the bay.  There was also Sausalito in Marin, a tourist town full of stores where you also had a view of San Francisco to look at when not shopping. 

     What about San Francisco now?  I think the reader knows the answer but here are a few figures.  The average rent for a studio apartment is $2,600-$2,800; for a one-bedroom, $3,700-$4,000.  I don’t know if the old rule that your rent should be about one-quarter of your salary but if it still applies your annual pay would have to be well over $100,000.  I found that the starting pay for an ad agency media buyer, which I was, is now $48,000-$61,000.

     A few more figures.  An average restaurant meal in San Francisco today is $50-80.  A Samburger and beer at Sam’s in Tiburon is $35-45.  An Irish coffee at the Buena Vista is $12-13.  So much for living in San Francisco today.  What about New York City?   The average rent for a studio spartment there is, just like in the old days, even more than in San Francisco, $3,380-3.480; for a one bedroom, $4,000-4,192.  If I was a young man living in New York I think that, just like in 1954, I’d want to move to someplace else.  I don’t think I’d choose San Francisco.