See the reasons listed in the other responses. Another one, which used to be much more significant, is the dark side of the west coast culture's radical acceptance ethic.
Port cities were all about radical acceptance once upon a time, because they needed laborers. It didn't matter who you were or what you did: if you could carry goods off a ship, you had a place as a dock worker. And if you couldn't, you could still cook or launder for dock workers. So radical accpetance predates the 60's, though it became more of a thing afterwards.
Well, it's nice to know you have a city to go to if your home town cannot accept you. If you're gay, or bookish, or artsy, et cetera.
But if what the people around you are not accepting is the erratic behavior that your incipient schizophrenia is getting you to engage in (or the lack of acceptance is actually a delusion induced by it, and your family does still accept you), and you've heard of San Francisco, well, you go there. You cut off ties to your home. And then the schizophrenia kicks in full blast.
A nice thing about social media is that people having mental breakdowns tend to make it obvious on Facebook and invite intervention. And, it makes it harder to cut your old ties, when once upon a time it was harder to maintain them.
But when you see 50 year olds in the streets around the Mission, holding debates with the voices in their heads, well, this is how they got there.
Port cities were all about radical acceptance once upon a time, because they needed laborers. It didn't matter who you were or what you did: if you could carry goods off a ship, you had a place as a dock worker. And if you couldn't, you could still cook or launder for dock workers. So radical accpetance predates the 60's, though it became more of a thing afterwards.
Well, it's nice to know you have a city to go to if your home town cannot accept you. If you're gay, or bookish, or artsy, et cetera.
But if what the people around you are not accepting is the erratic behavior that your incipient schizophrenia is getting you to engage in (or the lack of acceptance is actually a delusion induced by it, and your family does still accept you), and you've heard of San Francisco, well, you go there. You cut off ties to your home. And then the schizophrenia kicks in full blast.
A nice thing about social media is that people having mental breakdowns tend to make it obvious on Facebook and invite intervention. And, it makes it harder to cut your old ties, when once upon a time it was harder to maintain them.
But when you see 50 year olds in the streets around the Mission, holding debates with the voices in their heads, well, this is how they got there.