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Agreed. I ended up moving across the bay and living in Berkeley while working in SF just for that reason.

I don't think there's nearly as much gentrification as people say there is, overall. I mean sure, there's a huge amount of gentrification in the 20% of SF that is not rent controlled: there only the super rich can live.

But, as for the other 80% that's rent controlled, lots of it is pretty dilapidated, almost borderline 3rd world country in some parts. 1% (7k people) of the SF population is homeless and even more are nearly there (despite over 240 million$ a year spent fighting homelessness).

Perhaps the reason people find SF boring is due to the hollowing out of the middle class.

It's kinda funny though, as people in Berlin at least (I'm sure in NYC too) are constantly complaining about gentrification too :)