Nowhere in my comment am I implying that Atlanta, Boston or Chicago or any other big metro areas are racist homophobic hellholes. I'm trying to lay the argument for why a place with a big immigrant population might be easier for other immigrants to feel as they belong. And the vignette about the Ice Cream shop was meant to show that even in blue, blue California, in liberal San Francisco, in trendy Hayes Valley, you can still be made to feel you're somehow "bad" through no fault of your own.

Edit: I realize now that I didn't specify when I said "outside the bay area" I meant California, as in "rural america is very close geographically to metropolitan america".

OK. So we just happen to be talking about different things, and mostly agreeing on the facts then.

Nothing left to argue about then I guess :)

If you think Chicago doesn't have clear and well known racial conflict you've never driven across the city. SF and California is certainly not perfect but it tries to be better.

I don't know if "trying" has anything to do with it. It's much easier to be a harmonious multi-racial society when it's just rich white people and rich asian people.

Most of the conflict in Chicago is intraracial black on black gang violence: https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/chicago-75-murdered...

Spare us the elitism.

SF has tons of problems, including epic homelessness. Other cities are trying to deal with their unique situations under their unique constraints.

Or you haven’t lived in Boston, or Chicago — both cities facing major racial integration problems in the modern day

Not problems that San Francisco isn't also having. People like to prop up SF as an example of inclusiveness, as if it isn't the pinnacle of gentrification. Things may feel inclusive if you are white/asian and working in tech. Ask a black or hispanic person if they feel like SF is a land of opportunity or inclusiveness.

And the rest of California is just as bad. LA somehow has a reputation for inclusiveness despite being home to some of the most serious racial conflicts and explosions of racial violence in the last century.

That California is somehow radically more inclusive than the rest of the country is a myth, but one they are exploiting very well.

Unlike LA?

Compared to Toronto, Canada, they kind of are though.