Been living in Sydney for a year, and everyone who spends time here thinks "wow the food is just as good, prices are kind of cheaper, and the city is much cleaner"

Of course, it might be different if we were actual citizens and owned property here etc. etc. but as long-term visitors, Sydney is hands down nicer than SF.

And Sydney is a dump compared to Melbourne :)

Sydney-sider here - Sydney lacks a real art scene, and a culture with its own identity. Outside of down-town, it is awefully same samey with the proliferation of cheap rental housing.

Going out further countryside - things get real nice.

Though - we are pretty lucky all that being said :)

I always thought Newtown kinda fits that bill.

newtown really used to be super cool. Like everything Sydney though - its much much more gentrified - and has just turned into restaurants and bars for yuppies. 10-15 years ago - the whole inner=west was rife with awesome gigs, international electronic acts, lots of pubs were doubling as places to host electronic - but NIMBYism really got the better of Sydney.

Hard to get a coffee at night in the city even :(

I was in inner-west Sydney in 2016 for a couple weeks and it certainly didn't feel too gentrified and awful to me – there were still plenty of "counterculture" posters and murals and buskers and whatnot. Electronica isn't generally my thing but I stumbled upon some venue on King St and caught a metal show – so that was nice. And, of course, the Lazybones Lounge.

Outside of 7-11, Starbucks, and Peets (even then COVID's put a hamper on this) It's nearly impossible to get a coffee past mid-afternoon here in the Bay Area.

I used to live in Sydney. It's been a while, but I don't remember it being overall better, just better for different things.