Ive lived in Baltimore, Philly, NYC and Nashville and never encounter the culture of homelessness that one experiences in San Francisco.
I know part of why it's like that is because of the weather.
Besides being bummed out by being surrounded by destitution the smell of destitution is just as bad.
The last awesome snow filled winter we had was the 2009 to 2010 season. We accumulated up to 80 inches of snow; fun stuff!
San Fran weather is awesome, the amount of homelessness makes me sad though!