He and the rest of iD seemed to have lost themselves once Bethesda came into the picture, but these types of things are almost a certainty after a big M/A event. Good luck to John!
I lived in the SV for ~15 years, and for family reasons I've been a resident of SF since mid-2010. Oh, sunshine and parking lots, how I miss thee!
I have to strongly agree with almost all of Peter's points. I love SF, but hate living here.
Quite often, I find that I'd rather stay in than deal with the frustrations.. and, this has made me the most socially isolated I've been since I was a kid.
I live in a great home in a beautiful but remote part of the city. Nothing is convenient. The nearest restaurant or convenience store is a 25 minute walk away. Traveling just 5 miles to a F/T job in the soma can take longer than driving from the south peninsula.. and public transit in this city is terrible, so I just won't tolerate working at a F/T job that requires daily presence in an office. Parking, if you can find it, is expensive and just a PITA.
The things I love and do to blow off steam are only available outside of the city.. Trail running the PG&E trail at Rancho San Antonio was one of them, and I'd do it several times a week before coming here. Now, getting to them takes a 90 minute round-trip drive.
Sometimes you're heads down on code, and you just want to refuel and get out to clear your head, so you jump in your car and drive a couple minutes to a 24 hour drive-through to grab some food. Not possible here. Sure, you can hit the Jack in the Box on Geary, which does have a parking lot, but that can be perilous.. Or, you might need to pick up some RAM or a new HD.. The Fry's in Palo Alto was 10 minutes away from my last home.
The SV has evolved the support the tech lifestyle.. and it will always be more friendly and efficient for many of us. Day to day living is generally easier for most. The schools are significantly better for your kids, too. SF is, and will always be SF, such as it is.
And like usual, we'll find the public figures responsible for pushing such regulations on morality will be those most likely to be the biggest offenders.
But this isn't about "protecting the children" from porn, is it?
I'm on the wrong side of 40, and I've been online for 28 years. Professionally involved in the software and bitplumbing of "the web" for all of my adult life. I saw jwz's camo cube and montulli's fish tank with my own eyes, and years before that, wrote software alongside visionaries guided by the promise of building online communities and the freedom of information.
It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.
The people making these rules are incapable of building the surveillance apparatus without our involvement. Take this opportunity to look hard at what you're creating, and examine the motives of the people you're building it for.
He and the rest of iD seemed to have lost themselves once Bethesda came into the picture, but these types of things are almost a certainty after a big M/A event. Good luck to John!