Q: So all interviews must start out with the nitty gritty. Are you working more hours now that you moved back to NYC from California?

A: Slightly more. was 60-65, now 65-75.

Q: There are no good burritos in NYC. True/False?

A: False, but they’re hard to find.

Q: What exactly goes in an awesome California style burrito?

A: For sure, probably the normal stuff plus some Mexican authenticity, love & special sauces; the cuisine doesn’t have to travel as far and therefore isn’t as corrupted or mutated (I realize that I can’t actually defend this argument, but it may have some, though little, merit).

Q: When you say you used to live in San Francisco, does everyone automatically assume you’re gay?

A: Not everyone, but a few people have, including my apartment broker.
Q: What about when you told people you were going to move out there?

A: Not so much, but i was hit on a few times while living in SF.

Q: Someone once told me he thought SF women were ugly. Compare the women out there to women in other metro areas. 1 to 10.

A: Depends what you’re into; for example, if you like Asians (or even a particular type of Asian), then you’ll be better off in metropolitan areas (NY, SF, LA, and yes, Hawaii too since there are so many Asians there); I wouldn’t ever say that “SF women” are ugly, 1) because it seems moderately asinine, in my opinion, to make a blanket statement about “SF women,” as if all women in SF can be lumped together into one group, or to think that one’s sampling of “SF woman” can warrant such a claim; 2) I don’t think that people are ugly; 3) I might agree that walking around on the street, and I use this term lightly, one might see more attractive people in general in New York than in San Francisco, but I think this has to do with a larger data set, selection bias, and maybe marginal differences in the culture.

I think there are lots of attractive women in the SF/Bay Area, but there are more in New York. To me it’s mostly about numbers, demographics (I tend to like certain types of women), and selection bias (related to demographics); so yeah, I didn’t really answer your question in terms of ranking but i managed to babble for a while

Q: Fine. There are no ugly people out there in the world. Now, for those interested in finance out in California … is SF or LA the better choice, and why?

A: Depends what you want to do; buy side or sell side; SF is better for sell side, traditional investment bank type jobs (banking, research, sales & trading); LA is probably better for buy side asset/money management. SF is also better for venture capital, but the two cities are probably pretty close on private equity and retail brokerage. commerical banking is probably slightly better in SF because a couple large institutions have bases there; they’re probably the same with respect to hedge funds.

Q: What’s the best SF neighborhood to live in?

A: Tough question. Depends what you like to do, what you value, whether you have a family, etc. If you’re younger and single I think most would steer toward the Marina/Cow Hollow, Russian/Nob Hill or South Beach. I lived in South Beach for a few years and liked it; it’ll keep growing and become more developed and residential. Pacific Heights is nice but crazy expensive and stodgy/old money; Sunset/Richmond are nice–very residential, somewhat affordable, good food, but foggy and far away from the action, and Noe Valley is also pleasant but more for families. Haven’t had much experience in the Mission–seems like more of my liberal friends have tended to live there and they all loved it; sorry, again, evaded answering the question directly but it’s a hard question to answer without knowing more or qualifying.

Q: What do you say to the die hard NYCers4Lizzife out there?

A: No city can ever or will ever compare to NYC in terms of all it has to offer, particularly with respect to the arts, finance, food, energy/buzz, cosmopolitan demographics, etc, but the overall quality of life in the bay area is fantastic and worth experiencing.

Q: Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

A: You’re welcome.