Hey JSN, I lived there my whole life and just moved to New Zealand a year ago. Craigslist.org has everything you need from finding a good roomate to finding a pot doc, which is amazingly easy, just bring those records.

San Fransisco is such an amazingly safe city, even the Tenderloin which is just a couple ugly blocks of town was, compared to other citys, fairly safe. I walked through there alone when I was fifteen everyday, plenty of people shooting up but no one ever threatened me.

Caltrain is the best train line ive seen. Consider some of the many many other cities just south, bullet trains get you to the heart of San Fran in 30mins from the otherside of the bay.

Is your troubled missus coming with? might open here up a bit. Its a radical change from where youre from