What’s your historical San Francisco and New York connection?

Born and raised 5 minutes from the GGB >>> moved to NYC for college and have been living here ever since (UWS, Chels-Packing, SoHo, Nolita, and now Williamsburg) and I never, ever want to leave.

Describe your experience in SF and your experience in NYC.
SF is my hometown and I still sort of know it from the perspective of a teenager. If you need a park to huddle in drinking 40s with your friends, I can recommend a few. The city has changed a lot since I lived there, mainly due to the heavy start up/tech scene which I feel needs to be balanced out a bit. I now appreciate SF for always reminding me to chill out, and that you can wear spandex and flannel everywhere and it’s totally acceptable. NYC is the love of my life. I like to call NYC an onion, because no matter how much you think you know about this city, there are still layers to peel off. It constantly surprises and delights you but in turn you have to be ready for a lot of excitement and sometimes even a little discomfort. But if you can handle that, you get to be a part of the most magical place in the world.

What was the biggest challenge of moving between NYC and SF?
I miss my family! They are also bi-coastal, but spend the majority of their time in SF/Sonoma. I’m accustomed to the 5 hour flight at this point, but wouldn’t it be nice to swap out Long Island for SF (for so many reasons) and cut out all that travel time?

How can NYC and SF best engage with each other?
Stop drawing comparisons! These places are nothing alike. There is no place like SF, and there is definitely no place in the world like NYC 🙂 Also, we can debunk some myths- San Francisco can have great weather in places like Noe Valley and the Misson, but the city is broken into micro-climates and if you live in the Northern part of the city you are looking at fog, fog, and cold. And NYC can have mean people, but learn to speak the language of New York you will also learn that it’s actually one of the safest, nicest places in the world.

Favorite SF secret spot
The glass elevators at the St. Francis Union Square. I could ride them up and down for days.

Favorite NYC secret spot
Wherever Vishal is.

If you were not where you are now, what would you be doing?
I just landed my dream job! So my answer to this is that I just want more hours in the day to do everything I’m already doing, especially spending time with my amazing tribe of best friends and finding more creative ways to enjoy our city and make magic and mischief together.

Roadtrip Entertainment: tell us what song/album, TV show, podcast, or web videos you’ve been watching lately.
Narcos– every entrepreneurial minded person should be watching this. Because, yes, drug cartels are start-ups too.

Black Mirror– this is the most fascinating series I have seen in years. It examines what could happen if we keep going down the path of being addicted to technology and social/digital media.

Bill Nye– got back into him when I booked him as a speaker for the Life is Beautiful speaker series last month. *No I am not sponsored by Netflix. Yet…