I lived in SF for a couple of years, in the 'burbs since. The city is crowded and noisy, but I guess all cities are. It's a great city for cultural opportunities, shopping, walking, etc. Northern California in general is a great place to live because there's so much geographical diversity, natural splendor, etc. If you like it warm, you'd do better in an inland suburb.
SF is always a little chilly, always 'sweater weather'. The air comes in off the ocean and it's clean and fresh like a drink of cold water. It doesn't change that much from Summer to Winter, in fact because of the fog the average temp.
Is cooler in Summer! The North Bay, South Bay and East Bay are warmer. It's expensive to live in the city, in fact during the 'Dot.Com Boom' of the Clinton years some rents went up >300%!
The suburbs are cheaper and more convenient in many ways (traffic, noise, space, etc.) The fact is, there's not that much going on in the city anymore. Years ago everyone in the burbs commuted to The City, these days it's the other way around.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.