Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NYC vs Silicon Valley

metamorphblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 55 posts

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#41

Post by bwh2 »

sak84 wrote: post #31
bwh2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, do you live and/or work in NYC? I find the rent (even in places like Astoria and Fort Greene) to be unreasonable, especially once you consider broker's fees. The best values IMO are in the NJ suburbs, where you can catch a 40 min direct train into Penn Station, but pay half the rent of Manhattan, Hoboken, Astoria, etc. But that's obviously not quite as sexy and appealing. I think a point everyone's miss…

I do live (fort greene) and work (manhattan) in NYC. You should never use broker's though, they're a waste of money. It does take a little work to find a good deal, but you definitely can if you look early enough. Overall, I would agree. NJ seems to have the most cheap places. Great point about 45 commute just inside Manhattan. EDIT: I live in fort greene and I pay 735 a month -- for validation purposes.

Avoiding broker fees is a bit easier said than done IMO. I suppose it's much easier if you already live in the city. But if you're moving to NYC and only have a limited time to find an apartment, it's hard to avoid.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#42

Post by look_lookatme »

pw0ncakes wrote: post #21
sak84 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, you can find cheap places to live, if you're willing to live outside Manhattan. Jersey City, Queens, BK, are all viable options for the scrappy founder.

I agree, but it's a pain in the ass to get into the city from those places. Brooklyn Heights is close to Manhattan and beautiful-- probably one of the nicest neighborhoods in New York-- but it's almost as expensive as living on the island. There are also affordable, beautiful places in the outer boroughs, but an hour's commute away.

I guess we have different definitions of "pain in the ass".

In Brooklyn you can find places to live along the N that are 3 or 4 stops to Union Square.

And yeah, Brooklyn Heights is nice, but other than the promenade and some large apartment buildings, there is nothing there that set it apart from Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens/Park Slope/etc (although those places are expensive in their own right, but nothing like the city).

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#43

Post by look_lookatme »

pw0ncakes wrote: post #32
bwh2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, do you live and/or work in NYC? I find the rent (even in places like Astoria and Fort Greene) to be unreasonable, especially once you consider broker's fees. The best values IMO are in the NJ suburbs, where you can catch a 40 min direct train into Penn Station, but pay half the rent of Manhattan, Hoboken, Astoria, etc. But that's obviously not quite as sexy and appealing. I think a point everyone's miss…

Right. Since urban areas are (in practice) fuzzily-defined, the real economic question is not "What are the rents?" but "What is the best rent/commute/quality-of-life trade-off available?" The fact that a few neighborhoods are expensive isn't relevant, but the fact that every accessible neighborhood is expensive is a problem. Defining "reasonable rent" as 30% of after-tax income (which is about the point at which gov…

I don't want to go off-topic but:

"Defining "reasonable rent" as 30% of after-tax income (which is about the point at which governments should limit rent levels, IMO)"

How on earth would that work?

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#44

Post by look_lookatme »

sak84 wrote: post #31
bwh2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, do you live and/or work in NYC? I find the rent (even in places like Astoria and Fort Greene) to be unreasonable, especially once you consider broker's fees. The best values IMO are in the NJ suburbs, where you can catch a 40 min direct train into Penn Station, but pay half the rent of Manhattan, Hoboken, Astoria, etc. But that's obviously not quite as sexy and appealing. I think a point everyone's miss…

I do live (fort greene) and work (manhattan) in NYC. You should never use broker's though, they're a waste of money. It does take a little work to find a good deal, but you definitely can if you look early enough. Overall, I would agree. NJ seems to have the most cheap places. Great point about 45 commute just inside Manhattan. EDIT: I live in fort greene and I pay 735 a month -- for validation purposes.

"I live in fort greene and I pay 735 a month -- for validation purposes."

With roomates or 1BR/Studio?

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#45

Post by kschrader »

hypermatt wrote: post #5

I don't it helps that most startups here in NYC are pretty lame, ripoffs of yelp or really weak ideas. I have been very unimpressed and stayed away from both startups and wall st.

That's bullshit. There are a lot of impressive startups here and a number of others that are about to come out of the gate that are going to kill it.

I lived in SF for a number of years, and the mix of impressive to unimpressive start-ups is fairly similar in both places.

If you can't find anything interesting it's just because you aren't looking.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#46

Post by jbooth »

mtalantikite wrote: post #25
sak84 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, you can find cheap places to live, if you're willing to live outside Manhattan. Jersey City, Queens, BK, are all viable options for the scrappy founder.

Brownstone Brooklyn isn't exactly cheap -- my place is considered a steal here in Park Slope, but it's still an eyebrow raising amount of money. Places like Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Clinton Hill are gentrifying quickly, and rents are getting up near the $2k month for a 1 bedroom mark. It's just not sustainable.

Bushwick. $1275, 1BR. Booyeah.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#47

Post by pw0ncakes »

look_lookatme wrote: post #43
pw0ncakes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Since urban areas are (in practice) fuzzily-defined, the real economic question is not "What are the rents?" but "What is the best rent/commute/quality-of-life trade-off available?" The fact that a few neighborhoods are expensive isn't relevant, but the fact that every accessible neighborhood is expensive is a problem. Defining "reasonable rent" as 30% of after-tax income (which is about the point at which gov…

I don't want to go off-topic but: "Defining "reasonable rent" as 30% of after-tax income (which is about the point at which governments should limit rent levels, IMO)" How on earth would that work?

Make it illegal to spend more than 30% of one's after-tax income on rent. A fine is assessed to the landlord (and a small token fine of perhaps $50 to the tenant).

Now the glut of idiots (and parentally-funded schmucks who currently live in $4000+/month apartments while working unpaid marketing/fashion internships, who would be forced out of the city) willing to destroy their finances in order to live in New York is gone; they're forced by law out of the auction. Our rents are high because we have to compete with these assholes. So let's take them out.

Landlords will either lower their rents to reasonable values or accept vacancies.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#48

Post by dgallagher »

mtalantikite wrote: post #40
dgallagher wrote: post #28

I hate Boston. Would never live there. So ignoring that city, where are you going to find, ohh, let's say Speech Engineers? Why hate Boston? I would disagree. Boston's a great city to live in. It's much smaller than NYC so you can walk from one end to the other, is a lot more scenic, and my favorite part of all is that it isn't gritty/dirty like NYC is (unless you head out to Boston's outskirts like Ashland/Brighton/…

Boston occupies a strange place in my heart. I grew up in and around Boston, but am now a New Yorker, and I don't think I could ever move back. There are definitely worse places to live, but Boston has always felt more like a really big small town than a city to me, and the amount of close-mindedness and racism I've found in Boston has always been surprising to me. I just often don't feel comfortable in Boston. While…

Perhaps I was harsh implying "no beauty". The definition of beauty is something that differs from person to person, depending on what then enjoy and where they are in life. I think we can agree that it comes down to a matter of personal preference. :)

I'm curious, but what racism did you see or experience in Boston? I'm likely shielded from it (white American english-speaking male), so it's not something that I've ever experienced.

Will check out Brooklyn the next time I visit. I've only ever spent a lot of time in Manhattan.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#49

Post by pw0ncakes »

jbooth wrote: post #46
mtalantikite wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brownstone Brooklyn isn't exactly cheap -- my place is considered a steal here in Park Slope, but it's still an eyebrow raising amount of money. Places like Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Clinton Hill are gentrifying quickly, and rents are getting up near the $2k month for a 1 bedroom mark. It's just not sustainable.

Bushwick. $1275, 1BR. Booyeah.

This shows how far New York has diverged from reality. No one in any other city would consider this "booyeah" worthy.

In most cities, you can raise a family in a $1275/month apartment.

Re: NYC vs Silicon Valley

#50

Post by timcederman »

dgallagher wrote: post #28

I hate Boston. Would never live there. So ignoring that city, where are you going to find, ohh, let's say Speech Engineers? Why hate Boston? I would disagree. Boston's a great city to live in. It's much smaller than NYC so you can walk from one end to the other, is a lot more scenic, and my favorite part of all is that it isn't gritty/dirty like NYC is (unless you head out to Boston's outskirts like Ashland/Brighton/…

The culture in Boston is adverse to startups.
Post reply on HN