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Find a new city

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Re: Find a new city

#121

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

tbrownaw wrote: post #94
ryandrake wrote: post #26

I used to live in Nowhere, Florida, and would move back in a heartbeat, but from an employment standpoint it became too risky. Most places outside of The Usual Tech Hubs are one-horse towns when it comes to tech employment, major opportunity risk. If you're a software engineer and live in the Bay Area and suddenly lose your job, depending on the economy you're probably in for a 1-6 month job search at local companies…

Most places outside of The Usual Tech Hubs are one-horse towns when it comes to tech employment, major opportunity risk. I've heard that a lack of other major employers competing for the same employees is a significant consideration for large companies looking to change cities. They can hire people from wherever and pay relocation, then not worry about them jumping ship over mildly lousy raises. (Source: recruiters i…

The flip side of that argument is that people aren't stupid. They think of just that problem: "if I lose/don't like my job, where else can I find work?"

If the answer is "two hours east," then most applicants will pass on the "opportunity."

Re: Find a new city

#122

Post by mooreds »

st3v3r wrote: post #36
wrsh07 wrote: post #4

I definitely understand the need for a progressive city -- I grew up in the midwest in a place that was decidedly not. But Paul Graham gave a talk about how Pittsburgh could be the next startup city [1]. And price factors in for both artists and entrepreneurs. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/pgh.html

If that's true, then why isn't PG holding Y Combinators in those other cities? I mean, he's the one running it; he should (relatively) easily be able to set one up wherever he wants.

Techstars (am I even allowed to post about them here ;) ) has franchised to different cities: http://www.techstars.com/programs/

Re: Find a new city

#123

Post by Pfhreak »

nostromo wrote: post #60
rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

Have you actually spent time in Raleigh or Atlanta? The idea that trans people are getting murdered in the street is just not correct. I'm gay and I've spent a lot of fun nights in Boise, Idaho because a gay friend of mine lives there with her wife. We always have a blast. She has a great career in Boise and I don't think she's experienced more homophobia there than when she lived in New York City. (I know she had at…

> I think a lot of coastal elites have no idea what they're talking about when they speak about the extreme danger of being different in middle-America.

I suspect you are undervaluing the impact a region's law and culture can have. Being murdered is not the only danger of being trans in America.

LGBTQ individuals are the single largest target for hate crime. [1] Trans women, in particular, seem to draw both violent crime, hate speech, and legislation that makes their lives considerably more difficult.

Trans individuals more frequently suffer secondary health impacts simply for fear of using public restrooms. They may not use a restroom when they need to, or deliberately dehydrate themselves to avoid having to use a public restroom.

Even without violence, being the target of aggressive/hateful language when in public is not something anyone should have to deal with. It's an emotional burden that can lead to other emotional and physical symptoms of anxiety and depression.

When legislation like NC's HB2 goes on the books, it can make trans people targets. (See instances where people stood outside public restrooms 'checking' for trans individuals, or in Washington state, where the I-1515's initiative chairmen encouraged men to follow women into the restrooms to deliberately make them uncomfortable so they'd sign the initiative.)

The danger is definitely there, across many axes. Some of the dangers are subtle, and may not be obvious on casual inspection, but it definitely feels like there's extreme danger even in communities as liberal as Seattle -- let alone in areas where there's less tolerance.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimes...

Re: Find a new city

#124

Post by abetusk »

For those looking for cheap cities to live, I've found Zillow's data [1] on mortgage price to income ratio data [2] interesting.

Some choice datapoints:

    San Francisco, CA 9.1817795575535
    Boston, MA        4.9264239374417
    New York, NY      5.5458400782590
    Detroit, MI       2.22905530728586
    St. Louis, MO     2.4588523706753
I think the national average is around 3.1 and around 3.0 is considered "healthy" (your mortgage costs about 3x your yearly income).

[1] http://www.zillow.com/research/data/

[2] http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/Affordability_...

Re: Find a new city

#125

Post by JoshTriplett »

abetusk wrote: post #124

For those looking for cheap cities to live, I've found Zillow's data [1] on mortgage price to income ratio data [2] interesting. Some choice datapoints: San Francisco, CA 9.1817795575535 Boston, MA 4.9264239374417 New York, NY 5.5458400782590 Detroit, MI 2.22905530728586 St. Louis, MO 2.4588523706753 I think the national average is around 3.1 and around 3.0 is considered "healthy" (your mortgage costs about 3x your y…

Interesting to see how much Portland spiked in the last decade, from ~3 to >5. I wonder how much of the surrounding area that includes? I've seen housing prices skyrocket in Portland, but much less so in surrounding areas. (They've still increased, but I'd hypothesize that they haven't increased nearly as much as within Portland. I'd love to see separated data to check that hypothesis, though.)

Re: Find a new city

#126

Post by logfromblammo »

refurb wrote: post #108
initram wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's not only about being safe. I don't have to worry too much about that sort of thing because I blend in most places in my country. But I've lived where people had different values than me and it just gets exhausting. Constantly being bombarded with messages you fundamentally disagree with 24/7. Billboards; local TV; newpapers/web sites; overhearing conversations of the people around you; having odd things s…

But I've lived where people had different values than me and it just gets exhausting. Really? I thought diversity was a good thing? I know I wouldn't want to live somewhere where everyone thought the same thing I did. Sounds boring.

Diversity is a good thing. It's what keeps one opinion from forming a supermajority and subsequently browbeating all non-aligned opinions into lonely silence.

For instance, a lot of people around here enjoy football--so many, in fact, that it leads people to assume that everybody likes it. I don't. I think it's a fundamentally flawed sport, and not particularly interesting to watch. But since it's so popular, it's all that anyone ever seems to talk about, especially around the time of the big university rivalry game.

After the last pro game in February, I breathe a sigh of relief, thinking it's done until late summer, and maybe the sportos will turn to baseball or soccer or volleyball or lacrosse or water polo as a topic of conversation. Nope. Let's instead immediately speculate on next football season.

Do other sports even exist around here? Can we talk about both Team Whyachi bots getting knocked out of the Battlebots tournament early? Maybe talk about non-Democrat and non-Republican political issues? Maybe you've read a book lately? No? All you know is football? Oh, great; you can also talk about how you go to your conservative Protestant Christian church more than once in any given week.

This is why the spouse and I actually got excited to see a guy with visible piercings and tattoos. And to hear two lesbians with hideously thick Bostonian accents celebrate at a game. It's even sort of interesting to hear grown-ass adults talk about catching Pokemon. When everyone is the same, doing and saying the same thing, it is so tediously boring that it hurts. That is exhausting.

Re: Find a new city

#127

Post by kilroy123 »

whybroke wrote: post #38
mkolodny wrote: post #17

I love the sentiment. Silicon Valley and NYC became what they are because of people hacking on things in garages / shitty apartments. Now those shitty apartments cost $2,000/month. The equivalent of those places, where things like Apple started, isn't Silicon Valley and NYC. It's places like Detroit. Or wherever people doing cool things decide to move and congregate. Then again, it is still possible to live cheaply i…

Unfortunately, as soon as an area demonstrates it is becoming a significant hacker/maker region, speculation drives housing process through the roof killing the trend before it seriously takes off. For example Portland OR. If there is ever going to be another profuondly innovative tech center (ala early SV) we have to solve the way housing prices work first.

But to be fair, Portland _is_ trying. Every hole in the ground, is a mid-level apartment building going up. Yeah it's changing rapidly here and prices have risen. Still, you have to give the city some props for trying very hard to deal with it.

Unlike San Fransisco that doesn't drastically try to increase inventory.

Re: Find a new city

#128

Post by bufordsharkley »

forgotuser wrote: post #112
bufordsharkley wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wanted to look more into CLTs, but haven't yet-- What's stopping CLTs from existing today? Is it merely the novelty and relative complication of the CLT? Or is there policy that makes them impractical?

They do exist! There are, I believe, currently a few hundred in the US. They're just spreading very, very slowly. I imagine the main issue is a combination of lack of public awareness + the difficulty of acquiring land + lack of public policy to accommodate the weird structure.

Ah, interesting. I'm familiar with some of the historical land trusts (Fairhope, Arden), but not the contemporary ones... I really need to learn more.

I suppose they're mainly helpful for before when a housing market reaches the breaking point. That is, before the land is unaffordable.

Are people trying CLTs in Detroit? It seems a natural place to experiment with it.

Re: Find a new city

#129

Post by abetusk »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #125
abetusk wrote: post #124

For those looking for cheap cities to live, I've found Zillow's data [1] on mortgage price to income ratio data [2] interesting. Some choice datapoints: San Francisco, CA 9.1817795575535 Boston, MA 4.9264239374417 New York, NY 5.5458400782590 Detroit, MI 2.22905530728586 St. Louis, MO 2.4588523706753 I think the national average is around 3.1 and around 3.0 is considered "healthy" (your mortgage costs about 3x your y…

Interesting to see how much Portland spiked in the last decade, from ~3 to >5. I wonder how much of the surrounding area that includes? I've seen housing prices skyrocket in Portland, but much less so in surrounding areas. (They've still increased, but I'd hypothesize that they haven't increased nearly as much as within Portland. I'd love to see separated data to check that hypothesis, though.)

It looks like they're using a metro region. If you take a look at their "county crosswalk" [1] data that might give more information about it. For example NYC is "MetroRegionID_Zillow" 394913 that has a corresponding "RegionID" in the price to income dataset.

[1] http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/CountyCrossWal...

Re: Find a new city

#130

Post by somethingsimple »

nostromo wrote: post #60
rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

Have you actually spent time in Raleigh or Atlanta? The idea that trans people are getting murdered in the street is just not correct. I'm gay and I've spent a lot of fun nights in Boise, Idaho because a gay friend of mine lives there with her wife. We always have a blast. She has a great career in Boise and I don't think she's experienced more homophobia there than when she lived in New York City. (I know she had at…

Anecdotal: a friend of a friend, of Middle Eastern origin, had a gun shown to him at a gas station in some town in Texas, followed by "you do not belong here."

As for myself, I'm a Latino immigrant and as much as I'd like to know a lot of America, there are places I'm just afraid to travel to.

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