Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison • Hacker News Board

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#71

Post by gvb » Mon, May 03, 2010, 3:33 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #50

gvb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_State... "At 8.25%, California has the highest state sales tax, which can total up to 10.75% with local sales tax included." "Washington has a 6.5% statewide sales tax." What am I missing???

The point is that although our sales tax is high in Washington, partly because we do not have in income tax, it's still not as high as California, which DOES have an income tax--and a pretty hefty income tax at that. Hence when we tell Californians that not having an income tax is not as great as it sounds because it means we pay an outrageously high sales tax, and then they realize that our outrageously high sales t…

Ahh, thanks. I was missing the irony. :-D

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#72

Post by MartinCron » Mon, May 03, 2010, 3:45 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #61

MartinCron wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That chart doesn't take into account the difference in latitude, it gets dark pretty early up here in Seattle, and while it stays light later in the summer, it is more than some people can bear.

Having grown up in Norway and currently living in Sweden I have to say I find the short summer evenings in the southern part of the world really jarring. I cannot get used to it being pitch black outside by (what feels like) mid-afternoon during the summer.

The same thing happened to me the first time I was in in Hawaii. I was sitting by the beach and I wondered "why on earth are they lighting tiki torches in the middle of the day?"

The sun just fell out of the sky around ten minutes later. Very jarring indeed.

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#73

Post by mikebo » Mon, May 03, 2010, 5:15 PM UTC

korch wrote: post #56

dylanz wrote: post #39

Weather. I'm a Californian who grew up in a "sunny" California city, and I've been living in Seattle for the last year. I've also spent a lot of time in San Francisco in my lifetime. I, miss, the, sun. Every time I go back to California and visit family/friends, I start to realize how depressed I am up in the Pacific North West. I've had more that one person recommend that I take Vitamin D supplements, which is suppo…

As a transplant from Seattle to LA, give me sunshine any day! LA gets 283 sunny days/year, and now I tend to forget what rain and clouds even look and feel like. So what if the total cost of living is higher by a solid percentage. You can be a helluva lot more productive if you don't want to jump off the Aurora bridge every day because the darkness is triggering major depression around whatever else is going on in yo…

I agree with your conclusion, but it is industry specific. I'd argue that in the tech industry, LA vs. Seattle is basically a wash in terms of career ceiling. Silicon Valley on the other hand...

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#74

Post by ck2 » Mon, May 03, 2010, 6:29 PM UTC

natrius wrote: post #30

jrp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect the crime levels to sort of coincide over the nation. In fact, they don't: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=violent+crime+in+seattl... but it does seem that they do between these two cities. It is weird. Here's something else: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=violent+crime+in+washin... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=violent+crime+in+washin... Hypothesis: the country at large has a crime r…

Is "magic variable" the new street name for crack cocaine? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_epidemic_(United_States)

According to that very page, the crack epidemic is over.

Are drugs really the source of most crime? Kinda doubt that.

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#75

Post by hoprocker » Mon, May 03, 2010, 7:03 PM UTC

dylanz wrote: post #39

Weather. I'm a Californian who grew up in a "sunny" California city, and I've been living in Seattle for the last year. I've also spent a lot of time in San Francisco in my lifetime. I, miss, the, sun. Every time I go back to California and visit family/friends, I start to realize how depressed I am up in the Pacific North West. I've had more that one person recommend that I take Vitamin D supplements, which is suppo…

Conversation with friend from Seattle:

Him: "It's funny that San Franciscans say they live in the Northwest." Me: "Really? What do people in Seattle call the area San Francisco is in?" Him: "The tropics."

Re: Relocating from San Francisco to Seattle: cost comparison

#76

Post by geebee » Mon, May 03, 2010, 9:04 PM UTC

hoprocker wrote: post #75

dylanz wrote: post #39

Weather. I'm a Californian who grew up in a "sunny" California city, and I've been living in Seattle for the last year. I've also spent a lot of time in San Francisco in my lifetime. I, miss, the, sun. Every time I go back to California and visit family/friends, I start to realize how depressed I am up in the Pacific North West. I've had more that one person recommend that I take Vitamin D supplements, which is suppo…

Conversation with friend from Seattle: Him: "It's funny that San Franciscans say they live in the Northwest." Me: "Really? What do people in Seattle call the area San Francisco is in?" Him: "The tropics."

Fair enough as long as you aren't talking about the small sliver of coastline running along the western half of SF. A marathon is held there every summer. I ran it once, on streets that were wet with fog, in a nice cool (mid 50's) mist. It was 80+ in Berkeley that day, and 90+ in Sonoma.

When you drive up the peninsula along 280 on a hot summer day, you see an amazing wave of fog rolling over the mountains. You hit it, and within 5 minutes, you've turned the air conditioner off and the heater on. It's no exaggeration to say that 30-40 degree temperature changes are common over the span of about 3 miles.

And on skyline, near the coast in pacifica, it actually feels hazardous to drive it's so hard to see.