A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M • Hacker News Board

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#111

Post by rjsw » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

mmanfrin wrote: post #91

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

San Francisco is surrounded by cities which are not San Francisco. Manhattan is part of New York City, and is surrounded by more of New York City. If someone lived 80 miles away from Zurich, in a German town such as Sankt Märgen, Google is telling me that it would take 2h 51m [1]. This tells me that if the woman in the Article made that same distance commute in German/Switzerland with, say, 30 minutes of slack, she w…

You seem to have picked the town that is furthest away from an Autobahn in Southern Germany.

There are plenty of small towns along the Rhine or near the Bodensee that are commutable to Zurich.

People commute to Geneva from France too.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#112

Post by jmckib » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:54 PM UTC

JohnDotAwesome wrote: post #94

JustAnotherPat wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically impossible to get a job in Zurich though. In San Fransisco, a coding bootcamp grad can get 140K out the door. This is how capitalism works. We take the bad with the good. Politics reflect the will of the people and the people in San Fransisco on both sides of the aisle want to make as much money as they can, any way they can.

> In San Fransisco, a coding bootcamp grad can get 140K out the door I really hope that's not true

It is, though I'd say the average is closer to 100-120k. Not sure why that's a bad thing though.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#113

Post by alphonsegaston » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:54 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #81

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

> The housing and infrastructure problems in the SFBA are purely political, and self-inflicted. That's true, but the implication that these decisions are inarguably stupid ("self-inflicted") is unfair. It's a conscious and IMHO defensible choice by the people who already live here: we would prefer to deal with the problems caused by insufficient housing than by the problems caused by overly dense population.

Politics in the US are controlled by the rich, so the idea that "the people" are choosing to deal with the consequences of this housing crisis is absurd.

What's happening is that the wealthy are externalizing all the suffering caused by their voracious rent-seeking onto those beneath them, including middle class developers who think their interests align with them (they don't).

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#114

Post by komali2 » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:54 PM UTC

mudil wrote: post #24

Liberals like to talk big about the public transportation, but when it comes time to deliver they follow the unions' script that results in exuberant costs (to build the system and to run it) and extremely poor performance. And as a result the average folks and the poor suffer the most.

Woah what, can you source any of that? Seems like you just took an opportunity to attack a political mindset.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#115

Post by cyri » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

Been doing that for a couple of years. Works well. No need to switch the train between Waldshut/Koblenz and Zurich. Allows me 2h of coding each day during the train ride.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#116

Post by 0xffff2 » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC

lex_luthor wrote: post #59

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

True. But a non-political solution to affordable housing could be coming soon in the form of rapid transit via Hyperloop. Hyperloop could put deflationary pressure on housing prices. If Hyperloop actually materializes, and their route transit times are anywhere near what they say they will be, then real estate prices should decline in the bay area, or at the worst level out. I doubt people will continue to pay crazy…

Soon? When has a major infrastructure project that hasn't even broken ground ever realistically promised to deliver for any reasonable value of soon? And Hyperloop is far from even being proven feasible, much less breaking ground.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#117

Post by jakelarkin » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

Reporters keep trying to find profiles of the housing crisis but this seems disingenuous. A lot of what this woman is doing is a choice; waking up hours before the train, huge house in Stockton vs condo/apartment closer. She makes $80k/year meaning post-tax $4600/month. She could easily afford a nice 1 or 2 bedroom in Pittsburg or Pleasanton for ~$2k a month, and her door-to-door commute would be well under 80 minutes.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#118

Post by d--b » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

JustAnotherPat wrote: post #84

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

It's basically impossible to get a job in Zurich though. In San Fransisco, a coding bootcamp grad can get 140K out the door. This is how capitalism works. We take the bad with the good. Politics reflect the will of the people and the people in San Fransisco on both sides of the aisle want to make as much money as they can, any way they can.

Zurich is a city whose main industry is banking. There are a lot of _very_ well paid jobs in Zurich.

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#119

Post by chx » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

rjsw wrote: post #111

mmanfrin wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco is surrounded by cities which are not San Francisco. Manhattan is part of New York City, and is surrounded by more of New York City. If someone lived 80 miles away from Zurich, in a German town such as Sankt Märgen, Google is telling me that it would take 2h 51m [1]. This tells me that if the woman in the Article made that same distance commute in German/Switzerland with, say, 30 minutes of slack, she w…

You seem to have picked the town that is furthest away from an Autobahn in Southern Germany. There are plenty of small towns along the Rhine or near the Bodensee that are commutable to Zurich. People commute to Geneva from France too.

The tram in Geneva goes to the French border, that's not comparable!

Re: A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M

#120

Post by ucaetano » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:56 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #81

ucaetano wrote: post #52

San Francisco has more than twice the area of Manhattan, with half the population. The San Francisco Bay Area CSA has about the same population as Switzerland, with 2/3 of the area of Switzerland. Both have similar GDPs. If someone wanted to live in Germany, and commute to work in Zurich, with Swiss salaries and German cost-of-living, their commute would be about 1h15min. The housing and infrastructure problems in th…

> The housing and infrastructure problems in the SFBA are purely political, and self-inflicted. That's true, but the implication that these decisions are inarguably stupid ("self-inflicted") is unfair. It's a conscious and IMHO defensible choice by the people who already live here: we would prefer to deal with the problems caused by insufficient housing than by the problems caused by overly dense population.

I never claimed them to be stupid. Your words, not mine.

But the Stanford professor writing about the plight of the poor workers commuting for 2 hours lives in a multi-million dollar home in Atherton and votes for anti-poor-people zoning laws.

The young, billionaire, startup CEO who wants to cause a positive impact in the world lives in Los Altos Hills, where zoning laws forbid lot sizes smaller than 1 acre, and bans multi-family housing or more than one dwelling per lot.

And the progressive tech worker who advocates for low-income-housing and makes $250k per year lives in a rent-controlled apartment in the Mission paying half of the market rates.

The Bay Area housing situation is a tragedy of the commons.