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Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

nytimes.com

31–40 of 125 posts

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for LA, but from the people I've spoken with Seattle and -maybe- Austin have the strongest ratio of tech work vs. cost of living.

Seattle is pretty nice, especially if you can ignore the random junkies and homeless tent and RV encampments around town.

Oh no, the last time I visited Seattle was in 2010. Has it gone to shit since then?

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#32
Last time I was in SF I stayed near the Tenderloin area: I've never seen anything like that level of homelessness, neglect and dysfunction in any other first world country.

The existence of such conditions in a city of billionaires is shameful shit.

The US economy generates over $100k per household, and people are living on the street, or crammed into dorm rooms? It's a cruel, obscene disgrace.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is so extroverted that they want to have other people peering in to their lives every moment of the day (unless they are walking so closely in lockstep with culture that there's literally nothing about them that could cause friction.) There's a reason why people born in compressed, shared living conditions tend to buy houses when they can. If you don't live in a "dorm" you can control your environment, for exa…

Globalism is going to lead to an averaging out of the standards of living across the globe. People from wealthy nations are in for a rude awakening.

True story. I share a messy studio with my girlfriend in the Bay Area. We’ve both at times felt like it’s weird for us to live in a small cramped space, but any time I learn about life for poorer people the world over I realize that living in cramped messy places is the global norm. The fact that I grew up around clean single family homes is just an artifact of the wealth around me.

I will say though that I hope robotics can increase global wealth dramatically enough for everyone that no one has to see their quality of life go down.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#34
post #4
post #2

Ah,the American dream. Go through four years of college and 100k of student loans so you can live in a $2400 dorm room while barely making ends meet. I'm moving to the Bay area in a few months and these sorts of stories make me question whether it's the right move.

You go to SF to launch your career then GTFO ASAP to a less 'enlightened' part of the US where you don't have to worry about hyper sensitivity and your dollar actually counts for something.

What nonsense. Sure, the valley can teach you some new JavaScript frameworks and how to best invade your users privacy to sell ads, but real programming happens everywhere. There’s plenty of ways to launch your career without working for Zuckerberg or Bezos.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#35
post #4
post #2

Ah,the American dream. Go through four years of college and 100k of student loans so you can live in a $2400 dorm room while barely making ends meet. I'm moving to the Bay area in a few months and these sorts of stories make me question whether it's the right move.

You go to SF to launch your career then GTFO ASAP to a less 'enlightened' part of the US where you don't have to worry about hyper sensitivity and your dollar actually counts for something.

It depends. The big X tech companies, and hot unicorns in the bay area pay crazy salaries for engineers.

3k a month doesn't seem too bad when you are making 200k+, which is close to ~triple what you'd make in some rando mid sized city.

Working for the average SF startup though? Yeah, you'd be better off somewhere else.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#36
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go to SF to launch your career then GTFO ASAP to a less 'enlightened' part of the US where you don't have to worry about hyper sensitivity and your dollar actually counts for something.

It depends. The big X tech companies, and hot unicorns in the bay area pay crazy salaries for engineers. 3k a month doesn't seem too bad when you are making 200k+, which is close to ~triple what you'd make in some rando mid sized city. Working for the average SF startup though? Yeah, you'd be better off somewhere else.

And yet, the housing market still makes buying prohibitive in that same region.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#37
post #8

> to turn into dorm rooms for the middle class. let's be real here, the middle class in the bay area/SF makes $250k+ per household. there's nothing wrong with living in dorms, but there is something disturbing about calling this the 'middle class' in SF.

Median household income in SF is $78k.

i'm seeing some different information.

on wikipedia- it says $78k, but that data is apparently from 2010-2014.

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_...

newer data suggests it is at least $87k, with some sources suggesting $92k+

>California Association of Realtors also estimates that the minimum qualifying income to buy in San Francisco is $254,000 annually.

i think being in the 'middle class' should mean you have some hope of escaping rent and actually own something reasonable.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Globalism is going to lead to an averaging out of the standards of living across the globe. People from wealthy nations are in for a rude awakening.

True story. I share a messy studio with my girlfriend in the Bay Area. We’ve both at times felt like it’s weird for us to live in a small cramped space, but any time I learn about life for poorer people the world over I realize that living in cramped messy places is the global norm. The fact that I grew up around clean single family homes is just an artifact of the wealth around me. I will say though that I hope robo…

The statistic that constantly rattles around in my head is that 70% of the world lives on less than $10/day. There's an awful long way down from here.

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is so extroverted that they want to have other people peering in to their lives every moment of the day (unless they are walking so closely in lockstep with culture that there's literally nothing about them that could cause friction.) There's a reason why people born in compressed, shared living conditions tend to buy houses when they can. If you don't live in a "dorm" you can control your environment, for exa…

Globalism is going to lead to an averaging out of the standards of living across the globe. People from wealthy nations are in for a rude awakening.

> Globalism is going to lead to an averaging out of the standards of living across the globe. People from wealthy nations are in for a rude awakening.

In another couple decades, most definitely. Soon? Nah. China is rapidly aging, their economy is overheating, they're about to go through their own debt unwinding. Africa is just a mess. Maybe? I'll believe it when I see it. The United States, regardless of current events, is remarkably stable compared to the rest of the world. That has value.

SF and NYC are a microcosm of the first world. You would have a much higher quality of living in any number of cities or smaller communities in the US or Europe. I'm partial to Berlin, Barcelona, Prague, and most of Portugal, but YMMV.

I bang out comments on Hacker News while overlooking my backyard pool in Florida in a 4 bed/2.5 bath house for ~$1400/month. Why would I trade that for a dorm with shared bathrooms in the most expensive city in the world?

Re: Dorm living for professionals comes to SF

#40
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go to SF to launch your career then GTFO ASAP to a less 'enlightened' part of the US where you don't have to worry about hyper sensitivity and your dollar actually counts for something.

It depends. The big X tech companies, and hot unicorns in the bay area pay crazy salaries for engineers. 3k a month doesn't seem too bad when you are making 200k+, which is close to ~triple what you'd make in some rando mid sized city. Working for the average SF startup though? Yeah, you'd be better off somewhere else.

Are that many SF tech workers making over 200 grand a year?
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