San Francisco Bay Area: housing prices. BART could be improved.
California taxes are quite high, too.
Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
51–60 of 132 posts
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#52Chicago
1: Segregation. The black and brown people are all concentrated in the South and West sides, along with most of the violent crime. Despicable and sad.
2: Lack of nature nearby. The city has some nice parks, especially the public lake front, but there isn't any decent camping within a 3 or 4 hour drive.
3: Weather. I've lived here my whole life, and I am becoming less tolerant of the winters as I age.
The traffic is pretty bad too, but I bike commute so I don't really feel that part too much. Finally, and this is a more pernicious problem, but the state's fiscal situation is terrible. It doesn't seem like such an issue now (especially for a fairly affluent white guy like me), but the future will almost certainly include service reductions combined with higher taxes.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#53SF Bay Area:
1.) Traffic. I simply can't drive anywhere anymore between the hours of 2-8 PM.
2.) Zero sense of community. The only reason anyone lives here is to make money. Young people are incapable of existing here without a $100k+ job or living with their parents.
3.) Rent/housing goes without saying
4.) Random insane scary dangerous people walking the streets everywhere. This was a real weird one for someone coming from the midwest.
Beyond that it's not too bad. The best weather in the country, public transit isn't terrible (relative to the rest of the US), great food, and endless jobs.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#54Chicago (specifically Printers Row/South Loop): 1. Homes - Many apartment buildings are 75-100 years old which comes with a whole slew of issues - Buying a condo or apartment in the city is difficult due to Illinois taxes and the states shit financial situation 2. Outdoors - Chicago has a fantastic lake front and some public parks that are nice but there is little to no, "outdoory" things to do in the city or even ne…
Lol, I am from Chicago living next to Boulder now. Everyone on my street is from the midwest, the weather here in the winter and summer is 1000x better.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#55Dallas/Ft. Worth Since DFW is so spread out, many suburbs don't have public transportation or limited transportation. I cannot take a bus door to door to my office. I would have to drive to a "park and ride" location to begin my commute. There are no bus stops/lines near my home. I suppose this would be a welcome change for someone living in NYC. Everywhere takes 15-30 minutes to get to. We don't measure distance in…
TX property taxes are crazy high to offset no income tax, so the income tax is a trade off.
Yup, my house in CO is twice the price and half the property taxes of the TX house I had.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#56Chicago (specifically Printers Row/South Loop): 1. Homes - Many apartment buildings are 75-100 years old which comes with a whole slew of issues - Buying a condo or apartment in the city is difficult due to Illinois taxes and the states shit financial situation 2. Outdoors - Chicago has a fantastic lake front and some public parks that are nice but there is little to no, "outdoory" things to do in the city or even ne…
I'll add that while it's got a great transportation system, it's still a very car centric city.
Train transportation is directed at getting you into the loop, and not so great if you want to traverse to other parts of the city. Want to go from Pilsen to Lincoln Park? You'll probably drive. Pilsen to Wicker Park? I doubt you are going to take the bus, so you'll drive there too.
The advantage of it being flat is that you can cycle to those places, but that option doesn't work 4-5 months out of the year.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#57Chicago (specifically Printers Row/South Loop): 1. Homes - Many apartment buildings are 75-100 years old which comes with a whole slew of issues - Buying a condo or apartment in the city is difficult due to Illinois taxes and the states shit financial situation 2. Outdoors - Chicago has a fantastic lake front and some public parks that are nice but there is little to no, "outdoory" things to do in the city or even ne…
And yes, please give me the Denver version of this as I'm seriously considering a move there. (Portland too please)
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#58Salt Lake City, UT: 1) Very poor air quality in winter due to inversions. 2) The local popular religion (Mormonism) has an outsized influence on legislation, so there are weird laws surrounding alcohol, business on Sundays, use of downtown property, etc. Outside of SLC proper people assume everyone is Mormon, and one's religion (or lack of it) can affect job opportunities, etc. 3) The city is extremely car-centric, w…
>"2) The local popular religion (Mormonism) has an outsized influence on legislation, so there are weird laws surrounding alcohol, business on Sundays, use of downtown property, etc. Outside of SLC proper people assume everyone is Mormon, and one's religion (or lack of it) can affect job opportunities, etc."
This really annoys me as someone who loves the state of Utah.
People who don't really know about the Mormons and Utah think that it's just some quaint thing like the Amish in Pennsylvania or whatever. They don't realize that the Utah government is essentially a theocracy controlled by the LDS church, which dictates every aspect of society in the state. It makes the place completely unlivable for normal people who would otherwise love to live somewhere like SLC for the same reasons Denver is great (winter sports, outdoors, scenery).
Do you see this ever changing?
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#59Toronto, Canada.
1) salaries are low compared to the US.
2) on a per capita basis, we don't seem to start/host great startups (lots of lame knockoffs of US ones, but, targeting Canada).
3) Public transit is terrible.
4) if you live outside of downtown and work downtown, you may lose two hours a day commuting.
5) compared to NYC, London, Paris or Berlin the cultural institutions seem not commensurate with our population (the largest art gallery, the AGO, has a grown man's toy boat collection in it!).
6) if you bike in the city you are almost killed on a monthly basis.
Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?
#60Mr. Strawberry, you live in one of the most affluent cities in the world, with virtually every convenience mankind can imagine. Yes, having a car is expensive there. Yes, getting great produce for cheap may require you to transport yourself outside your block or neighborhood. Yes, housing there is incredibly expensive. Yes, traffic is bad. Nobody has an easy time looking for good healthcare in the US. Call your insur…
Your response is ridiculous. As a native New Yorker, his comments are spot-on. His post (and this thread) is a good resource for weighing the pros and cons of moving to any city. Many people move to NYC with ridiculous expectations of living their dream and become despondent when they realize the subways smell like urine and the people can be as cold as the weather.
>>[...] the people can be as cold as the weather.
Most of the people in NYC I've come across have been fairly nice or neutral, although that could be entirely dependent on the neighborhood. Having said that, just the other day we saw a guy in a taxi get out and yell at a student struggling to get onto a special education yellow school bus. That was pretty heartless.