Another great liberal experiment. Cockroaches.
If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
41–50 of 178 posts
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#42Its not. The quality of life is terrible here for what you are paying for. I pay $3000 for a one bedroom and constantly have homeless people in my garage or camping next to my building. My car has been broken into several times. Cops don’t walk a beat or do anything whatsoever to prevent crime. If you call the cops they basically shrug it off unless there’s actual violence happening. The traffic is terrible, public transportation is terrible (mostly because BART and Muni let on people who don’t pay). There are piles of feces and needles all over the city center. I honestly love the weather, but there are just so many negatives to your daily experience here. If I could move, I would.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
California is bleeding something like 60,000 people each year just to Texas. The Californians moving to north Texas metros do not appear poor relative to neighboring Texans enjoying superior standards of living with deprecated wages compared to California. When I bought my Texas house about a decade ago the average house price in my metro was about $200,000 and now I think it is about $250,000. These average houses a…
You did say "do not appear to be poor". Is there a chance you're noticing wealthy people, because they tend to be more noticeable? Yes, people who bought a house while ago in California, sell, and move to Texas would have a lot of money. But again, is this typical? I'm not saying it necessarily isn't typical, just that "it seems like", or "appears to be" isn't data. A lot of people leave California because they can c…
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Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#44Because of exclusionary zoning and prop 13, both of which are supported by middle-aged and retired homeowners, a dominant political force in California.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#45It's funny to see Californians complain about folks moving to California and driving up housing costs. I grew up in Bend, Oregon where housing was driven up by tons of Californians moving there. Bay area folks only have themselves to blame for their "I got mine" attitude and not allowing anyone to build more housing. I fly every week to Santa Clara because there is no way I am moving there -- my home here in WA is almost paid off.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's too late, when (in the past several years) would it have not been too late? There were always companies that have considered expanding in San Francisco, as there will be for years to come, and if building more housing helps at least a few existing residents then it seems like a net positive. At any given point in time, there is a roughly finite amount of demand, and inching closer to meeting that demand can't…
As an outside it became apparent that moving to SF/SV would be a challenge around ten years ago. There are a number of post on HN from "back in the day" that discusses this topic e.g: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=170719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=860913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=236853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1255718
9-10 years is about right. 2005, I had a one bedroom for $1700, and in 2008 I moved into a studio on Twin Peaks for $1300/month. Both were high but still affordable. By 2011, a 2 bedroom in SOMA was $3000/month, and by 2014 it was $4500/month.
This coincides with when tech companies started popping up in SF, instead of South Bay where they traditionally went to.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#47> There is an apocalyptic amount of people moving into California, and no one blames them for the overcrowding and the shifting culture. But when too many Californians leave California and settle in, say, Portland, they are blamed for ruining the place by way of simply being themselves. Part of this is where the money comes from. Poorer/lower-middle-class people (mostly) move into California, to work these jobs under…
"There is an apocalyptic amount of people moving into California,"
Really? New york is crowded. Chicago is crowded. The bay area is just spread out. It just feels crowded because California won't build upwards, which is a result of its backward housing laws, codes, and tax systems.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#48>Several months ago, she had made the difficult decision to move back onto a small corner of her parents beach-town property, after her urban East Bay house became waterlogged during the rainstorms of 2016. We had to move her out over a weekend, after the mold took half the furniture and gave her roommate pneumonia in both lungs. I touched swollen blisters of stagnant rainwater pulsing on her walls. After emailing th…
I think major portions of the story have been left out for the purpose of invoking outrage. There is no way that a house can get waterlogged and the tenants can’t sue the landlords to fix this. This is basic privilege of renting.
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#49In short:
Cost of living + abusive taxes
Re: If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?
#50A lot of people only see gross salary and forget the only thing that matters is how much money you net at the end of the year.
For most in the middle class if you compare the cost of living index to a less desirable place to live, even with the much reduced wages, it makes fiscal sense leave.