Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 325 posts

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#31

Post by Hydraulix989 »

scurvy wrote: post #5
spectramax wrote: post #3

I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…

Crime through the roof? People who live in actual high crime areas would like a word with you. It sounds like you've experienced more than your fair share of crime since moving to the BA, but calling it high crime is beyond a stretch.

Even though there is not much organized crime and no longer the same level of gang activity as 10 years ago, as a matter of policy, SF tends to either not convict or give lighter sentences to your everyday crime like shoplifting and breaking car windows though. The consequence is that there is a lot of broken glass on the street.

I'm originally from a much rougher part of the US than SF. Walking on the street here at night is still a relative dream (but not at all like in Asia).

(Also, another uniquely SF policy: blatant abuse of opioids, etc. here are not considered to be criminal.)

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#33

Post by smohnot »

driverdan wrote: post #19
nthomas wrote: post #7

Welcome to the Lone Star State! Cheap real estate and friendly folks. And BBQ, metric tons of BBQ...

Westlake does not have cheap real estate.

Relative to Dallas, yes - relative to SF it's quite a bit cheaper. Westlake's median price per square foot is $392, SF is $1068. The surroundings of SF don't get much cheaper. Dallas is $204/sf. https://www.zillow.com/westlake-tx/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/san-francisco-ca/home-values/

https://www.zillow.com/dallas-tx/home-values/

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#34

Post by toast0 »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #6
spectramax wrote: post #3

I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…

If the exodus goes from a trickle to a torrent, the city budget propped up by property taxes is going to crater. Whatever problems there are now with homelessness, imagine what it will be like when social services can no longer be provided for them. San Francisco is a ship that lost power to its engines while coasting towards an iceberg.

It would need to be a real big exodus for property tax revenues to go down. Prop 13 limits and associated low turn property turnover means a large amount of the tax roll is assessed under current value. During the 2008 real estate crash, few of the California counties saw a decrease in property tax revenues.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#35

Post by CydeWeys »

demosthenes14 wrote: post #26
slavapestov wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sometimes I wonder if there’s a funded campaign against the Bay Area online. By whom and to what end? Has it occurred to you that some people just don't like living there? Not everyone you disagree with is a paid shill.

It’s not just a matter of disagreement— take a look on here, Reddit and Twitter and you’ll find a swarm of people making it seem like the Bay Area is a dystopian hellhole. I was legitimately concerned about my move before I got here.

I agree that there's lots of people online who make exaggerated negative claims about San Francisco, and my best guess as to why is that it's part of the coastal/inland, liberal/conservative cultural divide/war. It's easier to put others down than to fix your own mess, and frankly, California's economy and social services are the envy of almost every other state.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#37

Post by lykr0n »

jakozaur wrote: post #2

SF Bay Area gets so expensive that even financial giants gets gentrified.

I would be curious to see the ROI for someone like Schwab for staying in the Bay Area.

Does the reduce capital costs of people, taxes, and buildings outweigh the talent pool in the area? Makes me wonder what the numbers look like.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#38

Post by atlantacrackers »

jimmaswell wrote: post #32
nthomas wrote: post #7

Welcome to the Lone Star State! Cheap real estate and friendly folks. And BBQ, metric tons of BBQ...

Friendly if you're the right political party and orientation, I hear.

Have you ever visited? Talked to locals? You might be surprised how friendly people are IRL.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#39

Post by scurvy »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #6
spectramax wrote: post #3

I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…

If the exodus goes from a trickle to a torrent, the city budget propped up by property taxes is going to crater. Whatever problems there are now with homelessness, imagine what it will be like when social services can no longer be provided for them. San Francisco is a ship that lost power to its engines while coasting towards an iceberg.

You must not live in the Bay Area and are merely reaching for talking points.

Everyone in CA knows that property tax money goes straight to the state and is divvied up there. It's collected locally, then sent straight to the state. CA gets first crack at spending it, then it goes down to the local level. The social services are paid for mostly by bond measures, which are immune to real estate prices. Other things are paid for with consumption based taxes (mostly sales).

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#40

Post by ramphastidae »

demosthenes14 wrote: post #12
spectramax wrote: post #3

I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a funded campaign against the Bay Area online. Where do you live, and where did you come from? I just moved to SF and yes it has homeless people, traffic and is extremely expensive, but these are things that every other big city I’ve lived in has. The costs and homelessness are worse than Seattle or NYC but not to the point that it’s a reduction in my quality of life. To say you have “no…

You simply haven’t lived here long enough. It’s crazy that you would dismiss a crisis that has been documented and growing for years as an online misinformation campaign because your few months here don’t align with what you’ve read.
Post reply on HN