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

Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

561–570 of 1001 posts

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#561

Post by dongvsascript »

zapita wrote: post #545
dongvsascript wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have an honest question here. i haven't lived in sf -just visited. i have however been to most states and about 40 countries for comparison. food - most of what i saw was not good food. hipsterish overpriced food made by chefs trying to show off by putting a twist on dishes -not to be good, just to be different or weird. tiny portions, not tasting above average, on a huge plate. all presentation, not actual taste.…

> culture was when i lived in versailles As someone who actually lived in Versailles, this made me laugh outloud. It’s a boring upper-class suburb which happens to have a big castle in it. Culturally it’s at the same level as the Hamptons, just with older buildings and more royalists.

correct. that is what i think of when i think of culture. overly polite people. when asking if a restaurant is open they first say 'hello sir, i notice you walked out of the house here' and tell you thank you and have a good evening. in sf it's greetings with 'is this still open' and a silent walkoff staring into the phone when you tell them you don't know. in line for bread, you say good day, i'd like a traditional please. in sf you say 'give me the avocado sandwich.'

and then yes, you have the old buildings, the chateau, and the perfectry groomed horses at the gardens.

it is boring in versailles, there's one shitty club in a basement, and all the gen-pop restaurants at the center turn into shitty bars when food service stops. if that's what you were looking for in versailles, you were disappointed. taking a walk through the gardens is not boring. for clubbing i had my place in moscow where i'd often go for a 3 day weekend. unlike sf, where bars close shortly after midnight, in moscow we'd go to dinner at 10, get to a club at 1, got to the next club at 5am, go to a karaoke at 8am, grab breakfast and get home to sleep at noon. point is, op was saying thise sf bars with no women that close at 1am are a positive about sf.

yes, a famous palace and snooty old bluebloods is more cultured. especially when comparing to sf and it's snooty entitled and rude millenials. and if you want more, north station is 20min away on the sncf. i lived at the montreuil stop.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#562

Post by wcfields »

annexrichmond wrote: post #539
dongvsascript wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have an honest question here. i haven't lived in sf -just visited. i have however been to most states and about 40 countries for comparison. food - most of what i saw was not good food. hipsterish overpriced food made by chefs trying to show off by putting a twist on dishes -not to be good, just to be different or weird. tiny portions, not tasting above average, on a huge plate. all presentation, not actual taste.…

as someone who's lived in SF for years this is all very true. Food is expensive and a lot of it's designed to be instagrammed. There are definitely some great spots but not that many and really not that diverse (lacks middle eastern, greek, british, American bbq, spanish) Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am, hardly any live music, gender imbalance, and not much density so it often just feels "dead" i…

> Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am, hardly any live music, gender imbalance, and not much density so it often just feels "dead" in a lot of places

As a southern Californian, I can attest to this. It's pathetic that our bars have last call at 2am (effectively many close at 1:30a).

There's been push after push to get last-call to 4am like it is in NY but they never go anywhere in the state legislature.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#564

Post by emmelaich »

wldlyinaccurate wrote: post #518
dongvsascript wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i have an honest question here. i haven't lived in sf -just visited. i have however been to most states and about 40 countries for comparison. food - most of what i saw was not good food. hipsterish overpriced food made by chefs trying to show off by putting a twist on dishes -not to be good, just to be different or weird. tiny portions, not tasting above average, on a huge plate. all presentation, not actual taste.…

Is this a shitpost? I honestly can't tell. You start off by saying you've only ever visited SF and then go on to make a load of generalisations as if you know SF like the back of your hand. Also this: > there are very few attractive girls at bars, or at offices, or even on the street, compared to just about anywhere in the world. and if that's not why you go to bars, i have to ask -you'd enjoy going to bars with most…

It sounded right to me..

I've visited SF about four times over the last few years - staying between one and three weeks each time.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#565

Post by opportune »

dongvsascript wrote: post #508
captaincole wrote: post #102

I am living in SF now and this confirms a very clear pattern that I have seen emerging, particularly of tech workers. I would say that >50% of the people I know who were living in the city have left, or are in the process of leaving. Some examples (there are countless): 1) All three of the roommates that I had are choosing to leave either permanently or temporarily. 2) A friend who works for google who is going on a…

i have an honest question here. i haven't lived in sf -just visited. i have however been to most states and about 40 countries for comparison. food - most of what i saw was not good food. hipsterish overpriced food made by chefs trying to show off by putting a twist on dishes -not to be good, just to be different or weird. tiny portions, not tasting above average, on a huge plate. all presentation, not actual taste.…

I actually agree that SF has essentially no culture and a poor food culture compared to many other major american cities. The only things truly exceptional about the city are the weather, housing prices, and being the most city-like city in greater Silicon Valley. And with that third point being moot, it's no surprise people aren't staying if they don't have to. I'm also leaving in two weeks.

The only reason a lot of people live in SF is solely that it's a really good place for a career in the technology industry or to do a startup. That's why I was there.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#566

Post by Tiktaalik »

logicchains wrote: post #525
Tiktaalik wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t really see what the purpose of the money is. You could be spending 75% on hookers and blow and it doesn’t change things. The point is that your basic needs are well being exceeded at even like 80k, at which point you’re already in the top 5-10%. It’s obnoxious and greedy to be concerned about such low amounts of money when you’re making $250k, in the top 1% and have so many more opportunities than other people.

>It’s obnoxious and greedy to be concerned about such low amounts of money It's obnoxious and a greedy for you to feel like you have some right to say what somebody else should do with their hard-earned money.

Do you oppose progressive taxes as well?

It's a simple problem of who has the strongest ability to contribute to pay for the things we all need to keep our society growing.

Bitching and moaning about having to pay $20k when you have 250k and are in the top 1% of wealth in society is unseemly.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#567

Post by gravypod »

stbtrax wrote: post #558
gravypod wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can rent-to-own a 6br house on a 6k+ sqft lot with a detached garage in NJ with a ~1hr commute to Manhattan for $3,500/month in NJ. $3k/month on an apartment gets you a luxury huge 2 to 3 bedroom with in unit w/d and bowling/swimming in the basement or something in Hoboken with a Thinking 36k/year (more then the total comp of many workers in America) is cheap housing is a Bay-area distortion.

who wants that long of a commute? It's all relative and the salaries here more than make up for it. I'm sure someone in the texas exurb would think you're nuts for paying that much in hoboken.

I think it's nuts too. I'd rather work from home and live in the middle of nowhere. 3k/month is a mansion in most parts of the world.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#568

Post by always_left »

I’ve said it before, shame so many of you don’t appreciate SF. It’s not perfect but it’s so much better than where I grew up. To be able to go to Marin, Yosemite, Tahoe, Big Sur, etc. for a weekend is truly amazing. Granted I’m privileged I can go there and I’m not a night life person, it’s truly a dream for me. The city also has many pockets of nature that are huge (presidio, gg Park). I hope you find a place that makes you happy though.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#569

Post by dongvsascript »

mrgordon wrote: post #554
dongvsascript wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i did not say poor quality food. i said very average food, overpresented artistically and overpriced. farm to table isn't good for meat -aged meat is better. aged about a month. sushi -yes. except very little sushi from what i saw in sf. a lot of weird rolls, which is not sushi to me. good sushi was in tokyo, where i have lived for several months. fresh produce is shipped overnight anywhere nowadays. being near a far…

San Francisco has functional public transit which escapes almost every American city and the cool neighborhoods are in fact quite dense, like the Mission. This is why people view it as one of the most walkable cities in America even though it may not be a compact area built around a train station like much of Europe, for example. I would like that, but that’s not how any of America is. You went to a few sushi roll pl…

i did not go to mission, so my comment about density may not be correct. which is why i asked. that's one neighborhood though.

as far as sake.. i don't drink anymore, for a while now, but you're wrong. serving it warm brings out the taste, and makes any cheap nastiness worse. serving it cold is what hides it. having a store that only sells sake does not make it 'the store for sake.' there are many stores stateside that have a good sake selection. they also sell japanese beer and plum wine. and in the style of true sf culture, you just said japan has crappy sake, which is why they serve it warm, while sf is doing the traditional japanese wine correctly. this -people like you on every corner, is why i didn't like sf. it's the culture -or lack thereof.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#570

Post by option »

zapita wrote: post #537
option wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF city “leadership” had failed the city miserably. What we’ve witnessed is that the city was actually really, really hard to destroy with A LOT going on for it. The pandemic just accelerated the demise - no other city even in CA has exodus quite like SF. This is all very sad as SF was such a beautiful city. Why would anyone vote for the incumbents in SF’s next elections is beyond me.

If you are talking about the board of supervisors, I agree. They are to blame for many of the city’s problems, mostly because their most politically active constituents and donors are angry homeowners who block everything. The current mayor London Breed has been doing good work, her handling of the covid-19 crisis in particular has been excellent. The problem is that most supervisors hate her and block her every step…

I disagree about the mayor. But since I am not SF resident I won’t argue. I hope you enjoy what you are getting
Post reply on HN