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San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

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Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#431

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> food or retail scene In my experience this is becoming less and less true, smaller cities are really catching up, it's not 2010 anymore. My pet theory is that social networks like Instagram have done a good job spreading fashion and food experiences/expectations that were previously exclusives to big city centers.

Sorry but this is wrong. Food scenes require diverse cultures. Small town USA doesn't have 50+ ethnic groups making restaurants downtown

France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Basque, and Japan are all examples of places with mostly one ethnic group and great food scenes.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#433

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My baseline is grilled cheddar cheese on plain white bread with Campbell's Tomato Soup is the greatest food ever invented. I once went to a work lunch at one of the city's most raved about restaurants. I ordered the grilled cheese and tomato soup. That was when I realized that I really am not a food connoisseur. How can something so simple as grilled cheese and tomato soup be so thoroughly ruined, just in an effort t…

You can't serve something like that at a restaurant and make it in a plain way, because it's something that basically everyone can make at home for really cheap. People are looking for an interesting take on something like that in a restaurant, which isn't going to fit what you want. That's a poor choice to judge a restaurant on. You need to base your judgement on things you can't or won't cook at home because it tak…

Sometimes people just want to go have a get-together including well-trod "comfort food" style means, but with someone else (the restaurant) doing the cooking and cleanup.

I don't go to restaurants to be entertained by the food or "impressed" by the "creativity" of the chef, and I'd wager neither do most people.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#434
post #308
post #121

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The positives have to out weight the negatives of high crime, a large homeless population, high rents, small apartments, etc. Having nice parks is not unique to SF.

The actual reason people are leaving the city are high rents and small apartments. How the hell do you work from home when you're sharing a place with roommates? And affording extra space for an office given current rents is a huge problem. Crime and homelessness, while problems, aren't major factors for people in my experience. After all, those two things haven't really changed.

Homelessness is objectively worse, as in higher counts, in SF. Up 72% since 2011. And it is subjectively worse, as enforcement has dropped and homelessness has spread, become more bold, more petty crime, and caused a bigger disruptions.

https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/5380756_sanfrancisco2019....

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#435

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Please report back in February after experiencing a -40 day :)

In the north central US, you have to stay indoors for a while because it's too cold. In the sunbelt, you have to stay indoors for a while because it's too hot. In CA, you have to stay indoors for a while because of the poor air quality. Take your pic. CA folks seem to think the rest of the world is an inhospitable wasteland. Sure, CA is a bit more mild, but it's not perfect.

NYC -> DC corridor suffers from none of that.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#436

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Many companies have publicly stated they will allow permanent work from home [1]. Many others have said so privately to their workers. As more companies adopt this, this provides more options to those who relocate and whose employer tries to pull them back. Keep a long runway in an emergency fund, keep your professional network warm, always be ready to bounce if your employer tries to change your quality of life for…

I spoke to a recruiter at a company that publicly said they'll allow permanent WFH. He said it's on a case by case basis and you still need manager approval. It's guaranteed only till next Summer. Companies can something public with if and buts and caveats added internally.

There are always outliers. Importantly, the trend is clear.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#437

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By this metric food scenes can only exist in 2-3 cities in the US (or world for that matter). I think food scenes that do one or two things well are totally worthwhile and a huge improvement over bland suburban chains.

Effectively, there's never more than a dozen cities, tops, in any country in the world where you can get close to top-level food quality, and even so that applies only for a few genres of food.

Except for Italy, Peru, Mexico, Japan, France, Thailand, and many other countries where you can find top quality food in thousands of small towns and out of the way places. So probably not a great rule to go by.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#438
post #373

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That isn’t true, no way do 30% of Seattle students go to private school. We moved to Ballard, which has some pretty good schools (it’s high school is a 9/10). And yes, schools are why we didn’t consider south Seattle.

Hello neighbor - I bought my first house in Ballard this February myself. For SF / SV readers: Ballard is a hip Seattle neighborhood, somewhat like Hayes Valley but also near a beach and bike paths. My house is new construction and walking distance to everything. I paid list price.

When I was doing my undergrad, I used to run up to Ballard via the trail (well, it stopped just short of Ballard back then). It was mostly industrial and blue collar, Amazon didn't exist yet in SLU (which was pretty seedy anyways), how times have changed.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#439

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I’m honestly surprised so many people put Bay Area/SF food on the same scale as NYC and LA. It only makes sense when you consider top-tier fine dining (like, Michelin star(s)) IMO. For middle-tier dining I think SF and the Bay Area don’t even come close to either of those cities. In fact I think those hip young college towns are much better, in my experience. It’s just that it’s going to be a different set of foods:…

Agreed, I feel like SF restaurants are relatively pricey, so in order to get the good stuff you'll have to pay a lot more than in many other places in the world.

Sf has some great hole in the wall places that aren’t too expensive. E.g. Tonga room isn’t that badly priced

Dropping 50$/person on dinner & drinks in sf isn’t that much money when your rent is 50x+ that figure.

Re: San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.

#440
post #310

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> Seattle's reckoning/correction is coming. The city is doing everything in its power to chase money away And yet the skyscrapers and office buildings are still going up. The construction boom hasn't mitigated. Seattle isn't doing a good job at chasing money away. > People are growing tired of the messy streets, needles are tents are spreading as the city ignores the problem. It's just a handful of streets. It's cert…

> And yet the skyscrapers and office buildings are still going up. The construction boom hasn't mitigated. Seattle isn't doing a good job at chasing money away. I don't have skin in the game here, but I noticed this statement, which I think isn't right. You need to consider that commercial construction, skyscrapers no less, take years. From conception to funding to planning to approvals to building, the lag is long.…

Amazon buildings tend to go up fairly quickly, many a couple of years of planning and construction, especially since Paul Allen's Vulcan real estate (who owns most of the land and construction) laid all the plans a long time ago.

> So long, in fact that some have come up with the (controversial, not saying it's correct) "Skyscraper Index" which argues that historically, peak skyscraper height correlated with the worst economic dips in the economic cycles.

Considering that none of these buildings are very tall, we are fairly safe then.

But I think this slow down will be useful in the long run: Downtown Seattle is currently turning into office space for Amazon without much for anyone else anymore. Especially compared to downtown Portland, which is a much better place to live (more retail and services, better access MAX). The boom was really going in the wrong direction, it would be nice if it could be corrected.

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