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Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

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Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#191

Post by adamsea »

nomdep wrote: post #146
p1necone wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only have to look at any slightly politically charged topic on HN to see that there are plenty of far far right wingers in tech. Edit: see I'm even being downvoted by them now :D

Many techies are individualistic. That used to be considered left-leaning, but in the last years some people have been pushing the idea that is something from the right, instead. We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us.

Do these individualistic people wear masks or is that to collectivist?

That’s the dealbreaker question for me right now.

Point being, even individualists are part of a community.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#192

Post by TomVDB »

gnicholas wrote: post #174
TomVDB wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I never considered moving out, but we're now actively shopping for a house in the Tahoe area. Not as an investment or short term rental property, but to live ~50% of the time. We're clearly not the only ones. The price of houses in the $1M+ range have gone up significantly since it became clear around the summer that this COVID thing isn't going away anytime soon. There are many all cash offers as well.

How do you weigh the fire risk in the Tahoe area? The Palo Alto area has smoke risk, and some PSPS risk, but not much risk of straight up burning down. But homes in Tahoe are at significantly more risk of fire, right? Is it possible to get fire insurance there?

Insurance...

For one house that we were interested in, in an area that's not super risky (which is very relative), it's about $2500 per year through CalFAIR. That's only for fire, and doesn't include any other aspect of homeowners insurance.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#193

Post by selimthegrim »

User23 wrote: post #183
dismalpedigree wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to cringe with the term “flyover country”. Now I embrace it. I even promote it. The less enticing I make my area seem to an outsider, the less likely they will try to move here and ruin it.

There's nothing to do here, you're isolated, there's no culture, it's completely boring, and the people are so intolerant. Stay on the coasts!

And don’t come to Louisiana either, WWOZ is on the Internet for a reason!

(just kidding, we need all of you we can get)

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#194

Post by howlgarnish »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #184
abeppu wrote: post #145

I wonder when the reverse will happen. As rents in SF dive, will people that were force to outlying parts of the Bay Area return? Will younger LGBT folk be able to afford to live in/near the Castro? Will more people _not_ in tech be able to live here? SF has felt like such a one-industry town for quite a while, and that can mute some of the richness and diversity that normally makes cities interesting (and perhaps mo…

For about 30 years cities were relatively undesirable places to live in for the average person. The cities that young people have flocked to in the last decade or so are designed and developed more like large scale open shopping malls than the cities of the 70s and 80s. The closest comparison to what's happening now was "White flight", a largely racist reaction to the civil rights movement involving increased protest…

> "White flight", a largely racist reaction to the civil rights movement involving increased protests and riots in cities

I think you have cause and effect reversed here. The original "pull" trigger was the automobile becoming affordable to the middle classes, making suburban living possible and leading to many leaving cities. The racist bit here is that many of these suburbs had covenants prohibiting non-whites.

The "push" factor came when poorer (non-white) people started moving into these vacated, now cheaper inner city properties. This in turn led more whites to leave, but here too the push wasn't just racism, but also concerns about falling property values, rising crime, etc.

Also, FWIW, as a non-American I found the SF of 2019 positively scary. Homeless camps in the Tenderloin, mentally ill people raving about murder on Market St, etc -- you don't see this kind of thing in equivalently wealthy European or Asian cities.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#195

Post by jonsno56 »

762236 wrote: post #142

Until the fires it was hard to imagine giving up the weather and outdoors here in the Bay Area. Now we have COVID which means you want to be outside, but fire smoke that you shouldn't breath, so you want to be inside. I have a lot of HEPA filters running inside, and if I exercise outside, I wear a P100 even at VO2max. But if my daughter weren't keeping us here for her friends, I'd consider moving away now.

I bought a bunch of N95 masks and air purifiers in anticipation of the 2019 fall fire season in the Bay (since 2018 was super bad for the time), and I must say I never could have imagined the ROI on utility from this past year lol

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#196

Post by ponker »

abeppu wrote: post #145

I wonder when the reverse will happen. As rents in SF dive, will people that were force to outlying parts of the Bay Area return? Will younger LGBT folk be able to afford to live in/near the Castro? Will more people _not_ in tech be able to live here? SF has felt like such a one-industry town for quite a while, and that can mute some of the richness and diversity that normally makes cities interesting (and perhaps mo…

Depends on what happens with crime and “quality of life.” People will step in human turd to get to a job that pays them $400K. They won’t do that to have access to great coffee shops. You’ll at best get the marginally employed bohemians if you don’t solve the crime and homelessness crises.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#197

Post by [deleted] »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #184
abeppu wrote: post #145

I wonder when the reverse will happen. As rents in SF dive, will people that were force to outlying parts of the Bay Area return? Will younger LGBT folk be able to afford to live in/near the Castro? Will more people _not_ in tech be able to live here? SF has felt like such a one-industry town for quite a while, and that can mute some of the richness and diversity that normally makes cities interesting (and perhaps mo…

For about 30 years cities were relatively undesirable places to live in for the average person. The cities that young people have flocked to in the last decade or so are designed and developed more like large scale open shopping malls than the cities of the 70s and 80s. The closest comparison to what's happening now was "White flight", a largely racist reaction to the civil rights movement involving increased protest…

[deleted]

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#198

Post by ambernightcrush »

howlgarnish wrote: post #194
baron_harkonnen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For about 30 years cities were relatively undesirable places to live in for the average person. The cities that young people have flocked to in the last decade or so are designed and developed more like large scale open shopping malls than the cities of the 70s and 80s. The closest comparison to what's happening now was "White flight", a largely racist reaction to the civil rights movement involving increased protest…

> "White flight", a largely racist reaction to the civil rights movement involving increased protests and riots in cities I think you have cause and effect reversed here. The original "pull" trigger was the automobile becoming affordable to the middle classes, making suburban living possible and leading to many leaving cities. The racist bit here is that many of these suburbs had covenants prohibiting non-whites. The…

You did mention racism but I would also say racism was a driving force since before white flight. The government precursors to Fannie mae and Freddie mac wouldn't back mortgages that banks created in redlined areas. And the precursor to HUD created segregated public housing, including in the west. The Federal government was pushing redlining and segregation in housing since at least the Great Depression. A lot of this is covered in "The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#199

Post by three_seagrass »

azinman2 wrote: post #120
bluekite2000 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait till Asia's borders open. The fanout will go transpacific. Especially in Southeast Asia.

Except time zones

And salary changes and income taxes.

Re: Tech Workers Take to the Mountains, Bringing Silicon Valley with Them

#200

Post by three_seagrass »

ulfw wrote: post #139
code4tee wrote: post #59

I saw a great quote recently that said something like “Everyone loves work from home until you lose a deal to the competition that turned up to your customer in person.” There’s an element of truth to this. Best advice I’ve heard is to say the draw for living in a city may go away but you need to be close. Living in the middle of nowhere isn’t going to look like such a great idea when people start gathering together…

Not everyone is a salesman though. Why would an engineer need to be in an office coding away so "he can turn up to his customer"?

IME junior engineers benefit from being physically around senior staff, but that's just anecdotal.
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