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Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

businessinsider.com

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Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#661

Post by scottlocklin »

dragonwriter wrote: post #359
scottlocklin wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously don't live in California, don't make enough money to pay taxes, or are just being cussed. The US top end tax rate is 37%, plus California is .... what? 13? You're already up to giving away half of what you make in California. Meanwhile you have to pay taxes on physical property like your house, and your house is valued at 7 figures if you live in the Bay Area. Finally, there was a VAT the last time I li…

> You obviously don't live in California, Only for a little over 4 decades. > don't make enough money to pay taxes, Yeah, let's just say my household income is in the top 10% in the state, so no. > or are just being cussed. If by “being cussed” you mean “understand the difference between total tax rates and top end marginal income tax rates in a progressive tax system”, then, yes it must be this one. If not, you've m…

Go look at the title: do you think your household income qualifies as "tech elites?"

The rest of it: I'll let you have the fact that the VAT in California is called "sales tax" -it's the highest in the US, FWIIW. And you evidently are incapable of addition and subtraction, so discussing the rest of it is irrelevant.

Which is pretty much why I want you to stay there. Too many like you. Stay there and enjoy your utopia; you deserve it.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#662

Post by rayiner »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #599
nus07 wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree on almost all of your points with a few caveats. - Cars : The Bay Area is very walkable but that’s mainly SF. The tech burbs of Palo Alto , Menlo Park are not super walkable and you are relying on the BART and other public transport . But Covid has destroyed public transport and cuts in funding threaten them further. LGBT : This is not really the 80s and 90s . Most big cities from DC, Atlanta, Austin ,Chicago…

Can't speak for other cities, and maybe not even Chicago today, but when I lived there, there was a lot of diversity in the loop (the downtown business district) during the workday, but beyond that it was a very segregated city. Also, though I did own a car, I really only used it on weekend trips out of town. If I had stayed long-term, I would have sold it, because it's expensive to own one there (parking is expensiv…

Most big cities are segregated, both economically and racially—and the economic segregation amplifies the racial segregation.

The exodus of middle class Black and Hispanic people from high cost urban areas drives some crazy income distributions in places like San Francisco: https://statisticalatlas.com/place/California/San-Francisco/.... If your apartment building, restaurants, etc., are places mainly populated by those making over $100k/year, there will be a vanishingly small number of Black people in those places. (See table 10). Contrast somewhere like Atlanta, where a third of households making $75-100k/year (a very comfortable income in that city) are Black.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#663

Post by jonny_eh »

throwaway987978 wrote: post #640
jonny_eh wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a wife and young child and plan to stay long term. Both my wife and I work in tech, and are not fans of remote work. So for both of us this is the best place career-wise. We own a modest house, with a nice yard, so no complaints there. We love the food, nature, weather, and theatre scene. We're in San Mateo, walking distance from downtown, which means we have access to some of the best ramen outside of Japan.…

What's your favourite ramen restaurants? My wife is Japanese and she hasn't found anything that rivals Japan yet.

My top picks are Ramen Parlor or Ramen Dojo.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#664

Post by eplanit »

xvector wrote: post #620
rpearl wrote: post #555

Nobody really brings up that the bay area is one of few places in the US where you can live without a car. Really, even compared to other "walkable" cities beyond a select few, similarly expensive places. Nobody really brings up that the bay area has better LGBT and other minority protections than anywhere in the US, either. Every time someone mentions cheap midwest cities I have to pull up https://crossingenres.com/…

And rent is sky-high, tax is insane, homeless with needles are everywhere, the city is one of the dirtiest in the country, and bleeding-heart citizens have passed propositions increasing crime and tying the hands of police. If there’s one thing I remember about the BART it’s the overwhelming noise and the constant smell of urine. The public transport situation is archaic and pales in comparison to other cities. You c…

Man, you're sounding just like I did 6 years ago before I left -- and I realize (with sympathy) that it's only become more intense there since that time. You'll be very happy to escape. Good luck!

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#665

Post by bigyikes »

kilbuz wrote: post #79
bigyikes wrote: post #13

As it happens, tomorrow I’m putting in my 30-day notice to terminate my lease and leave the Bay. (And I’m paying 2 additional months rent in fees to do so) Not being tied to the office fundamentally changes the calculus of choosing where to live. There just aren’t good reasons to live here anymore for so many of us. Even if you enjoy the area, chances are you can get a better deal by moving just a bit further away. A…

Always have to ask, where are you moving and why did you pick it?

Austin. Back to where I came from.

In my estimation, it has the most coolness-per-dollar. What I actually want is to buy a house, and I just can’t do that around here. Austin is comparatively cheaper and has a culture that appeals to me. It feels a lot like California, but without much of the baggage.

Parts of Colorado, Oregon, and Washington are also strong contenders, but I am predisposed to like Texas.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#666

Post by stephencanon »

rpearl wrote: post #555

Nobody really brings up that the bay area is one of few places in the US where you can live without a car. Really, even compared to other "walkable" cities beyond a select few, similarly expensive places. Nobody really brings up that the bay area has better LGBT and other minority protections than anywhere in the US, either. Every time someone mentions cheap midwest cities I have to pull up https://crossingenres.com/…

Every big city in the northeast wins or ties on all of those points (Boston has somewhat worse food, but much better art). Of course, they’re not appreciably cheaper (except for Philly, which is an amazing bargain, for now).

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#667

Post by throwaway201103 »

trentnix wrote: post #248
nph5667 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are spot on and I am surprised that this is often overlooked. The industry is either on the the track to the massive shift how it operates, or, after COVID it comes back to the traditional in office MO.

I'm not sure it's relevant. It's not as if remote options haven't been available for a long time. The wages in San Francisco aren't determined explicitly by cost-of-living, they are determined by the scarcity of availability of the right resources. Businesses found it necessary to exist in Silicon Valley because it provided certain benefits, and businesses found it necessary to have on-premises employees because it p…

The support for remote has expanded greatly. Zoom isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than a group of people sitting around a speakerphone or a glitchy skype or WebX call trying to work with a remote person. And if everyone was remote, forget about it it was like getting the planets to align for everyone to be in productive remote communication. Remember spending the first 15 minutes of every conference call just getting everyone online and tech issues settled?

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#668

Post by gwright »

heavyset_go wrote: post #551
eikenberry wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing people seem to keep forgetting about when talking about this race to the bottom is how hard it is to find good software authors. My company is fully remote and global and it is still really hard to find good people. I really don't see much of a change given the current unmet, and rising, demand.

I hear this a lot from employers, but more often than not, they are not willing to offer competitive compensation for the level of talent they wish to attract.

That is just another way of saying that good talent is scarce.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#669

Post by on_and_off »

rpearl wrote: post #555

Nobody really brings up that the bay area is one of few places in the US where you can live without a car. Really, even compared to other "walkable" cities beyond a select few, similarly expensive places. Nobody really brings up that the bay area has better LGBT and other minority protections than anywhere in the US, either. Every time someone mentions cheap midwest cities I have to pull up https://crossingenres.com/…

I live without a car in SF, partly because I used to do the same in European cities :

- it is amazing to be able to walk / use public transport to go everywhere you need to

- I just don't like driving in cities. It is just a chore monopolizing my attention.

Still this is way harder to pull of here than it is e.g. in Paris. No subway system serving all the city here.

I am using an eskate to pick up the slack. If the market street project was already completed and we did the same for some other key streets, it would be 100% viable but in the city's current state :

- many roads are in a pitiful state. I haven't hurt myself seriously yet but I saw or know of many people who did.

- car drivers are extremely dangerous

100% on acceptance, culture scene and let's add food scene as well.

Re: Tech elites leaving San Francisco threaten Silicon Valley's supremacy

#670

Post by nph5667 »

Afton wrote: post #387
nph5667 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my own experience, it's just not a good time to change a job no matter how enticing it sounds.

I started a new job in April. Between when I interviewed and when I was started, offices shut down. It's been great. The fact that everyone is remote is actually a great 'leveler', since the company has a 'main office' and a few satellite offices in other cities. I'm not affiliated with the 'main office', but I actually am concerned that I'll suffer career-wise once the company goes back to in-office, since I'll be i…

Sorry for not understanding, but I still don't quite get why is it a good time? From the description of your situation it looks like any new job right now is a temporal job. At least that's how I read it.
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