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A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

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Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#31

Post by juiceandjuice »

potatolicious wrote: post #25
hazzen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would much rather ride a Seattle bus than a SF bus, but the likelihood of finding a bus that goes from A to B (without a transfer) is much higher in SF than in Seattle. This is partly a product of Seattle's shape, where the obvious thing for any bus to do is run north-south from a neighborhood to the downtown corridor. It is also a product of density, which Seattle doesn't really have in large quantities. And re: e…

When is the last time you rented? My impression is that the rental market is picking up significantly and there are noticeable rent raises even month to month at this point (bubble, anyone?) Being near BART is going to set you back at least $1700 at the very low end for a studio, $2000 for a 1BR. More for both depending on quality of the place, naturally. You might hack 10% off either of those prices if you pick up a…

I just moved into a 3BR by Glen Park bart for $2800/mo. Technically though, it's excelsior/Mission Terrace, so that excludes me from hip status.

General San Franciscan rule: If your neighborhood has parking, it isn't hip.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#32

Post by btcoal »

llambda wrote: post #27
voyou wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco's MUNI has the problems of most large urban public transport systems (it can be a bit slow, it's not perfectly reliable, every now and then they'll be some crazy person ranting to no-one in particular), but it's OK; half an hour and two buses (or a train and a bus) will get you most places in the city. San Francisco's also pretty small - about seven miles square - so yes, it's pretty easy to get around…

I guess that begs the question, relative to the apparent hike in rental prices, are the SF-based tech companies paying enough to get by on?

In my limited experience: no. I'm sorry but $40k pre-tax is not a liveable salary in SF or any medium-->big city.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#33

Post by diolpah »

athst wrote: post #30
rsingel wrote: post #5

Why is this bitter, trite diatribe on the front page of hacker news?

I agree, I have never quite understood this meme of mocking hipster stereotypes. It's mean-spirited and in most cases very hypocritical.

I will make an attempt at enlightening you.

There are a great number of greying or almost-greying engineers and other tech types who are part of a generation preceding the current "cool" generation.

This older generation of hackers and engineers got into the industry because the allure of building systems that made society a better place and benefited humanity broadly was a very powerful driver. For years and decades, this passion drove them to build the foundations of what we now know to be modern energy production, electronics, computing, and networking.

Dreams of taking civilization to the stars, of creating limitless energy sources, of using technology to empower oppressed people and bring others out of poverty drove many of this generation forward.

The reality? Masses upon masses of highly indebted hipsters sipping lattes, tweeting about a band they heard called "Shitdripper", on a device thousands of times more powerful than anything available to the NSA a generation ago, bitching about how they can't get a seven figure salary flipping credit default swaps anymore, in a city that, although it once stood for real technological innovation, works hard to churn out hundreds of also-ran photo sharing apps so that said hipsters can post a thousand photos of their purse dog wearing a kermit the frog costume.

Because there was a generation that dreamed of greatness, and the technology they delivered is being used to enable mediocrity.

At least that's my guess.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#34

Post by impendia »

whyenot wrote: post #18
tobobo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible, but having access to Zipcar is quite essential for pretty much anything outside of the city limits - rail expansion was severely hampered by some nearby suburbanites who were afraid that the worst of the city was going to take the train out to visit them, so you have to get in a car if you want to visit your classist neighbors.

It's not "essential" -- there is BART, Caltrain and a pretty extensive public transportation system in the greater bay area, but ZipCar could be a useful additional tool. As far as your history lesson on rail expansion. You have it completely backwards. The bay area had a very extensive rail system 60-70 years ago. One level of the bay bridge was just for trains. Google the Key System for more information. When cars…

No, the parent is largely right, BART was going to go to more places but San Mateo and Marin were cool to the idea and backed out.

http://www.bart.gov/about/history/index.aspx

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#35

Post by ascott »

rdouble wrote: post #13
llambda wrote: post #6

I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)

I lived in San Francisco without a car for about 4 years. San Francisco is very small. It's possible to walk from the ballpark to Ocean Beach in about 2.5 hours. I often walked from my home in Cole Valley to my office in SoMa, even though I could just take the Muni. The public transportation is pretty good for a city in the USA but pretty bad compared to Europe and really bad compared to Japan. People who like the pu…

I have had a car here in SF for the last few years, and only use it to go shopping, or get out of town. Last month I picked up a little motorbike - it is super convenient in the city. Parking everywhere, and for the most part, motorists are fairly contentious.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#36

Post by rsingel »

chailatte wrote: post #21
rsingel wrote: post #5

Why is this bitter, trite diatribe on the front page of hacker news?

Hits too close to home, staff writer for Wired?

Actually, not in the slightest, which you'd know if you'd bothered to go any further than just my hacker news bio - say checking my Twitter feed - before dashing off an ad hominem attack.

No, I thought the post was boring, poorly written and just bitter. And that makes it unworthy, in my opinion, of the front page of Hacker News.

This kind of sophomoric crap belongs somewhere on Reddit, not Hacker News.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#37

Post by aplusbi »

diolpah wrote: post #33
athst wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I have never quite understood this meme of mocking hipster stereotypes. It's mean-spirited and in most cases very hypocritical.

I will make an attempt at enlightening you. There are a great number of greying or almost-greying engineers and other tech types who are part of a generation preceding the current "cool" generation. This older generation of hackers and engineers got into the industry because the allure of building systems that made society a better place and benefited humanity broadly was a very powerful driver. For years and decades…

Most of the vitriol is coming from the "cool" generation. It boils down to narcissism of small differences - the author is uncomfortable with the idea that he himself may be a "hipster" and so looks for all the things that are hip that he lacks. He then makes sure to publicly point out how hip these things are and how he lacks them.

I myself have been guilty of this but I eventually realized my own hypocrisy and just stopped caring about it. I'm a cool twenty-something techno-hipster - not because I want to be so much as because that's who I am.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#38

Post by rdl »

llambda wrote: post #27
voyou wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco's MUNI has the problems of most large urban public transport systems (it can be a bit slow, it's not perfectly reliable, every now and then they'll be some crazy person ranting to no-one in particular), but it's OK; half an hour and two buses (or a train and a bus) will get you most places in the city. San Francisco's also pretty small - about seven miles square - so yes, it's pretty easy to get around…

I guess that begs the question, relative to the apparent hike in rental prices, are the SF-based tech companies paying enough to get by on?

Tech company pay is great, if you mean later stage. Google, etc all pay salaries which would seem crazy outside the bay area, and iPads cost the same anywhere.

Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan

#40

Post by hazzen »

potatolicious wrote: post #25
hazzen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would much rather ride a Seattle bus than a SF bus, but the likelihood of finding a bus that goes from A to B (without a transfer) is much higher in SF than in Seattle. This is partly a product of Seattle's shape, where the obvious thing for any bus to do is run north-south from a neighborhood to the downtown corridor. It is also a product of density, which Seattle doesn't really have in large quantities. And re: e…

When is the last time you rented? My impression is that the rental market is picking up significantly and there are noticeable rent raises even month to month at this point (bubble, anyone?) Being near BART is going to set you back at least $1700 at the very low end for a studio, $2000 for a 1BR. More for both depending on quality of the place, naturally. You might hack 10% off either of those prices if you pick up a…

I stand corrected, and should have checked Craigslist before posting. It is astounding how much rents have gone up recently. The neighborhoods I had in minde were Lower Haight (5 minutes-ish to the N, 10 minutes-ish to the rest of the lines, 15-20 minutes-ish to 16th & Mission BART) or the part of Market near the Castro Safeway (shave 5 - 10 minutes of all of those times). It seems like $1800 might be a better floor, and that is a studio-like thing. Of course, its a small market in those places so you may be able to find better (or worse or absolutely no) prices.
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