San Francisco is the dirtiest city I have ever seen. It doesn’t seem like a great place to spend 1 million dollars on a house unless you work there.
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S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
241–250 of 465 posts
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
If SF was unattractive, it wouldn't cost $2,500-$3,000 to live in mediocre housing with 6 housemates. Even people that don't have high paying tech jobs are lining up to pay these kinds of insane prices. They don't want to pay the prices, but it's worth it to live in an area like SF. One of the only places on the planet in human history that people put this much energy and money into just living somewhere.
Obviously there is some level of demand to live in SF, and that's part of the explanation for the high cost of living. But the factor really driving up rent and real estate prices is the massive resistance in SF and the Bay Area in general to building new housing.
It's being driven up everywhere. SF just started higher.
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#243Those that have "made it" are moving out of SF and the young and hungry are moving in. SF has seen a wave of Gen Z inbound recently. I'll take that trade anytime. "the number of rental applications by people who fall into Gen Z (defined as those born between 1997 and 2012) have increased by 21% in the past year. Meanwhile, as we just discussed, rental applications from every single other generation have been lessenin…
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Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#244Serious question: what's another place in the US with mild year-round weather, walkable neighborhoods (haven't driven a car in 12 years), and easy access to an international airport? That's what SF offers me. The "SF is an unlivable hellhole" drumbeat is so loud that I almost feel compelled to move (my own experience be damned), but I'm not sure where to.
As someone who lives there and is taking a very hard look at other towns, the answer is none. Some small parts of LA come close.
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#245Serious question: what's another place in the US with mild year-round weather, walkable neighborhoods (haven't driven a car in 12 years), and easy access to an international airport? That's what SF offers me. The "SF is an unlivable hellhole" drumbeat is so loud that I almost feel compelled to move (my own experience be damned), but I'm not sure where to.
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Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leave. It's so much better elsewhere. I'm so happy in Boston.
Oh leave I did! I left after 11 months or so. Went out to Portland but it's not much better there nowadays. Still a fun city, at least. Might try Chicago now. I hadn't realized how relatively cheap some of the areas are. Boston might be fun, too!
Seattle has much of the same, don't come here! We lost 2%, we could stand to use a few more percents and I would be pretty happy with the traffic reduction. I'm staying put for sure, but I can see why this place isn't for everyone.
You might want to try Salt Lake City: has a nice vibe, the Mormon influence myth is overblown, and you have mountains, forest, and scrub nearby just like in Portland.
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think this is necessarily true. Consider that the reason many people were in SF in the first place was because their job required them to be there and they didn't have a choice; now that they have a choice, perhaps many of them find SF attractive and stay, while a minority don't and leave.
> Consider that the reason many people were in SF in the first place was because their job required them to be there and they didn't have a choice I’m not sure how big of a factor that is/was though. I know plenty of people in their 20s who worked in the peninsula or east bay but deliberately took on the high costs (and long commutes!) of living in SF for the usual reasons related to SF being a cultural center. I thi…
I mean, to be fair, we're talking about 6 out of 100 people moving this year. I can defiantly see 6 out of 100 people being there just because that's where they get paid or their job moved them.
It's even more likely that part of that 6 percent had family obligations, and some just realized they wouldn't buy a house even if they loved the city, and some just hated it.
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wish San Franciscans would stop defending themselves and admit that things are actually worse and whatever politics they're advocating hasn't worked. This extends more generally to California (and other west coast states). > I voted for Shellenberger for Governor of CA. Felt right. FWIW, people like Newsom openly admit the scale of the problems and the roadblocks which radicalized "progressivism" present to Calif…
Many people do not know but Newsom's ex-wife used to be Kimberly Guilfoyle: https://www.kqed.org/arts/13885405/kimberly-guilfoyle-used-t... Now, I don't vote based on character to a certain extent, but Newsom has both : Terrible policies and a terrible character.
I would find it difficult to have any respect for Newsom if all I knew about him was his social and business life. But the older I get the more I realize that character traits are distributed much more randomly than I ever believed. People want to believe, for example, that intelligence and compassion tend to come packaged together. But then you realize that there are quite alot of very malicious yet intelligent people out there. The universe doesn't have a sense of justice, at least not to the degree we expect, and definitely not the degree we desire.
Last week I heard on the radio[1] a poem that resonated very strongly me with:
A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
[1] The (Mostly Forgotten) Writer Who Changed Literature Forever, Again and Again, On the Media, May 20, 2022, https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/mostly-for...
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#249San Francisco has become a really hostile place to live even if you make $300,000+. My wife and I lived in Glen Park and it was still a shit hole. We had a meth head constantly breaking in and living in the parking garage of our building. Cops and landlord didn't care. I regularly saw people shooting heroin and smoking meth/crack on BART during rush hour. I was sick of seeing needles on the street and smelling urine. As soon as the pandemic happened we got the heck out of the Bay Area and relocated somewhere cheaper and nicer. I am sure there are many others doing the same thing. I cannot imagine trying to raise a kid in SF.
Re: S.F. population fell 6.3%, most in nation, to lowest level since 2010
#250Could this be a potential source of a housing bubble collapse?
Negative - this is a geography that will remain unaffected by housing downturns. Too much money on the sidelines for it to collapse.