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How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

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Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#91

Post by ITSABUBBLEGUYS »

georgieporgie wrote: post #64
SkyMarshal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, I'm of the opinion that SF culture peaked in the 90s. Could you elaborate on that? I'm very new to the Bay Area, still absorbing it all.

SF in the 90s was an awesome place for punk and industrial music, cyberpunk visions of the future, ratbikes, raves, and a lot more arty types mixing with the nerds. As things cleaned up and gentrified, a lot of what I consider to be the cool culture was replaced by trustifarians and graphic designers who like to cultivate the image of a bicycle messenger or blue-collar worker. SF still has a lot to offer, but it just…

i guess it's too mainstream for you

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#92

Post by white_devil »

dudeguy999 wrote: post #77
white_devil wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's another point of view. Let's say I'm a Finnish person, which is true, and I move from Finland to SF. Upon moving to SF, I'm aware that I'm an immigrant there, just like any others who moved in to the US from another country. Now, if someone tells me that a specific area is full of "hipsters, homeless and immigrants", this will be my reaction: "Oh? Apparently a lot of immigrants have ended up in an area with a…

"Immigrant" here means non-English speaking immigrant, particularly Spanish in this case. China town would also be described as an "immigrant" neighborhood. But English speaking wealthy immigrants tend to blend in and not form into cohesive neighborhoods. This is a bad thing to say because in educated, liberal America racism is the worst possible crime you can commit, and non-English communities tend to be non-White…

Oh I know, and I saw your other comments on the subject too. I'm just as disgusted by Political Correctness as you are, perhaps even more so.

In Europe, it's strictly forbidden to say anything negative about Africans or Muslims (or a combination thereof). That makes you a disgusting racist.

Our "Latinos" (Spain, Portugal, etc) are not sacrosanct, because they're just Europeans. Not that anyone talks about them anyway.

In our fervor for political correctness, the West seems to have forgotten that an immigrant is just someone who's moved into another country - nothing more, nothing less. In Finland, though, "an immigrant" has become an euphemism for "a Somali". Over there, maybe it's code for "Latino".

I don't think the author of the original post used the word in a negative sense. As I see it, he was just describing an area.

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#93

Post by jevanish »

azylman wrote: post #40

I'm looking to make this move in August and some of the advice here won't work for me. For instance, I can't get a reference from a past landlord or a list of past landlords - I'm just graduating college and have lived in on-campus housing my whole time. I'm hoping having a very good credit score and a very good offer letter in hand will solve this issue, but I'm not sure. Additionally, I can't move out mid-month and…

Honestly, I think if you replace the landlord reference letter with anything from your school that demonstrates your a responsible student, that will suffice.

Your key will be the offer letter. If you're making significantly more than the monthly rent amount, that will alleviate a lot of their concerns about you making rent (which is what most of those materials are really all about proving).

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#94

Post by mhartl »

potatolicious wrote: post #78
dudeguy999 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to live in Spanish speaking neighborhoods because I don't speak Spanish. I enjoy the food and the low prices, I don't enjoy the culture. If you don't speak English in America, you tend to be poor and less educated, which means you and I will have less in common. I fully realize I am not allowed to say this in Liberal America because this makes me a DISGUSTING BIGOT, so I don't post this under my real nam…

> "If you don't speak English in America, you tend to be poor and less educated" Such as the Asian immigrant population. Which, last I checked, is experiencing quotas at Ivy League schools because they're getting in at rates much, much higher than any other race, and tend to come from backgrounds of higher education, even if their parents' English is poor. You're trying to generalize your argument to minimize the app…

  > If you don't speak English in America, you tend to be
  poor and less educated

  Such as the Asian immigrant population.
Read closely. He says "tend to be". You've offered a supposed counterexample, but tendencies can't be disproved by counterexamples. "I know some really tall women" doesn't disprove the statement "Women tend to be shorter than men."

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#95

Post by wahnfrieden »

trefn wrote: post #79
philp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right. But reading this article the author seems to imply a negative connotation by saying you'd be hard pressed to find somebody willing to live in the mission because of "hipsters, homeless and immigrants".

My interpretation of that paragraph was that no single person was likely to be interested in all three of the neighborhoods mentioned because they're all so different.

No, they're portrayed as undesirables. If he had said the neighborhood was diverse, that would be a positive light. Instead he's lumping them together with homeless and hipsters (a derogatory term).

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#96

Post by jevanish »

jboggan wrote: post #14

This is a welcome and timely article since I'm about to pull up stakes in Georgia and move to SF in late July (cue Otis Redding). I am planning on couch-surfing with friends for the first few weeks while I find a good sublet for a few months. Hopefully after that I can get an apartment when I have a job and know the neighborhoods a little better. Are rents really accelerating upward so quickly that I'm better off fin…

I just looked at rents after posting this article and it looks like things are going up about $100/mo at least in the areas I had saved on PadMapper.

My advice would be to wait and find a place you'll like and just realize once you get a full lease (ie- 1 year or more) you'll be there a while because in a year, rent will definitely be way higher.

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#97

Post by kenko »

earl wrote: post #63
trimbo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of other cost-effective places on the west side of SF that can go for less than half the price of SOMA Exactly! Look at where Muni and BART end up and then look at places to rent in those locations. West Portal, Glen Park, Noe Valley, etc. There are a lot of cool choices with public transportation if you start looking.

Friends don't let friends ride muni. I've ridden public transport all over the world and never been in physical danger on public transport before. Riding muni it happened multiple times in 16 months. Not to mention it's slow, untimely, and crap.

I've ridden public transport all over the world as well, including in San Francisco and Oakland, and the only place I've ever felt even moderately uncomfortable was in Chicago. Muni does suck, but I've only got anecdotal reports that it's unsafe.

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#99

Post by kevinsd »

prodigal_erik wrote: post #81

You don't have to support YC's favorite spammers to land a short-term place. There are some month-to-month apartments in the city (e.g., Landmark, who I'm using now, basically wants a pulse and a credit card for the rent) and motels on the peninsula with weekly rates that are about the same as renting a studio but with utilities, parking, and cleaning included.

Hi, the short-term option sounds very interesting to me. Will definitely check out landmark. Meanwhile, do you have any particular motels in mind?

Re: How to find an apartment in San Francisco during the tech boom

#100

Post by usaar333 »

aliston wrote: post #67
jkincaid wrote: post #39

Obviously there's a lot of demand in SOMA, but one suggestion to anyone thinking of living there: spend some time wandering around, both during the day and during the evening, and see if you like the vibe of the neighborhood (this advice holds true for any neighborhood, really). I say this because I lived in an area that seemed desirable — about 5 minutes away from the 4th & King Caltrain, at 4th and Brannan, and, wh…

I couldn't agree more. SOMA is a terrible place to live if you're under 30 and want urban nightlife. SOMA has some cool places with a bit of character... District, 25 Lusk and 21st Amendment, but on the whole it feels either very sterile or very industrial. If I had it to do over again, I would have braved the 20 minute commute and lived in somewhere that had more culture... the haight, mission, pac heights or (gasp)…

There's always SW SOMA (11th st) which is quite different from 2nd/3rd.
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