What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco • Hacker News Board

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#61

Post by petercooper » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:49 PM UTC

DanBC2 wrote: post #13

>The most crushing aspect I saved for last though. Taxes here are significantly higher than I’ve experienced anywhere. This means you’re squeezed both on your take home pay and your expenses. ...and some weirdness means they don't spend that money on roads, so the road surfaces are lousy . Maybe I've been spoiled by our great road surfaces in UK.

LA has some of the worst road surfaces I've seen anywhere, even on the freeways. On the flip side, though, I suspect the US has more than 5x the roads despite only having 5x our population.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#62

Post by citricsquid » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:49 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #55

JoshTriplett wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Oregon we have less than half the taxes of California, and yet we have well-maintained roads (to the point of joking that the state flower is a traffic cone), and well-maintained everything else. And the state doesn't gripe about not having enough money nearly as often (and when they do it doesn't make the national news). The state even (by law) gives back any excess tax revenue they collect each year, though…

Californians pay more in federal taxes than the state receives in federal spending. This is also true of Oregon, but in California it's true to a much higher degree. So the state is essentially subsidizing the rest of the country and doesn't have enough left over for itself.

why is that?

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#63

Post by petercooper » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:49 PM UTC

jrabone wrote: post #51

lmm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you never drove through Essex?

Or Edinburgh. Maybe it's places starting with 'E'...

Truth. Edinburgh has the worst road surfaces and quality of any British city I've driven in (one of the nicer cities otherwise though!)

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#64

Post by kafkaesque » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

fearless wrote: post #10

bluetidepro wrote: post #8

OP, did you honestly not know how expensive it was, as well as a few of these other points in the article? I would be shocked if that's the case. Most of the items in the post are pretty well-known things about the San Fran area. More or less, the title is a bit of link bait, and I doubt most of you don't already know these things about San Fran (or the bay area, for that matter).

Well, for one, if you knew as much as you say you do about SF you would know nobody calls it "San Fran".

As someone interested in languages and dialects, these types of things interest me immensely.

In Vancouver, Canada, we call it "San Fran", as well. I don't know anybody there that would even recognise it if it was called "Frisco" much less "The Bay (Area)", unless more context was given.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#65

Post by rprasad » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:50 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #40

DanBC2 wrote: post #13

>The most crushing aspect I saved for last though. Taxes here are significantly higher than I’ve experienced anywhere. This means you’re squeezed both on your take home pay and your expenses. ...and some weirdness means they don't spend that money on roads, so the road surfaces are lousy . Maybe I've been spoiled by our great road surfaces in UK.

Here in Oregon we have less than half the taxes of California, and yet we have well-maintained roads (to the point of joking that the state flower is a traffic cone), and well-maintained everything else. And the state doesn't gripe about not having enough money nearly as often (and when they do it doesn't make the national news). The state even (by law) gives back any excess tax revenue they collect each year, though…

The population of the state of Oregon is roughly 3.8 million. The population of the SF Bay area alone is roughly 7.1 million.

I genuinely wonder what California has done so differently to end up doing so badly when they have twice as much tax revenue per person.

Prop 13 (the first one), and various other initiatives that require tax revenue to be spent on pet projects rather than going into the general fund. Also, for most of the past 2 decades, a minority party with just enough power to effectively veto any budgets.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#66

Post by run4yourlives » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:51 PM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #44

I'm living in Toronto, Canada, and the SF crack-head thing is always a shock. If I'm in SF, it's for conferences and it's always strange that literally one block away from our expensive hotel, there are zombies shambling about -- and this is totally normal! For those who know Toronto: it's like you're in Yorkdale, you walk one block and you're in the worst part of Parkdale. The other odd thing is that I seem to pay a…

It's more a west coast thing. I grew up in Toronto and I can tell you the same thing shocked me about moving to Vancouver.

Crackheads/street people don't like to freeze, so they move to the warmth is. I'd imagine this is as true in the US as it is in Canada.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#67

Post by fzzzy » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:54 PM UTC

kaolinite wrote: post #2

Palo Alto and Mountain View are farther away than you think Hm, when I visited it felt like a pretty quick journey - no more than 30 minutes via Caltrain. Perhaps it was just excitement though!

30 minutes from sf to pa? Sorry, no. And mountain view is even farther.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#68

Post by philwelch » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:54 PM UTC

citricsquid wrote: post #62

philwelch wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Californians pay more in federal taxes than the state receives in federal spending. This is also true of Oregon, but in California it's true to a much higher degree. So the state is essentially subsidizing the rest of the country and doesn't have enough left over for itself.

why is that?

The US political system gives disproportionate influence to people living in less populous states.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#69

Post by martinshen » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:54 PM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #44

I'm living in Toronto, Canada, and the SF crack-head thing is always a shock. If I'm in SF, it's for conferences and it's always strange that literally one block away from our expensive hotel, there are zombies shambling about -- and this is totally normal! For those who know Toronto: it's like you're in Yorkdale, you walk one block and you're in the worst part of Parkdale. The other odd thing is that I seem to pay a…

Absolutely agree as I guy from Toronto living in SF. San Francisco has a very large number of drug related homelessness. The weather is a contributing factor but additionally, the programs that cater to the homeless are all in major areas for some reason (especially around Moscone).

Unlike West Queen West (Ossington & Dundas hood), SF has not tried to pretty up their shelters etc.

Re: What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

#70

Post by mojowo11 » Thu, Jan 17, 2013, 5:54 PM UTC

zippy wrote: post #38

"Meanwhile, here, no matter what you’re doing, those you meet will almost always be in finance or startups." Well, except for the taxi drivers, the restaurant workers, the police, the teachers, the students, the grocers, the bike messengers, the lawyers, the house cleaners, the fire fighters, the ...

This whole article is written very clearly with a very specific audience in mind. "You will be come an early adopter!" Well, maybe. I guess if you work in tech and know people who work in tech, yes. But as you noted, there are plenty of people who don't.