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What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

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

#111

Post by 1wheel »

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?

Different states have different levels of economic development. Since all states share a common currency, it isn't possible for states like Mississippi to devalue their currency in order to be competitive with California. Large fiscal transfers between states are necessary to keep things balanced out.

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

#114

Post by mjn »

gambiting wrote: post #97

Oh US and your complaining about taxes. "You leave with ONLY 65% of your income after paying taxes". In Denmark you pay 60% in taxes, so you leave with 40% of your income in your pocket. And petrol is now more than $10/US gallon.

On the plus side, you get considerably more for it (I don't regret moving from California to Denmark myself). For example, healthcare is included in that price, whereas in the US you have to pay for it separately. If you subtract what you'd have to pay in the U.S. for healthcare premiums + copay, your takehome pay goes down considerably, especially if you're older than ~40, a freelancer / small businessperson who isn't part of a corporate group plan, or have a family. And the public transportation infrastructure is also much better in Denmark, at least in Copenhagen; it's much easier to get by in Copenhagen without owning a car than it is in the Bay Area. Also, university is free, so nobody has student loans (another thing that reduces many Americans' real takehome paychecks). Actually, better than free: university students are paid a small stipend to cover their living expenses.

I'm less annoyed by the level of taxation in California than the fact that, despite paying it, the money doesn't suffice to buy you health care, higher education, or good transit. If those were different I'd be happy to pay 50% more! (Also, you don't really pay an effective 60% tax in Denmark unless you make quite a lot of money. I make a decent professional salary and paid <40% overall.)

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

#115

Post by paulgb »

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 ...

I know it's just one anecdote, but a Subway employee in SOMA once asked me if I knew anyone that would hire him as a DBA. The feeling in SF is that the tech world is inescapable, which some people seem to like.

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

#116

Post by dan_yall »

coloneltcb wrote: post #112

As a San Francisco native, I can say that this is the single best post of its kind that I have ever read. I wouldn't change a thing, except to add the pro tip that you should never, under any circumstances, call it "San Fran".

What about "Frisco"?

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

#117

Post by gergles »

DeepDuh wrote: post #22

Thanks for all the great info, it's very helpful for someone like me, who's gonna come to the SF area the first time in march (attending / giving a talk at GTC San Jose 2013). One more question, is there something like a weekly pass for the Caltrain, such that I could visit SF in the evenings after conference?

No, but you can buy an "8-ride ticket" for a slight discount.

From San Jose, you'd need a 4-zone ticket, which would cost $64.75 -- this gives you 4 round trips to SF.

http://www.caltrain.com/Fares/farechart.html

(Note: You'll need to acquire and use a Clipper Card to use 8-ride tickets, see https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/index.do - or just go to a Walgreens when you get here and you can buy the card and the 8-ride ticket at the same time.)

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

#118

Post by jacoblyles »

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…

California is too large a state to be well-governed. Because of its size, it requires a big budget to campaign. As a result, the public sector unions dominate state politics. Democrats have had the majority in both houses of the state congress for 40 of the last 42 years - that gives you an idea of how dynamic our politics are.

In good economic times the legislature hikes union benefits and in bad times taxes are hiked to pay for benefits which are no longer affordable. We just passed prop 30 to increase our income taxes to the highest in the nation and most of the money behind the proposition was from unions. The $4 billion in revenue from prop 30 earmarked for schools will barely cover the state's shortfall in its teacher pension fund. Not a dime will go towards actually making the schools better.

California has the trifecta of suck - high taxes, bad services, and big deficits. That's what a state looks like when the government exists to serve its unions and not the people.

Others have pointed out the proposition system. Propositions do tend to be somewhat spastic - voters seldom balk at spending money on boondoggles like the high speed train that is supposed to be finished any decade now. But I don't think it is a huge problem. The proposition is one of the only outlets for non-liberal policies in the state, so I think it gets more hate and blame than it deserves.

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

#119

Post by kafkaesque »

run4yourlives wrote: post #66
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.

This is anecdotal, so I guess you can take it with a grain of salt.

But as someone from Vancouver who has visited SF quite a bit, SF always seemed to have more homelessness (it does have a warmer climate than Van) and more parts that smelled really bad. I might be desensitised to it already, though. Also, throughout my time living in Vancouver, I've never witnessed a robbery/theft/crime, whereas visiting SF last month I witnessed a random theft from a homeless at a Walgreens and they were really abusive towards him.

What I'm saying is, it still feels like a different country with a different culture, instead of it only being a west coast thing.

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

#120

Post by smhinsey »

majormajor wrote: post #95
smhinsey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a really big deal when you shut down a freeway, even if it is for maintenance that'll improve it. Not many cities make national news with road closures like LA has done with the 405. The cost of this maintenance goes way beyond time & materials.

I love how much denser the suburban parts of LA are compared to other places (though I do wish it had more of a super-dense urban core), but it does take a toll infrastructure-wise. LA has a pretty extensive network of freeways, and they're still all packed. It's crazy. And impressive, in a way (I have a love-hate relationship with the 405 in particular). On the other hand, the city I'm from originally is finally get…

I am right near the 101 myself, so I hear you on the love/hate thing. I figure, at least it isn't the 710.

Even the medium sized midwestern city I am from has problems with road widening. I think it's basically a scourge wherever it goes on. There are some freeways in LA that almost seem impossible to shut down under any non-catastrophic circumstances, such as the 5 downtown (or anything downtown, probably) so it'll be interesting to see how they approach that over time.

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