Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What I wish I knew before moving to San Francisco

jasonevanish.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 573 posts

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

#321

Post by naudo »

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…

I dunno, the roads in eastern OR are pretty crappy.

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

#322

Post by beatpanda »

Roybatty wrote: post #244
_pius wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I considered moving to SF but chose Austin instead. I refuse to live in a state with such a dysfunctional government ... You do realize you live in Texas, right?

You do realize that there are people outside of your little world that aren't leftists/socialists/fascists, right?

You do realize that, objectively, Martin Luther King was more instrumental in the Civil Rights movement than Lyndon Johnson was, right?

Oh, wait, you might not, because the Texas Board of Education took it upon themselves to re-write history.

Low taxes are cool and all, but I don't see how anyone could live in peace with that public school system.

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

#323

Post by recursive »

dguaraglia wrote: post #250
softbuilder wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You lost credibility with me by repeated use of the vulgar "San Fran". It's THE CITY. :)

Hah, I thought exactly the same. Even out here in Sacramento people call it "The City" (fair enough, Sacramento is just a big-ass, boring suburban sprawl)

I just visited Sacramento this summer, and it seemed about 100x more interesting than where I'm from.

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

#324

Post by davmar »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #306
jseliger wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just moved here from Tucson, and there's virtually no way I'd be here if not for the fact that I'm living with a medical resident in an apartment subsidized by her hospital. Given a choice among SF, NYC, and Seattle, and I'd choose Seattle: It has much of what makes the first two desirable, but at 60% of the cost. BTW, to the extent that you want to make cities like SF and NYC more affordable, favor the rem…

Having moved from SF to Seattle, I just want to say that Seattle is terrible, and you should warn everybody you know to stay away. ;)

Haha. Why do you think so? Lets get a beer and I'll show you why it isn't totally awful. Some gems for sure.

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

#325

Post by tokipin »

jacoblyles wrote: post #147
philwelch wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mississippi wouldn't be a low tax state if they were unable to tax Californians.

It's not true that those tax dollars are going to Mississippi's general fund. Rather, they are going to things like Medicaid and food stamps. Presumably the federal transfers equalize access to food and medicine across states, so they both start from the same place when they start levying state taxes to provide state services.

that just sounds like an accounting trick. if Mississipi had higher revenue it could accomodate for more social services without the help of California.

i'm not very familiar with this stuff, but i believe states like California have better social safety nets than states like Mississipi. so different states don't even actually start from the same place

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

#326

Post by pkaler »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #209
run4yourlives wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the obvious, what exactly doesn't apply?

I have very close friends in Vancouver, and over the last 20 years, I've been to there often, throughout all parts of the season. I'm fairly familiar with it. If I could retire in Vancouver I would because it's a nice, quiet, slow-paced town. Even at the height of work hours, there is very little traffic downtown. It doesn't have the same flair that a city like SF has. SF has major events throughout the year. It has…

Your impressions of Vancouver are dated by about 5 years. A lot has changed over the last few years with the Olympics, Canada Line, BC Place renovation, Convention Centre, Shangri-La being built, etc.

> There is zero night life in Vancouver, and a few very good restaurants (but a lot of great sushi restaurants, much better than SF).

The problem with Vancouverites is that they just like to complain about the bad nightlife even though it is actually fairly vibrant. I have lived in Vancouver for about 15 years now and most of that time I've lived downtown. I can go into almost any bar and hug the bartender. There is a good live music night almost every night of the week. (Guilt & Co, Railway, Commodore, Media Club, Orpheum)

> Downtown is practically dead by 8pm, which is nice. Granville Street which should be like Market Street, is instead almost like a dead street, Robson has a lot of tourists, but no real culture except coffee shops.

Downtown being dead by 8pm is no longer true. At 30,000 people per square mile, it's one of the densest cores in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Vancouver

Granville and Robson are the tourist trap and drunk college kids strip. Gastown is usually packed on Friday and Saturday nights with drunk 19 year olds. Most of the locals hang out in Gastown, Yaletown, or South Main depending on your scene preference.

The sushi in Gastown is garbage, but Yaletown probably has better sushi than the rest of Canada and the US combined (Ki Isu, Honjin, Bistro Sakana, Minami, Blue Water, Hapa Izakaya).

And a list of more restaurants: http://www.yelp.ca/search?find_desc=Michelin+Star+Restaurant...

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

#327

Post by dubfan »

jgmmo wrote: post #93
rootedbox wrote: post #82

Wonders how anyone can live without being in the tech industry... then chooses not to buy local.. You are making things a lot harder on the families of SF that have been here for a long time by not shopping local.. please think of that next time you order on amazon from your soma office.

Buy local is the biggest crock (with one exception: if you honestly and truly believe the food is better quality). It causes a net loss for society. Consumers can't purchase as many goods, and the goods being purchased are not being produced as efficiently as the 'non-locals' version. Which means your groceries cost more every week then they would have otherwise. http://mises.org/daily/5283/The-BuyLocal-Canard

Ah, a Mises Institute article, definitely a non-biased source not trying to push a certain socioeconomic agenda.

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

#328

Post by swift »

Roybatty wrote: post #244
_pius wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I considered moving to SF but chose Austin instead. I refuse to live in a state with such a dysfunctional government ... You do realize you live in Texas, right?

You do realize that there are people outside of your little world that aren't leftists/socialists/fascists, right?

One of these things is not like the others.

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

#329

Post by [deleted] »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #306
jseliger wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just moved here from Tucson, and there's virtually no way I'd be here if not for the fact that I'm living with a medical resident in an apartment subsidized by her hospital. Given a choice among SF, NYC, and Seattle, and I'd choose Seattle: It has much of what makes the first two desirable, but at 60% of the cost. BTW, to the extent that you want to make cities like SF and NYC more affordable, favor the rem…

Having moved from SF to Seattle, I just want to say that Seattle is terrible, and you should warn everybody you know to stay away. ;)

[deleted]

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

#330

Post by georgeorwell »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #309
georgeorwell wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compassion generally means feeling another person's pain. I don't think that you can use negative, objectifying language and feel another person's pain at the same time. For example, consider: (1) "Just outside of my expensive hotel, there were all these drug-addicted homeless people that couldn't even walk properly. Life must be pretty difficult for them." vs. (2) "Just outside of my expensive hotel, there were all…

Man, text sucks for conveying meaning (3) I find it strange that there is such poverty next to such wealth and that people consider it acceptable. I feel as though I've woken up in a zombie movie, but everyone else is just carrying on with their day, like no big deal.

Yep, I was totally barking up the wrong tree. I just feel bad for the zombies now.
Post reply on HN