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San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

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Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#131

Post by enraged_camel »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #82
jaysonelliot wrote: post #60

I don't understand why the author would move to Portland when we've got our own affordable, culturally rich, tech-friendly cities in the East Bay. Come to Oakland. It's beautiful here. The weather is better than San Francisco, you can ride your bicycle anywhere, public transit is good, and it's easy to get to SF as well as Silicon Valley (which I do regularly). There's no need to leave the entire Bay Area just becaus…

Yeah I just bought a house in El Cerrito last week and while we paid above asking, it was 1/3 the price of what my friends on the peninsula are paying for a great place. The fact that people seem completely unwilling to commute 30 minutes for a life changing job is pretty bizarre to me.

No matter how life-changing a job is, the fact of the matter is that long commutes are almost always soul-sucking time-sinks that have a significant negative impact on the psychological well-being of those who do them.

Besides, the longer the commute, the less free time you have, which takes away from your personal projects and massively decreases your chances of innovating or inventing something new.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#132

Post by JRobertson »

jusben1369 wrote: post #62

I think this is exactly how to do San Francisco. Go live there as a "young" person. Learn from the best, make great business contacts in life and enjoy it all! Don't sweat the fact you're renting a small place and paying a lot. You're young and it's a trivial point in the big picture of things. After 5 - 10 years your priorities will change. As you start to think about a partner/children etc you'll reassess how great…

Or you could live in one of the more affordable tech hubs like Austin or SLC, work just as hard, and still grow a successful start-up at a fraction of the cost.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#133

Post by ivanca »

zanny wrote: post #121
potatolicious wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about stopping prices from going up, it's about stopping them from going up at an uncontrollable rate. Many desirable neighborhoods are seeing market rents increases in the double-digit percentages, every year . Some parts of SF are experiencing >20% YoY growth. That's real estate hyperinflation, far in excess of the normal appreciation you'd expect in a healthy economy with increasing population. And the so…

Too bad you can't build more in SF because of the building height limits, which is the principle reason housing rates are absurd. If the city made sense they'd build some highrise condos downtown and house the entrepreneurs in studio apartments.

Yes, many big cities are (state-sponsored) trying to grow vertically instead of horizontally.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#134

Post by workergnome »

michaelochurch wrote: post #108
RyanZAG wrote: post #6

Doesn't seem like a great solution. If the tech guys leave SF, it would be like Detroit. SF and tech are now linked in the way Detroit and cars were. If you try pull the tech out, you'll be left with a husk fighting over crumbs. I don't even live in SF and this is clear to me. Or maybe it's clear to me because I don't live in SF?

I don't see San Francisco turning into Detroit. It's more likely to follow Pittsburgh's path, and Pittsburgh isn't a bad place to live these days (but it's far from a star city).

What you missed was the twenty years where Pittsburgh turned into Detroit. Losing all of your industry followed by 60% of your population does that do a city. As a Pittsburgher, it's a good city with ambitions to be great, but it took a generation to get there.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#135

Post by patio11 »

potatolicious wrote: post #102
patio11 wrote: post #96

At the risk of unsolicited dating advice: is the reason one is embarassed to mention one's occupation to a woman at the bar caused by tech salaries being too high, or by years of social conditioning telling you that geeks are low status? (Or by learning that the way one signals high status is by constructing a low status outgroup and then explaining how you're unlike them?) An alternative: just pretend society really…

Can't speak for OP, but for me it's much more of the former than the latter. When I lived in Seattle, and later SF, I loathed to tell someone my job. Firstly because in that city it automatically paints a "has a truckload of cash" target on one's head, regardless of whether or not it's true. Secondly because the tech folks in the city are blamed for basically all of the city's woes (this is true in both Seattle and S…

Being blamed for things they self-evidently do not control? Eye rolls? These are classic markers of low status.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#136

Post by crusso »

king_jester wrote: post #16
gms wrote: post #4

The wealthy tech people aren't the ones ruining San Francisco. You have to ask yourself: in what universe would constant increases in tax revenues and wealthy consumers be bad for a city? The answer, sadly, is a universe where said city has an utterly incompetent government.

> The wealthy tech people aren't the ones ruining San Francisco. Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentrification

The gentrification complaint always seems hollow to me. There's nothing cooler than seeing some run-down urban area transformed into a place that's more successful and vibrant through renovation and revitalization.

Some people may find that the environment outpaces their income or lifestyle... okay. Record companies found that technology outpaced their business model. The changes are good regardless what the curmudgeons think.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#137

Post by bifrost »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #60

I don't understand why the author would move to Portland when we've got our own affordable, culturally rich, tech-friendly cities in the East Bay. Come to Oakland. It's beautiful here. The weather is better than San Francisco, you can ride your bicycle anywhere, public transit is good, and it's easy to get to SF as well as Silicon Valley (which I do regularly). There's no need to leave the entire Bay Area just becaus…

> Come to Oakland. It's beautiful here.

Unless you are talking about west or east Oakland, in which case its full of blight, gangs and crime.

Don't get me wrong, Oakland is gentrifying despite itself but I would never want to live in Oakland till they fix their failed city government and their high crime rate.

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#138

Post by forrestthewoods »

api wrote: post #30

I've got a possibly great job offer on the table from SF/SV, but may turn it down. I'd love the city I'm sure, but after glancing around I've come to the conclusion that home ownership is unthinkable to anyone who hasn't had a cash-out event. The real estate market is certifiably, utterly bat-dookie insane. NYC is often considered more expensive, and Manhattan is certainly... well... Manhattan. But taken collectively…

San Francisco real-estate is absurdly corrupt.

From 2004 to 2007 only an average of 2,220 units were built. From 2008 to 2012 a mere 1,710 units were built [1]. New construction has been impossible. It looks like it's picking up slightly, but not nearly as much as it would in a fair market.

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-apartment-construc...

Re: San Francisco, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

#140

Post by caniszczyk »

chiph wrote: post #123
michaelochurch wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regret that I have but one upvote to give you for this. Here, have an Indignation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtCiP8B2xpc#t=7s In the long term, Silicon Valley and SF is eating its young. It's a city built on young entrepreneurs coming there and doing new stuff, but if nobody who hasn't already made it can afford to live there what happens then? The other problem is that these high costs soak up everyone's spar…

Austin real estate isn't as bat-shit insane as SF, but what I'm seeing is that there are people who are paying $10k over the asking price. And that is severely distorting the market. Agreed that Austin isn't as "hit-driven" as SF is. Talent here is more diverse on an individual basis than other tech towns.

This is true... it's a bit pain in the ass to buy real estate within a mile of downtown in Austin... but if you go outside that it's not that bad...
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