MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area • Hacker News Board

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#141

Post by Mountain_Skies » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

imjared wrote: post #86

clarry wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the logic by which people say that in smaller towns, you need a car. For me the exact opposite has been true: the larger the city, the more likely I am to need a car. In small cities everything is in walking distance, that's what small means. Big means things are far. Also, based on all the complaining about public traffic and congestion and whatnot, the larger the city, the more likely you are to…

USA small towns != European small towns. Many small cities in the US have no walking infrastructure, horrible (unreliable, slow, etc.) public transportation, and are victims of sprawl. Having just come off a trip to a handful of smaller European cities, if I lived there I would most likely just walk, bike, or maybe scooter everywhere.

Many small towns have downtowns with good walking infrastructure (though often in poor repair). The problem is almost everything has closed down because the strip of big box stores located out on the highway bypass on the edge of town attracted away all the customers.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#142

Post by icebraining » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:14 PM UTC

marcinzm wrote: post #103

kfk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go: https://casea1euro.it/case-a-1-euro-in-sardegna-a-15-minuti-... You buy the house for 1 euro but then you have to fix it. So I guess you have to invest few thousands.

I don’t know about Italy but in the US fixing up an old house in bad condition can be extremely expensive and time consuming. Cheaper to buy empty land and build a new one.

The news article talks about an estimation of €20k to renovate them. They're likely not very large, though.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#143

Post by jrockway » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:14 PM UTC

themagician wrote: post #125

dmode wrote: post #106

Let’s be honest, $10k is chump change for engineers pulling $400k. If you want people to move, how about offer $400k ?

I doubt there are more than a few hundred engineers with that salary in the entire Bay Area and they aren’t the ones who complain about cost of living. This is the software engineer making $80,000 a year who tries to live alone and has to spend half their paycheck on a studio.

That is quite false. When I worked at Google, my W2 income was about $270k every year, as a nobody senior engineer. I worked with multiple people that made at least $600k a year. There are thousands of engineers at Google making that kind of money, and no doubt Uber/Lyft/Facebook/Apple/Netflix/Microsoft are paying similar salaries.

This was not the Bay Area, rather New York, but the salaries are about the same in both areas.

The people that own homes in the Bay Area are Googlers that married each other. That is some good income. Enough for a shed in someone's backyard anyway!

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#144

Post by ghaff » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

imjared wrote: post #86

clarry wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the logic by which people say that in smaller towns, you need a car. For me the exact opposite has been true: the larger the city, the more likely I am to need a car. In small cities everything is in walking distance, that's what small means. Big means things are far. Also, based on all the complaining about public traffic and congestion and whatnot, the larger the city, the more likely you are to…

USA small towns != European small towns. Many small cities in the US have no walking infrastructure, horrible (unreliable, slow, etc.) public transportation, and are victims of sprawl. Having just come off a trip to a handful of smaller European cities, if I lived there I would most likely just walk, bike, or maybe scooter everywhere.

However lots of people in those cities do in fact own cars.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#145

Post by magashna » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:17 PM UTC

realbarack wrote: post #64

mdszy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a medium sized city in Wisconsin (~100k population) and my costs are: - $850 for rent for a 2 bedroom 1200sqft apartment - ~$70 for utilities (i have free heat so it's less in the winter and more in the summer) and if i still had the car i previously had, my only expense would be gas (~$100/mo) and the minor maintenance it needed, which was less than $1000/yr (i tracked everything each year i had it). I bou…

Paying an extra $1.5k per month on rent isn't insane when it gets you $50 or $100k additional annual salary.

But if you're purely remote you're banking that extra money

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#146

Post by _mentioned » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

throwaway34526 wrote: post #97

jdavis703 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad's side of the family is in Georgia. You couldn't pay me $300k to deal with the racism in rural Georgia. Yes not all people out there are bad, but there's enough I'd rather line elsewhere.

Agreed. I also grew up in a semi rural town, on the East Coast, and I wouldn’t ever want to go back. If you’re a minority, in an interracial relationship, or are LGBT, living in a rural area can have serious quality of life issues that often aren’t mentioned.

"often aren't mentioned"? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Literally 100% of the time that anywhere in the US outside of the major tech cities gets brought up, the comments are full of people claiming that the inhabitants of those areas are racist, stupid, dangerous, unwelcoming, or otherwise bad and undesirable to be near.

The double-standards on this website are mind boggling, for how casually and openly people will believe negative stereotypes and repeat discriminatory beliefs when the 'out group' is rural, southern, or even just non-coastal.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#147

Post by dnh44 » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:21 PM UTC

RomanPushkin wrote: post #76

kfk wrote: post #16

The idea is sound. There are a lot of amazing places in Italy where I am from. Some of these towns sell houses for few thousands. Just think about it. No traffic. No over-crowded restaurants. Your own property. Sun. Sea side. I think this is more an issue of community. Of course if you are the only remote worker in a place with aging population is not fun. But if some start up would be able to build a community of re…

> Some of these towns sell houses for few thousands Name of the place or it didn't happen :)

I've read about lots of stories like this in the last few years. Small (generally remote) Italian towns that are shrinking quickly are trying to attract new residents. The catch is generally that you have to live there full time and can't just use it as a holiday home.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/one-dollar-home-sambu...

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#148

Post by flowersjeff » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

I just hope that if you're thinking about a move, read comments from folks that either grew up in the area being considered and/or those that moved back from.

There are very real reasons why people move into the Bay Area - and put up with all the "problems". This is coming from a person that grew up in the South and would rather not move back.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#149

Post by tempsy » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:25 PM UTC

0xffff2 wrote: post #132

cheese4242 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly how big a studio would that get you?

Based on a few minutes on padmapper, I'm guessing about 0sqft in Lower Haight. Certainly doable in the Tenderloin though.

It's decent sized. Maybe a little less than 500 sqft. Bright & does not feel claustrophobic. Honestly surprised it was this affordable when I first saw it over the summer.

Re: MainStreet – $10k to Leave Bay Area

#150

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 21, 2019, 4:25 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #88

realbarack wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying an extra $1.5k per month on rent isn't insane when it gets you $50 or $100k additional annual salary.

$1.5k is generous...it's more like $500-$1k maybe. I'm lucky to have my own place in SF but most people have roommates because SF rentals is mostly houses, but if you lived nearly anywhere else you'd almost certainly find your own place and not scramble to find a roommate. So you go from paying $2k/month with roommates to maybe $1.5k/month without. Not a huge difference.

[deleted]