Why is this bitter, trite diatribe on the front page of hacker news?
Hits too close to home, staff writer for Wired?
A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
21–30 of 57 posts
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#22I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
I've lived in both places - public transit in SF beats the pathetic pants off of Seattle for sure. It won't hold a candle to NYC though, so you may be disappointed. It's entirely possible to live without a car - very, very much so, but be prepared to pay if that's the case (i.e. neighborhoods well served by transit are expensive , think Manhattan rents... up to $2K for a studio? You bet!).
I would much rather ride a Seattle bus than a SF bus, but the likelihood of finding a bus that goes from A to B (without a transfer) is much higher in SF than in Seattle. This is partly a product of Seattle's shape, where the obvious thing for any bus to do is run north-south from a neighborhood to the downtown corridor. It is also a product of density, which Seattle doesn't really have in large quantities.
And re: expensive neighborhoods for transit. I think your numbers are quite a bit off - sure, if you want to live near the main Caltrain station, you are looking at that much. But you can easily find a large 1 bedroom for $1600 within 5 minutes of the light rail or BART for a total transit time to downtown of 10-15 minutes.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's possible, but having access to Zipcar is quite essential for pretty much anything outside of the city limits - rail expansion was severely hampered by some nearby suburbanites who were afraid that the worst of the city was going to take the train out to visit them, so you have to get in a car if you want to visit your classist neighbors.
It's not "essential" -- there is BART, Caltrain and a pretty extensive public transportation system in the greater bay area, but ZipCar could be a useful additional tool. As far as your history lesson on rail expansion. You have it completely backwards. The bay area had a very extensive rail system 60-70 years ago. One level of the bay bridge was just for trains. Google the Key System for more information. When cars…
It's not totally essential but trips outside the city are 2-3x slower without a car. When you factor in wait times and switching trains/buses, you can spend half the day in transit to do a trip which only takes 40 minutes each way in a car.
Also, many destinations in the surrounding area are suburban or semi-rural. You need the car when you get there, because where you actually want to go is not usually near the transit station.
For example, it was theoretically possible for me to take public transport from SF to TechShop in Menlo Park, but it involved 2 hours of trains and a very limited bus service or 45 minute walk through an industrial park. Or, I could just drive there in 40 minutes.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#24With all the brand name checking, privileged living and even a homeless person reference, this piece is reminiscent of a 21st century, west coast "American Psycho". I do hope that was intentional!
I found it more reminiscent of Fight Club. Much of it reminded me of Ed Norton describing his apartment. And I was just waiting for Tyler Durden to come along in the middle of this paragraph:
I check-in to BART on Foursquare, because everyone needs to know that I’m about to take public transportation. Which is kind of like the equivalent to doing something mundane, like taking a sip of a drink and telling everyone about it. Actually? I’ll probably check into somewhere for this reason later. To be fair: I’ve heard if you check into BART 10 times you get the “Trainspotter” badge. I don’t know why this is important to me. But it is. I need that badge.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've lived in both places - public transit in SF beats the pathetic pants off of Seattle for sure. It won't hold a candle to NYC though, so you may be disappointed. It's entirely possible to live without a car - very, very much so, but be prepared to pay if that's the case (i.e. neighborhoods well served by transit are expensive , think Manhattan rents... up to $2K for a studio? You bet!).
I would much rather ride a Seattle bus than a SF bus, but the likelihood of finding a bus that goes from A to B (without a transfer) is much higher in SF than in Seattle. This is partly a product of Seattle's shape, where the obvious thing for any bus to do is run north-south from a neighborhood to the downtown corridor. It is also a product of density, which Seattle doesn't really have in large quantities. And re: e…
When is the last time you rented? My impression is that the rental market is picking up significantly and there are noticeable rent raises even month to month at this point (bubble, anyone?)
Being near BART is going to set you back at least $1700 at the very low end for a studio, $2000 for a 1BR. More for both depending on quality of the place, naturally. You might hack 10% off either of those prices if you pick up a particularly sweet deal.
FWIW, I signed my current place last month, so that's when my knowledge of the current rental market ends. I talked to numerous people including an apartment hunter, all of whom expressed incredulity at how much prices are shifting, even on the order of a couple of months.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've lived in both places - public transit in SF beats the pathetic pants off of Seattle for sure. It won't hold a candle to NYC though, so you may be disappointed. It's entirely possible to live without a car - very, very much so, but be prepared to pay if that's the case (i.e. neighborhoods well served by transit are expensive , think Manhattan rents... up to $2K for a studio? You bet!).
I would much rather ride a Seattle bus than a SF bus, but the likelihood of finding a bus that goes from A to B (without a transfer) is much higher in SF than in Seattle. This is partly a product of Seattle's shape, where the obvious thing for any bus to do is run north-south from a neighborhood to the downtown corridor. It is also a product of density, which Seattle doesn't really have in large quantities. And re: e…
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Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#27I definitely laughed. But I'm curious, how is public transportation in SF? Is it possible to get by without a car or is that a silly pipe dream? Edit: for context, I'm a Seattleite who has been transplanted to NYC and is now looking to make it back to the West Coast (ideally, Cali!)
San Francisco's MUNI has the problems of most large urban public transport systems (it can be a bit slow, it's not perfectly reliable, every now and then they'll be some crazy person ranting to no-one in particular), but it's OK; half an hour and two buses (or a train and a bus) will get you most places in the city. San Francisco's also pretty small - about seven miles square - so yes, it's pretty easy to get around…
I guess that begs the question, relative to the apparent hike in rental prices, are the SF-based tech companies paying enough to get by on?
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#28This really should be called, "A Day in the Life of the Shallow San Francisco Hipster (Who Is Tragically Out Of Date And Trying Too Hard)."
I'm not going to pretend like these guys don't exist, but this guy moved to ground zero (the Mission) for goodness sakes. What did he expect?
Hipsters aren't the only subculture in San Francisco.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#29Instead of checking Twitter and Facebook that much this san franciscan should probably build stuff instead.
Re: A Day in the Life of the Modern San Franciscan
#30Why is this bitter, trite diatribe on the front page of hacker news?
I agree, I have never quite understood this meme of mocking hipster stereotypes. It's mean-spirited and in most cases very hypocritical.