Why do you have to live in San Francisco city itself. There are many places in the Bay Area more affordable than San Francisco.
Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
21–30 of 212 posts
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
New York and especially London are not exactly known for their sunny weather and yet have an housing market similar to that of SF... I'm not saying it's not a factor, but I think there are more important ones.
Yes. Other factors as well. I just said a large part... not the only or the largest. Another one is that you are not more than a couple hours from snow (assuming we're not having a drought like right now), the beach and the forest. I'm sure other places enjoy this diversity of nature as well... but we do have it pretty good here.
Of course, there is no denying that the area is great, I lived in the Valley for a few months and loved it.
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#23> If you’re trying to bootstrap, being based in San Francisco is awful. Especially if you have a family. I rented a four bedroom house in a great neighborhood in Sacramento that was a bike ride from Midtown for $2900/mo. We ended up buying a bigger house in the same neighborhood for even less per month. No commute, food is cheap, etc. The cost savings are enormous, and I'm sure it's more expensive than St. Louis... Y…
I know this isn't exactly the best metric, but the demand for programmers in St. Louis seems very low. When I look at Craigslist I see a couple Java jobs, a couple PHP jobs and even one godforsaken VB.net job. Even Jeff Atwood doesn't use VB.net.
So I'm doubtful that it would be easier to keep the contracts coming in while in St. Louis.
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#24I love St. Louis. Certain parts have a European feel that no other city outside of Canada has. There are a lot of extremely bright, hard working people there too. It is odd. It is a city that seems to not know how much untapped talent it has.
That being said, there are parts that are rundown and sketchy. There are huge problems with drugs like methamphetamine outside of the 'normal' urban drug issues that most cities have. In addition, from what I understand, the Missouri tax system is terrible (property tax on many large items you own like cars in addition to your homestead tax and sales tax on top of income tax).
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#25Former STL startup founder here (slicehost). We were from St Louis, so starting the business here made sense and gave us several distinct advantages (cheap power, data center space, etc).
For startups, it's currently an ideal place IMO. There are quality people here doing whatever it takes to help people get a business started. Money? They can help. Space? They can help. Introductions? They can help. A low cost of living gives you plenty of time to figure things out. Throw in a ton of good restaurants, a decent art/music scene, a couple of good universities and you have something worth serious consideration. Biggest downsides are weather (winters are chilly) and you need a car.
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#26St. Louis is cheap, but it's cheap for a reason. If you think 6th and Market is bad, take a stroll through East St. Louis. It has the 3rd highest murder rate in the country. Violent crime is on the rise. [1] Basically, it's one of the most dangerous cities in the country. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, then you'd probably be better off just moving your startup to Oakland and maintaining a connection to the…
>> Basically, it's one of the most dangerous cities in the country.
If you're worried about the violent crime rate, don't move to the south. Texas, Florida, and Louisiana are always near the top for violent crime rate. The states with the lowest murder rates are in the north, generally. You want to move someplace like Vermont or Oregon.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/c...
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#27If you're looking for "San Francisco" feel, crowd, look, shops, and trendy neighborhoods in St. Louis. Go to the "Central West End" District. If there's one thing St. Louis can be proud of it's that district. That whole area from Forest Park (bigger than Central Park in New York) including the neighborhoods around it, Barnes Jewish Hospital, Children's Hospital Complex, GasLamp District, Central West End is really ni…
small correction — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_Square%2C_St._Louis
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#28Right now it is noon in St. Louis and 19 degrees. Right now it is 10:00 in SF and 53 degrees. I think weather plays a large part in why people like to live in the Bay Area. Many refer to the high cost of living here as the "sun tax." As I sit in my office wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I can't even fathom living in St. Louis.
"sun tax" is cheaper in Texas. It's zero as in 0% income tax.
It's currently 30F in my hometown of Allen.
During the summer it is not uncommon to have over 100 days of 100F+.
You do not want to be outside during that heat.
Oh, plus we've had a drought for years and years that has dried up most of our lakes to a shadow of their former sizes.
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#29The current San Francisco influx is unsustainable. If you're somewhere else in the world and thinking about coming here to do a startup, I wish I could convince you to change your mind. San Francisco is incredibly expensive. Rents have shot up by ~50% since 2008, office space is following the same trend, and competition for (even mediocre) programmers is intense. Worse, a lot of the cultural diversity that made San F…
SF used to be known as good woman-hunting territory, because of the predominance of gay males. Has that changed because of the tech influx?
Re: Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis
#30It is not only rent but other things like higher sales and income tax rates in California. My wife and I live in the mountains in Central Arizona and the cost of living is lower than California in many ways.