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The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

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Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#41

Post by fennecfoxen »

w1ntermute wrote: post #16
eshvk wrote: post #13

How are salaries/living expenses in tech different in SF and NYC? Assuming you are living in SF or NYC, of course. Are they higher in NYC or lower or vice versa?

I would say both are lower in NYC. Salary is definitely lower, and rent is as well because the infinitely better public transit in NYC gives you more living options that have a short commute.

I'm making comparable salary in NYC, and rent is pretty much in line with San Francisco area standards: $2300/mo studios in desirable areas... the difference in the housing market are these. First, there are more medium-awesome areas to choose from close to town (head to Astoria or East Williamsburg and you might shave $500-1000 off that studio, but you can still catch the N train to get to work and the neighborhood's reasonably cool). And second, if you want the apartment, there's a good chance you can get the apartment (whereas last time I went apartment-shopping in San Francisco, there would be 20+ people in line for the open house, including many couples who were new-hires at technology companies. it was insane.)

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#42

Post by jrs99 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #16
eshvk wrote: post #13

How are salaries/living expenses in tech different in SF and NYC? Assuming you are living in SF or NYC, of course. Are they higher in NYC or lower or vice versa?

I would say both are lower in NYC. Salary is definitely lower, and rent is as well because the infinitely better public transit in NYC gives you more living options that have a short commute.

it depends what is meant by "tech."

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#44

Post by bennyg »

seiji wrote: post #30
rml wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a large tech co. in NYC, and we don't really talk about being in competition with SF at all. Besides, many of the really big SF-based cos. have offices here anyway.

Google spent a few billion dollars to buy an office building: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03building.html?_... (they later expanded it for even more). eBay's 6th Ave office costs $2-3 million per month (what's a million dollars between friends?). (This isn't really relevant though. I just like reminding people huge sums of money are in play. Your little "$50k to $200k angel round" isn't as big a deal a…

Damn, what if the 200k angel round leads to a billion or two dollars? I feel like your last line is totally irrelevant.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#45

Post by seiji »

bennyg wrote: post #44
seiji wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google spent a few billion dollars to buy an office building: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03building.html?_... (they later expanded it for even more). eBay's 6th Ave office costs $2-3 million per month (what's a million dollars between friends?). (This isn't really relevant though. I just like reminding people huge sums of money are in play. Your little "$50k to $200k angel round" isn't as big a deal a…

Damn, what if the 200k angel round leads to a billion or two dollars? I feel like your last line is totally irrelevant.

Meta irrelevancy.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#46

Post by fennecfoxen »

justmadhu wrote: post #23
eshvk wrote: post #13

How are salaries/living expenses in tech different in SF and NYC? Assuming you are living in SF or NYC, of course. Are they higher in NYC or lower or vice versa?

Agree with last comment -- Salary is roughly equivalent, but cost of living in NYC is much higher. While you can rent for cheap in NY due to transit, you can do that in SF too (see: Dogpatch). Cost of food, entertainment, etc. is way higher in NY. (Reference: I lived in NY for 5 yrs, and SF for about 6 months now)

The Dogpatch is cheap? When was this? Last I checked you're likely looking at $2500+/mo for a 1BR. Maybe if you keep heading down towards Bayview, Portola, and Sunnydale (never mind the deterioration of the neighborhood) you can get closer to "rent for cheap". I think I'd actually favor the Sunset, but you'll have to head out a ways because inner-Sunset and Cole Valley are heating up.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#47

Post by steveklabnik »

hkmurakami wrote: post #33
swang wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Silicon Beach" is in LA

Santa Monica to be exact. It's really quite a nice place I must admit, despite being a SV lifer.

It's pretty okay, but I'm moving from Santa Monica to the Mission tomorrow... And I actually prefer Brooklyn to both.

That said, I think there's good stuff going on in all three places, and all three have their problems.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#48

Post by jaboutboul »

Too bad it's going to be destroyed now that DeBlasio was elected. He has no idea what to do with the tech sector. Bloomberg spent millions to basically stump for the tech scene in NY. DeBlasio plans on doing no such thing, he has no clue and no plan. When all the other candidates visited numerous startups during the campaign, DeBlasio showed almost no interest.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#49

Post by jboggan »

berberous wrote: post #27
jboggan wrote: post #5

Meanwhile Silicon Beach soldiers on and the weather is looking mighty fine this time of year . . .

What's the tech scene out there like? It's 30 degrees here in NY :(

Well I took a phone call this morning on the beach while drinking some excellent Groundworks coffee . . . it was almost too hot in a t-shirt and jeans. Weather is niiiiiiice in Santa Monica.

The tech scene is healthy and not frothy. Google Venice is a large presence, as is Factual (my employer), Hulu, Snapchat with their sweet Venice boardwalk office, and assorted others (http://siliconbeachla.com/). I like it here because being in a tech startup is very different and cool, unlike in SF/SV where it seems a ridiculous number of people are doing identical work.

I moved to San Francisco last year and settled in a nice apartment on Dolores Park; I was hired at Factual to work remotely but came to the L.A. office for the first month to train up. After a week I told them I wanted to stay, and I love SF. It is just . . . really nice here.

Re: The Ongoing Battle: NY vs. SF Tech Scene

#50

Post by carriemelissa »

jacques_chester wrote: post #31

When all you have is a slightly upgraded monkey brain, everything looks like a status play. Edit: Apparently humour needs to come with captions now. This is a play on the "hammer/nail" truism, observing that folk love to frame things as X vs Y zero-sum games. Possibly because of the human fondness for associating the status value of markers (places, brands) with the status value of our own selves. Thus arguments over…

Ha, I thought it was kind of funny and I wrote the darn thing.

For the record, I did hear someone refer to it as "the ongoing New York/SF debate". This isn't something I just invented. I had personally never thought there was any comparison to be made until I heard that people out there make it all the time.

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