Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Move to SF and hate it?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 172 posts

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#61

Post by unohoo »

aiurtourist wrote: post #53
unohoo wrote: post #36

i moved here 6 months back. live in south bay (sunnyvale) and commute to the city for work. For starters, the weather in the city simply sucks. Its cold, windy and foggy most of the times - on the contrary, south bay remains clear, sunny and quite warm. Even bigger gripe against bay area is the cost of living. Everything from housing to everday stuff to gas is insanely expensive. Paying 1600$ + for a crappy apartment…

What's your commute like, and where (approximately) do you work? Do you take Caltrain or do you switch to BART?

commute takes anywhere between 45-60 minutes - i take caltrain to work. driving stress and parking costs are too significant - hence the train.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#62

Post by percept »

tptacek wrote: post #45
malyk wrote: post #40

I moved here in 2008 and absolutely love the city. What I like: * There is always something going on. As many tech meetups/lectures/etc as you can stomach. Hell, there's an incredible amount of art/history/science/etc things going on every single day. This is probably true in places like NYC, but I didn't have the same experience in DC. * The weather is awesome. Coming from DC I couldn't stand the hot and humid summe…

I've spent some time in DC, I have friends in DC, I'm pretty familiar with the knocks DC takes... and lack of "art/history/science/etc things" has never been one of them. Isn't DC actually pretty amazing for that stuff? And, can you clue me in on the art/history/science stuff you've found to do in San Francisco?

"Isn't DC actually pretty amazing for that stuff?"

Enough to spoil a person. Thank you taxpayers!

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#63

Post by msisk6 »

tptacek wrote: post #21
cageface wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with S.F. is that it's too much of a compromise. It's not big enough compete with New York or small enough to be as livable as Portland.

I've spent semi-serious time in Portland and have to say that it really seems to live up to the hype. I really like Portland.

It rains all the time here in Oregon. It's overrated.

This isn't the city you're looking for. Move along ... move along.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#64

Post by wtracy »

tptacek wrote: post #31
kbob wrote: post #26

Arrived in 1992. Left in 2001. Lived in a Sunnyvale apartment two years and a San Jose house (NW of Campbell) for seven years. I moved there for my career, which did very well. I largely hated the valley as a place to live, simply because it's too crowded. I have a low tolerance for traffic. I couldn't stand to drive to the supermarket, let alone go to work every day. So I spent all my time either at work or at home,…

There is no worse place for a 20-something tech person to live than in one of those South Bay apartment hives. If you're new to the area, please, for god's sake, cross Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Cupertino off your list. Read Christopher Alexander; those apartment complexes will make you insane and sad. Live in Oakland, in a shared house in San Mateo, or (if you can) the city.

I've lived in one of those "hives" for a around a year.

I've been fighting with clinical depression, but I was already having problems with that before I moved there. I can't tell if it's made things worse, though it certainly hasn't made things any better.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#65

Post by tptacek »

wtracy wrote: post #56
tptacek wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent some time in DC, I have friends in DC, I'm pretty familiar with the knocks DC takes... and lack of "art/history/science/etc things" has never been one of them. Isn't DC actually pretty amazing for that stuff? And, can you clue me in on the art/history/science stuff you've found to do in San Francisco?

I'm not the parent, but for starters, there's the Academy of Sciences, the DeYoung Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Legion of Honor, and Fort Point.

Has SFMOMA gotten better? The Cal Academy barely qualifies as a wing of the American Museum of Natural History; the Legion barely a wing of (even) the Art Institute.

I concede that there are museums. I question whether they're in the same league as their DC equivalents.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#66

Post by wtracy »

unohoo wrote: post #36

i moved here 6 months back. live in south bay (sunnyvale) and commute to the city for work. For starters, the weather in the city simply sucks. Its cold, windy and foggy most of the times - on the contrary, south bay remains clear, sunny and quite warm. Even bigger gripe against bay area is the cost of living. Everything from housing to everday stuff to gas is insanely expensive. Paying 1600$ + for a crappy apartment…

Hmm, I pay just under $1500/month for my apartment in San Jose, I have my own washer/dryer, and I can walk to work. As mentioned above, though, the neighborhood is dull and depressing.

Still, you might want to look around for another place to live.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#67

Post by ardit33 »

tptacek wrote: post #16
mayank wrote: post #9

I lived there this summer and fell in love with SF, aside from the whole Silicon Valley thing. It's definitely for a certain type of person: you'll find incredible diversity and openness in the people. A couple of small things I noticed that really pleased me: (1) interracial couples are incredibly common, more so than any other city I've visited or lived in anywhere in the world, (2) people are genuinely open and fr…

What's the incredible high-end dining you're referring near the Embarcadero?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kokkari-estiatorio-san-francisco-2

Fucking delicious, an I am albanian, so I know that kind of food really well. It is not that expensive either.

And there are plenty of similar restaurants around there.

The one thing you just can't complain about in the bay area is food and restaurants.

Perhaps the city has changed alot since you lived here, but since I lived there between 2006-2009 I can tell that the "food is not good enough" complains are just plain ubased whining.

I challenge you find a place in the USA where the produce is better, or fresher than it is here.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#68

Post by drbaskin »

tptacek wrote: post #48
drbaskin wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which campus in Chicago are you referring to? I've enjoyed bumming around NU, UC, and UIC at least as much as I enjoyed bumming around Stanford. I know, NU is not technically in Chicago, but it is as close to the loop as Stanford is to SF.

I lived in Evanston for a couple years and NWU never felt like a "campus" to me; more of a college-y suburb. I actually went to UIC, and went to St. Ignatius for high school, just blocks away from UIC campus. I can't imagine going there for fun. The University of Chicago campus is a destination campus. It's actually pretty amazing. It has every bit as much character as Stanford; you could totally go there just to han…

I'm partial to the University of Chicago, so you won't get any disagreement there.

Evanston is new to me, but the campus of NU seems very pleasant -- I really like the piece of lakefront path that seems integrated into campus. Of course, the undergraduates are just starting to return, so it might be very different in a few days.

As for UIC, my friends and I would always bowl there as undergraduates, and some of the restaurants on Taylor street were much better than you could get in Hyde Park for similar prices. In other words, at least one group of undergraduates at UC would go to that area for fun.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#69

Post by malyk »

geebee wrote: post #59

I live in SF because I grew up here and have family around, not because I think it's "better" than other places to live. If I weren't so anchored here, I'd probably look around. That said, I like it a lot more than the OP here... * I think the food options in SF are actually pretty excellent. I'm going to agree that "late dinner" options are limited - I guess I just see that as a relevant but not defining criteria. O…

My fiancee and I went for a bike ride yesterday that took us by the mission bay campus and we both remarked about how that area should be rockin in 5-10 years.

Re: Move to SF and hate it?

#70

Post by malyk »

tptacek wrote: post #65
wtracy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the parent, but for starters, there's the Academy of Sciences, the DeYoung Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Legion of Honor, and Fort Point.

Has SFMOMA gotten better? The Cal Academy barely qualifies as a wing of the American Museum of Natural History; the Legion barely a wing of (even) the Art Institute. I concede that there are museums. I question whether they're in the same league as their DC equivalents.

Went to the Moma a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed to be honest. I don't think their collection is that great, but I also think I'm just not a fan of most modern art. Oh well.

DC's museums are world class. SF can't compare very well in most instances (The asian art museum is really nice...the shanghai exhibit was great...but now gone). Also, DC museums are free which is really nice.

In the OP I wasn't really talking about the museums themselves though. More about lectures, book clubs, science/art/literature cafe's, etc.

Post reply on HN