Why were they even in SF at all? I mean unless you're in the tech scene & need the valley synergies the trade off seems straight up bad
Because that's where they were founded in 1971, SF has a history before the most recent tech bubble.
Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
61–70 of 325 posts
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sometimes I wonder if there’s a funded campaign against the Bay Area online. By whom and to what end? Has it occurred to you that some people just don't like living there? Not everyone you disagree with is a paid shill.
It’s not just a matter of disagreement— take a look on here, Reddit and Twitter and you’ll find a swarm of people making it seem like the Bay Area is a dystopian hellhole. I was legitimately concerned about my move before I got here.
San Francisco is a very liberal city and conservative publications like the WSJ love to vocally shit all over the city because of its many problems, but that doesn't mean it doesn't actually have those problems. It does. San Francisco is a shitty place to live for anyone but the wealthy. I've worked in the city for 9 years now (I live in the East Bay) and if you stay here long enough like I have you'll discover that the young single people that come to work here don't stay long, they do tours for about 3 to 5 years and then cycle out to someplace they can actually raise a family.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Property crime is high in the bay.
Yes, SF does rank #1 nationally for property crimes. It stinks, but most people value life more than property. Violent crime in the Bay Area is still much lower than national averages, and that's what most people concentrate on. Also, San Francisco isn't the entire Bay Area.
You go from saying "people who live in actual high crime areas would like a word with you" to acknowledging that SF has the highest property crime rates in the country.
And then wave it all away as, I guess, it's only really non-violent crime.
Odd logic.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#64For anyone interested here is the build out of their HQ on the Circle T Ranch (Hunt Brothers owned it once) then Perot Jr bought it about 25 years ago and is turning into a financial hub. Fidelity is there along with Deloitte and TD Ameritrade just built a brand new complex about 1 mile away. https://goo.gl/maps/whA2nM9YYGka55P5A Schwab owns the whole corner there with plenty of room to expand, the Circle T Ranch is…
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Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lived in Dallas and it is the only place I've lived where people would scream homophobic slurs at me in the street. I wouldn't say I'd never move back, but the situation would have to be dire for me to consider it. Definitely cut your hair if you visit.
That's not unique to Texas, just assholes. I've seen it here in San Diego while walking through Hillcrest.
I dunno, 40 years of living in other places, stuff like this only happens in Texas and the South. There are definitely assholes in NY and Boston but they won't get up in my grill for "looking gay" on the street so that's pretty neat.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#66Welcome to the Lone Star State! Cheap real estate and friendly folks. And BBQ, metric tons of BBQ...
>"Cheap real estate" And the highest property tax rate in the nation.
Isn’t Prop 13 an enormous issue (with real estate owners not paying taxes on the true value of their property) in California?
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lived in Dallas and it is the only place I've lived where people would scream homophobic slurs at me in the street. I wouldn't say I'd never move back, but the situation would have to be dire for me to consider it. Definitely cut your hair if you visit.
That's not unique to Texas, just assholes. I've seen it here in San Diego while walking through Hillcrest.
I concede and won't argue with personal experience. It sucks that it is still a thing anywhere, hopefully we'll get there some day.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#68SF Bay Area gets so expensive that even financial giants gets gentrified.
I would be curious to see the ROI for someone like Schwab for staying in the Bay Area. Does the reduce capital costs of people, taxes, and buildings outweigh the talent pool in the area? Makes me wonder what the numbers look like.
Schwab isn’t exactly competing for the “tech” talent pool so there isn’t anything particularly special about staying in SF vs elsewhere for them.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#69This is better both for San Francisco and Texas, from a load-balancing perspective. Unless housing can catch up, large companies shouldn't be expanding in San Francisco.
Housing and taxes in CA are close to oppressive. The housing situation will not change unless CA voters agree to a change in property taxes and they won't.
I would also bet that the move will come at the expense of Texas tax payers and to the benefit of Schwabb.
Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas
#70I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…
Sometimes I wonder if there’s a funded campaign against the Bay Area online. Where do you live, and where did you come from? I just moved to SF and yes it has homeless people, traffic and is extremely expensive, but these are things that every other big city I’ve lived in has. The costs and homelessness are worse than Seattle or NYC but not to the point that it’s a reduction in my quality of life. To say you have “no…
I had a company fly me out to interview at a startup in SF a few weeks ago. My hotel was a 20 minute walk from my interview. I almost walked. I'm glad I did not. Just about every block between my hotel and my destination was densely packed with homeless and tents. I watched a drug deal in broad daylight at a red light while just spacing out staring out the uber window, and found I accidentally made eye contact, and prayed the light would change over faster, as meanwhile a mentally ill man is literally roaming the streets screaming about the end of the world (not exaggerating).
The start up had about 20 people (maybe 2 of whom were over 30) in what was clearly an apartment at some point in the past, except the "bathroom" was what looked like a makeshift closet to me: a sliding glass shower door with a room divider behind it. For ~20 people. As the interview wraps up, one of the leads decides we should go for a walk so he can break the bad news about the job. We walked around the block about 5 or 6 times, every time passing the homeless man asleep on the sidewalk about 15 feet from their office door. No one there seemed to understand my astonishment/shock/horror about the state of that city.
The uber driver on my ride back to the airport who was native to the area sure understood though. That dude just drives around all day feeling out whether or not someone's going to report him if he speaks honestly about it. That conversation was by far the best part of the trip.
Flew back to ny and interviewed in nyc a few days later, and all I can really say is at no point in NYC did I feel physically unsafe like I did in SF. They're not even comparable in my book. I'm still unsettled by just how bad SF was, and I'm absolutely astonished that I don't hear people talk about this more.