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

California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

mercurynews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 313 posts

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#81

Post by oinksoft »

bbarn wrote: post #76
abduhl wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I move around and travel a lot for work - I've lived in 4 states in the last 2 years (CO, WA, CA, TX) - and one of the universal things across all the midwest and west coast that I've found is that while most people like the weather/scenery in California EVERYONE hates people from California, except for the people in California. I've heard the saying "California would be great if it wasn't for the people" in literall…

Just like half the statements here, this could be changed to "People from the bay area", "People from LA", etc. California has a lot of great people and beauty but when you equate the whole state with the two big cities, of course it paints a negative picture. The entire central coast I met more awesome people than I have living in Chicago for 20 years.

Echoing what you said, I've never met nicer people or made friends more easily than when I lived in Sacramento.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#82

Post by linuxlizard »

Come to Boise, Idaho (USA). We need high tech people. Excellent quality of life, low commutes.

https://www.tsheets.com/living-in-boise/

(I don't work at T-Sheets but they have a great page on living in Boise.)

Also in Boise: Micron, HP's laser printer division.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#83

Post by scelerat »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #14

One of the local public radio stations had a show this week about how well San Francisco is doing budget-wise. Apparently, the San Francisco budget in the last decade has been growing much faster than the local economy, and it's been all going towards paying pension obligations, assistance to homeless and low-income people etc. Talk about killing the golden goose.

Right. paying obligations. Hard to get people to work for you if you have a history of shirking your obligations. I want good people in government and city administration.

Likewise... homeless assistance: More a matter of how money is spent, not how much. Either way, it's something the city needs to budget for. Most of the homeless are San Francisco natives priced out of their homes, with nowhere else to go. The city redirecting resources that might mitigate their plight will not make the problem go away.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#84

Post by superswordfish »

pm90 wrote: post #61
pixl97 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the weather is nice in many places, and it has some beautiful scenery. Probably why so many people live there in the first place. Texas on the other hand is hot and flat. Really boring here. Oh and it's too crowded. Yep, if you're from California Texas is worse. Don't want to move here. Please stop moving here, please, oh god please.

I know what you're trying to do, but its not going to work ;). Texas is about as interesting as you can get, especially if you live in Austin. The housing costs are not ridiculous (yet), you can live in decent house near downtown, COL is low, no state taxes etc. Quite a wonderful state, especially if you're young and in tech. BTW, there is also a vibrant live music scene. And also a lot of theater and art. Did I ment…

Just pray you don't end up on the wrong side of the law (to be fair, the same could be said of CA).

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#85

Post by patmcguire »

I left NYC for the Bay Area two years ago and just moved back.

A lot of it was for personal and career reasons, a lot wasn't. At a certain point I couldn't justify paying oodles for a dark 1BR in Mountain View when that same money could get a better apartment in the West Village.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#86

Post by ericabiz »

shawndumas wrote: post #44
sideband wrote: post #33

There's some sort of Stockholm syndrome prevalent among too many Bay Area residents that compels them to accept the lower quality of life. I lived there for several years until recently, and it was a surreal experience to hear others discuss the sacrifices they were making just to have a roof over their family's head, to provide a half-decent education for their children. And these were well-payed folks at the brand-…

Having lived in Long Island, NY and Boca Raton, FL I gotta say... I don't think I could leave the Bay Area. The weather, the geological features, the schools, the meetups, the job opportunities... all factors. But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. My son is a programmer and nobody had a clue what he was talking abou…

> But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived.

That seems like it used to be true more than it is now. I live in Austin, and you can't go to a downtown coffee shop without hearing a spirited discussion about programming languages, frameworks or even conversion rates (I heard that last one standing in line at a taco place the other day.)

It's partially, I think, because programming and computers are more ingrained in the culture at large, and mostly because SF got too expensive and so places like Austin, Seattle, and Portland have a significant number of tech startups now.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#87

Post by TDL »

chrisseaton wrote: post #66
TDL wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. I think pensions are a mistake in general, however, many municipalities, counties, and states are locked in to existing pensions schemes. I am for doing away with pensions in the future, but the existing obligations need to be funded appropriately.

Doing away with pensions? Huh? How would that work? What would everyone do when they got too old to work? Do you think people should just build up a savings account? Without an annuity what would they do if they live longer than they planned and run out of savings?

There are other accounts/instruments that can replace public pensions. The reality is that politicians over promise on pensions and create unsustainable obligations for future generations.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#88

Post by kartD »

abduhl wrote: post #7
overcast wrote: post #2

It's unfortunate, California is such a beautiful place. But it's turning into somewhere to visit, and not live. See you soon Sierra's!

I move around and travel a lot for work - I've lived in 4 states in the last 2 years (CO, WA, CA, TX) - and one of the universal things across all the midwest and west coast that I've found is that while most people like the weather/scenery in California EVERYONE hates people from California, except for the people in California. I've heard the saying "California would be great if it wasn't for the people" in literall…

Curious about this, what do they hate about Californians? I mean California is very diverse. The main cites (Bay and LA) are very liberal but the restof CA is pretty right leaning. So I imagine you get pretty much every kind of person from California and it would be hard to hate all of them.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#89

Post by superswordfish »

ericabiz wrote: post #86
shawndumas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Long Island, NY and Boca Raton, FL I gotta say... I don't think I could leave the Bay Area. The weather, the geological features, the schools, the meetups, the job opportunities... all factors. But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. My son is a programmer and nobody had a clue what he was talking abou…

> But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. That seems like it used to be true more than it is now. I live in Austin, and you can't go to a downtown coffee shop without hearing a spirited discussion about programming languages, frameworks or even conversion rates (I heard that last one standing in line at a taco place t…

The conversations are on a different level though. In a secondary tech market you'll hear CoffeeScript vs. JavaScript, Laravel vs Rails or whatever. In the Bay Area, and also in Cambridge, the discussion might be about compiler architecture or reverse engineering.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#90

Post by eweise »

chrisseaton wrote: post #66
TDL wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. I think pensions are a mistake in general, however, many municipalities, counties, and states are locked in to existing pensions schemes. I am for doing away with pensions in the future, but the existing obligations need to be funded appropriately.

Doing away with pensions? Huh? How would that work? What would everyone do when they got too old to work? Do you think people should just build up a savings account? Without an annuity what would they do if they live longer than they planned and run out of savings?

You mean what would all the government workers do when they get too old to work? I don't know but I don't get a pension so why should I pay for theirs?
Post reply on HN