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Escaping San Francisco

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Re: Escaping San Francisco

#91

Post by JDiculous »

keerthiko wrote: post #23
flak48 wrote: post #3

As someone planning to move to San Francisco from outside the US soon, is living in SF really as bad as all the blogs make it to be? I chose SF mainly because of its proximity to the outdoors (which I value highly) and relative lack of a concrete jungle feeling compared to NYC EDIT: I have visited SF a few times for work before, and found the homelessness and filth to be confined to a few neighborhoods..

One of the cliche transplants from SF to NYC: The lack of concrete jungle, and that desire from people both who predated the tech deluge and those who arrived because of it (like you are planning to be) is precisely why it has become as bad as the blogs make it to be. I think some things are not as bad as the blogs make it be, and many things a lot worse. In the latter category: - there is now a "fire season". Yes, t…

Funny I left NYC after 5 years because I felt like it wasn't being run well after seeing the subway get noticeably worse every year, the homeless population larger, the streets more congested, the rents higher, etc.

But I remember flying to SF for a weekend for an interview and being absolutely shocked at the blatant level of poverty and homelessness I saw. Have never had any desire to live in SF since then.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#92

Post by danenania »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #65
danenania wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the "SF is a dystopian nightmare" posts are referring to a few downtown neighborhoods which represent probably less than 5% of the city by land area. It's a huge problem and it sucks if you have to go to those areas regularly, but most of the city isn't like that. I live in the Inner Richmond and it's one of the nicest neighborhoods I've ever lived in (I've lived in a bunch all over). The combination of natural b…

All the "SF is a dystopian nightmare" posts are referring to a few downtown neighborhoods which represent probably less than 5% of the city by land area. LOL Downtown neighborhoods? Like the Haight? Potrero? SOMA? the Tenderloin? the Mission? Western Addition? Fisherman's Wharf / Aquatic Park? Homelessness and grime isn't endemic to "downtown" San Francisco. Most of the tent cities I've seen in San Francisco are in S…

Most of those neighborhoods are downtown... the others have some issues but aren't what people are referring to when they say "dystopian nightmare". That's mainly just Tenderloin/Soma/Civic Center, and a bit that radiates into adjoining neighborhoods from there.

Moderate homelessness is sadly an issue in any large Western city, so if you want to avoid it completely, you'll have to go to a smaller city or the suburbs (or somewhere with authoritarian policies). There also aren't any neighborhoods in Manhattan or central London/Paris/Sydney/etc. where you won't find any homeless people or some grime on the streets.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#93

Post by marcinzm »

csomar wrote: post #43

I hate to say this seeing what the OP is going through: But this seems largely their responsibility. While the landlord, in theory, should provide these baseline services of cleaning and repair, sometimes you got to take matters with your hands. I have been in this situation before and there were either one of these two solutions: Fix things yourself if you can't afford a new place; or find a new place and make sure…

>Mold is easy to remove from my experience. Just clean the damn thing.

External mold is, mold inside the walls is not. And if you have mold inside the walls then no amount of cleaning outside the walls will fix the situation.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#94

Post by ratww »

anovikov wrote: post #83
tempsy wrote: post #39

This story makes no sense. $3700 can get you a nice 1 bedroom anywhere in SF, so it’s unclear why they couldn’t have found another place. If you’re renting, you find mold, and your landlord does nothing then by CA law you have the right to break your lease for unsafe living conditions. The author’s LinkedIn is filled with executive/founder/CEO roles (and claiming a 7 figure exit) and yet still needing to use GoFundMe…

To be honest i'm not impressed at all, is $3700 per month super expensive? In any major city people pay as much or more. Here in Limassol (not a major city by any measure), a single bedroom is about 1/3 as much (EUR 1000, i'm paying 1100 for bit nicer one), but tech salaries are 3000-5000 net, and 5000 is very rare. Seems to be about same level of affordability: a mediocre developer pays 1/3 salary for a 1-bdr. And n…

> In Paris, Frankfurt, and Munich you easily pay same amount (3400 EUR a month) for a 1-bdr an no one complains.

That's a gross exaggeration. That's twice or thrice the price of a well-located AirBnb in those places, let alone a contract rental.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#95

Post by csomar »

marcinzm wrote: post #93
csomar wrote: post #43

I hate to say this seeing what the OP is going through: But this seems largely their responsibility. While the landlord, in theory, should provide these baseline services of cleaning and repair, sometimes you got to take matters with your hands. I have been in this situation before and there were either one of these two solutions: Fix things yourself if you can't afford a new place; or find a new place and make sure…

>Mold is easy to remove from my experience. Just clean the damn thing. External mold is, mold inside the walls is not. And if you have mold inside the walls then no amount of cleaning outside the walls will fix the situation.

Then regularly clean the outside until you can move to another place.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#96

Post by X-Istence »

For $3700 you can have a brand new apartment in the Dogpatch of SF... if I find mold I am not staying, especially if the landlord won't fix it.

There's a lot about this story that just doesn't seem to add up... its weird.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#97

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

keiferski wrote: post #82
tempsy wrote: post #39

This story makes no sense. $3700 can get you a nice 1 bedroom anywhere in SF, so it’s unclear why they couldn’t have found another place. If you’re renting, you find mold, and your landlord does nothing then by CA law you have the right to break your lease for unsafe living conditions. The author’s LinkedIn is filled with executive/founder/CEO roles (and claiming a 7 figure exit) and yet still needing to use GoFundMe…

The doorbell story made me stop and question the article. You can get a digital door bell on Amazon for $15. It didn’t occur to the author to do so for 9 months? Edit: I didn’t want to imply that the author is lying. Hopefully he is able to get healthy again. But when someone is asking for money and their story has some odd holes in it, I think it’s only natural to be skeptical.

Tenants shouldn't pay to maintain the property, that's what they're paying exorbitant monthly fees for.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#98

Post by ScottFree »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

> We eventually discovered the apartment building we were living in was built in 1908. Yes, we were living in a “sick” building that was over 100 years old, and never knew. We even found photos of our former apartment in historical archives dating back to the 1920’s. Is being just a hundred years old some kind of inherent problem? Obviously rotting is bad but they talk about discovering that it existed in 1908 like t…

It depends on where in the city the building was built. 1908 is just a few years after the great quake of 1906. Houses and buildings were built very quickly during an era of non-existent building codes.

I lived in one in the Tenderloin for a few years. It needed a lot of TLC and was horribly maintained. Nobody wanted no spend the money to keep it looking nice. That's one of the downsides to the architecture of the era. The building was gorgeous, but even just properly cleaning it took an extra effort the landlord wasn't willing to pay for.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#99

Post by keiferski »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #97
keiferski wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The doorbell story made me stop and question the article. You can get a digital door bell on Amazon for $15. It didn’t occur to the author to do so for 9 months? Edit: I didn’t want to imply that the author is lying. Hopefully he is able to get healthy again. But when someone is asking for money and their story has some odd holes in it, I think it’s only natural to be skeptical.

Tenants shouldn't pay to maintain the property, that's what they're paying exorbitant monthly fees for.

Then deduct the cost from your next month's rent. That's certainly a better idea than doing nothing as "at least half a dozen" of your packages are stolen.

Re: Escaping San Francisco

#100

Post by anovikov »

ratww wrote: post #94
anovikov wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest i'm not impressed at all, is $3700 per month super expensive? In any major city people pay as much or more. Here in Limassol (not a major city by any measure), a single bedroom is about 1/3 as much (EUR 1000, i'm paying 1100 for bit nicer one), but tech salaries are 3000-5000 net, and 5000 is very rare. Seems to be about same level of affordability: a mediocre developer pays 1/3 salary for a 1-bdr. And n…

> In Paris, Frankfurt, and Munich you easily pay same amount (3400 EUR a month) for a 1-bdr an no one complains. That's a gross exaggeration. That's twice or thrice the price of a well-located AirBnb in those places, let alone a contract rental.

You are right, i took a look - apparently i was mainly considering luxury rentals because that's what caught my eye.

Anyway, (tech) salary vs rental in the Valley isn't so bad. Life sucks there for other people though - who's not in tech.

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