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Pros/Cons of living in the Bay Area for most tech workers: Pros - Proudly displaying "San Francisco" in your Twitter bio. - An abundance of career opportunit

Pros/Cons of living in the Bay Area for most tech workers: Pros - Proudly displaying "San Francisco" in your Twitter bio. - An abundance of career opportunities. Cons - Making six figures, but still living with roommates. - Commuting to work in awful public transportation. - Becoming desensitized to poverty and fecal matter on the streets. - Feeling unwelcome by locals. - Not being able to afford to live in a cool part of town. - For straight men: Unfavorable male/female ratios at bars & nightlife. - Monoculture.

btian 9y ago
More Pros - Drive to work in your Tesla - Free gourmet food at work - A lot of Whole Foods Market to shop at - Being rich AF
- uiri 9y ago
  None of the points you list are at all unique to the Bay Area. The person you are replying to is highlighting the high cost of living and tax burden in the Bay Area (relative to other parts of the US). It is disingenuous to respond by claiming that a pro of living in the Bay Area is "Being rich AF".
  - btian 9y ago
    If you can get the same salary in Montana then you should move there. Are you disputing that wages are higher in Bay Area than rest of the country?
nostrademons 9y ago
Also in the pros category: - Great weather. 8 months out of the year, it's basically guaranteed that if you walk outside it'll be sunny & 70. - Good outdoor parks. - Openness to ideas. - Every kind of food imaginable. - Relatively bike-friendly (Peninsula; uncertain about SF itself). Additional cons: - Traffic. - Poor public transportation
- marzell 9y ago
  In my experience, 8 months out of the year it will be very windy and ~60 degrees. Even if the rest of the bay has good weather on a particular day, there's a good chance it's foggy over much of the peninsula.
  - bradlys 9y ago
    This isn't my experience. I've lived in the bay area for a while now. It's very warm and sunny most of the year. The peninsula gets too much sun if anything. It's getting over 95F too many days of the year now. Fog is really only a thing to Pacifica/San Bruno. After that, fog doesn't really occur that much.
    - aetherson 9y ago
      Look west. Are there substantial mountains between you and the Pacific? No fog. No mountains? Fog.
sidlls 9y ago
You forgot at least two pros: - Large salaries lead to higher savings rates - Opportunities are just not comparable almost anywhere less expensive: there are tens of thousands of jobs from hundreds of employers here in the Bay Area for technology that pays well, compared with hundreds or maybe a few thousand jobs for maybe a dozen or few tens of employers Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in terms of actual cultural diversity very few places are as interesting.
- mychael 9y ago
  Good point. Updated the list to include opportunities!
- aaron-lebo 9y ago
  We had a dev working for the summer who got a job at an SF startup this past week. He's making $2k a week, but his rent for his apartment costs $3k and he's got roommates. As someone who has lived off of $40k and rented a $1.4k a month loft that was absolutely palatial, in the middle of the city with great views, this sounds like insanity. My coworker who is from the Boston area was similarly aghast at the differences in cost of living. Have fun at your nice job, but I'm not coming home to roommates for $3k a month. The numbers don't really seem to work out, a lot of people are basically selling great living conditions for the chance to go work at companies that probably won't be there in a few years and really aren't doing anything interesting. Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in terms of actual cultural diversity very few places are as interesting. I feel like people who say this about any city haven't gotten out much in other cities.
  - dyim 9y ago
    FYI, you don't need to pay $3k - I lived in the Mission / Potrero Hill area (with roommates, mind you) for a few years, and my rent had always been between $1000-1850/mo. Centrally located, safe(-ish), and beautiful. You can run through Bernal Heights Park, get ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe, and bike to the 24 Hour Fitness on 16th and Potrero. If you're in tech, you can definitely live well in SF :)

btian 9y ago

More Pros - Drive to work in your Tesla - Free gourmet food at work - A lot of Whole Foods Market to shop at - Being rich AF

uiri 9y ago
None of the points you list are at all unique to the Bay Area. The person you are replying to is highlighting the high cost of living and tax burden in the Bay Area (relative to other parts of the US). It is disingenuous to respond by claiming that a pro of living in the Bay Area is "Being rich AF".
- btian 9y ago
  If you can get the same salary in Montana then you should move there. Are you disputing that wages are higher in Bay Area than rest of the country?

nostrademons 9y ago

Also in the pros category: - Great weather. 8 months out of the year, it's basically guaranteed that if you walk outside it'll be sunny & 70. - Good outdoor parks. - Openness to ideas. - Every kind of food imaginable. - Relatively bike-friendly (Peninsula; uncertain about SF itself). Additional cons: - Traffic. - Poor public transportation

marzell 9y ago
In my experience, 8 months out of the year it will be very windy and ~60 degrees. Even if the rest of the bay has good weather on a particular day, there's a good chance it's foggy over much of the peninsula.
- bradlys 9y ago
  This isn't my experience. I've lived in the bay area for a while now. It's very warm and sunny most of the year. The peninsula gets too much sun if anything. It's getting over 95F too many days of the year now. Fog is really only a thing to Pacifica/San Bruno. After that, fog doesn't really occur that much.
  - aetherson 9y ago
    Look west. Are there substantial mountains between you and the Pacific? No fog. No mountains? Fog.

sidlls 9y ago

You forgot at least two pros: - Large salaries lead to higher savings rates - Opportunities are just not comparable almost anywhere less expensive: there are tens of thousands of jobs from hundreds of employers here in the Bay Area for technology that pays well, compared with hundreds or maybe a few thousand jobs for maybe a dozen or few tens of employers Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in terms of actual cultural diversity very few places are as interesting.

mychael 9y ago
Good point. Updated the list to include opportunities!
aaron-lebo 9y ago
We had a dev working for the summer who got a job at an SF startup this past week. He's making $2k a week, but his rent for his apartment costs $3k and he's got roommates. As someone who has lived off of $40k and rented a $1.4k a month loft that was absolutely palatial, in the middle of the city with great views, this sounds like insanity. My coworker who is from the Boston area was similarly aghast at the differences in cost of living. Have fun at your nice job, but I'm not coming home to roommates for $3k a month. The numbers don't really seem to work out, a lot of people are basically selling great living conditions for the chance to go work at companies that probably won't be there in a few years and really aren't doing anything interesting. Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in terms of actual cultural diversity very few places are as interesting. I feel like people who say this about any city haven't gotten out much in other cities.
- dyim 9y ago
  FYI, you don't need to pay $3k - I lived in the Mission / Potrero Hill area (with roommates, mind you) for a few years, and my rent had always been between $1000-1850/mo. Centrally located, safe(-ish), and beautiful. You can run through Bernal Heights Park, get ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe, and bike to the 24 Hour Fitness on 16th and Potrero. If you're in tech, you can definitely live well in SF :)