5 ms·
It is not just the cost of living, it is the homeless defecating on the streets in San Francisco that gets to me. Enjoy your SF lifestyle! I do laugh at the Y C
by donretag 8y ago
It is not just the cost of living, it is the homeless defecating on the streets in San Francisco that gets to me. Enjoy your SF lifestyle! I do laugh at the Y Combinator job postings that appears on HN.
I have actually very few emails from the Bay Area in the past few months. Maybe recruiters have gotten together and blackballed me.
- kylestlb 8y agoThe bay area is more than just SF. In fact, SF is quite small. Some towns here are actually not so defecated-upon (but expensive).
- donretag 8y agoBut the actual Bay Area is boring. You pay the premium in SF and NYC to be close to arts and culture, both of which are lacking in Silicon Valley. And good luck getting a date if you are a guy.
- nradov 8y agoThe rest of the Bay Area is not at all boring if you value being close to a wide variety of outdoor recreation. Many people don't care about about arts and culture; everyone values different things.
- electricslpnsld 8y ago> But the actual Bay Area is boring. There is lots of fun stuff in the Bay Area outside of San Francisco. I always have a blast going to shows, openings, etc in Oakland and Berkeley.
- donretag 8y agoSorry, I said Bay Area instead of Silicon Valley. I like Oakland quite a bit. Sunnyvale? Mountain View? You can keep your stock options.
- borski 8y agoThis is myopic. I live in Mountain View and there is absolutely tons to do. Same with Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Jose. And before you say I “don’t know any better,” note that I spent the vast majority of my life living in and loving NYC. Those who say the “South Bay is boring” haven’t spent enough time in it. In fact, I have friends who specifically come down to the South Bay to do things. Furthermore, SF is only a 45 minute drive from Mountain View, about what it is from Brooklyn to Manhattan, so I get the best of both worlds, without the defection and the homeless. Get over this trope.
- Fins 8y agoPeople find something to do in in a middle of Nebraska, too, but it's pretty hard (well, probably easier in Nebraska). In 5 years I couldn't even find a decent grocery store there.
- borski 8y agoNext door to me, I have a Safeway that has a greater selection than most of the places in the city, a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods, and a Sprout’s. All within a 5 minute drive. If you don’t try to go out and look for things, I agree you won’t find them. I am very social, and have found no shortage of things to do. People who complain about this haven’t tried it.
- masonic 8y agoAlso Nob Hill Foods, Chavez, ...
- Fins 8y agoSorry, no, this isn't what I am looking for. Sure, I know I can get your generic grocery store experience at Safeway, or Lucky, or Nob Hill, or overpay at Whole Foods (now that they are owned by Amazon I don't shop there anyway), but where do you go to get some really fancy stuff? I have found some decent little places in San Francisco that have good cheese and charcuterie, or decent fresh bread, but nothing in the South Bay. In Chicago I knew I could always drop by Mariano's (heard that they went downhill lately, though) or Plum Market, or Pastoral. NYC obviously has quite a few places like Dean and Deluca. Austin has Central Market. What does South Bay have?
- base698 8y agoActual Bay Area is close to ski mountains, mountain bike, paragliding, skydiving, climbing, and hiking. Would rather be able to run, jump, and play than go to boring art museum.
- geggam 8y agoExcept everyone else is going to the same place, so your traffic to and from these destinations is almost as bad as a morning commute. Then you have to fight the crowds for your activities.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 8y agoIt is boring if you consider living in suburbs as defacto boring and unacceptable. If not, it gives you access to an almost limitless variety of indoor and outdoor recreation.
- kcorbitt 8y agoAs someone who works in SF every day, it does seem that in the last few months the city might be turning a corner – there are definitely fewer tent cities, and general public cleanliness seems improved as well. The cost of these programs must be phenomenal (permanent police presence on the Civic Center plaza, full-time attendants in many subway elevator cars are just a couple examples I've seen near my work), but in a city as rich as San Francisco I think many would say it's a price worth paying to clean up the commons.