5 ms·

My job is the main reason I live in San Francisco. In my opinion Colorado is much more beautiful, Boulder has a lot of the advantages of living in a big city bu

My job is the main reason I live in San Francisco. In my opinion Colorado is much more beautiful, Boulder has a lot of the advantages of living in a big city but also so many fewer disadvantages. Personally I’m not a big fan of the kind of nature of the bay area has to offer. I grew up in the Northeast and the southeast, and I miss the huge deciduous trees and the fall-time colors. The Bay Area is pretty, but doesn’t hold a candle to the beauty of Michigan or Colorado or Tahoe in my opinion. Obviously different people have different preferences, but for every person who believes the bay area is the perfect place to live regardless of their career, there’s at least another person who doesn’t particularly like it and has their own idea of a perfect place to live.

arethuza 6y ago
For what its worth, I'm not from the US but I have travelled a fair bit round the US and Colorado and Boulder were some of the few places that really appealed to me.
bosswipe 6y ago
Throwing in Tahoe kind of disproves your point because Tahoe is one of the reasons to live here, it's a very popular weekend trip.
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  I meant living in Tahoe. I’ve done the weekend trip from SF a few times and with the long drive, the traffic (everyone has the same idea), the cost of hotel, trying to fit everything in a couple days, etc, I find it more stressful to take a weekend trip there than I find it enjoyable. Living there would be great but calling it a perk of living in San Francisco is a bit of a stretch for me. If your criteria for a good place to live is having a beautiful place within a 4 hour drive, then a lot of the USA is included in that. I want to live in the nice, beautiful, low-stress place. But again, it seems to be a very personal preference. Maybe for some people having the ability to drive 4 hours to get somewhere amazing is a good balance to the things they love about living in San Francisco. I don’t consider it close enough to be a factor in my opinion of SF though. Edit: I’m not trying to get into an argument about how amazing or horrible the Bay Area is. I’m just saying that some people find it amazing but other people actually would prefer to live in (the suburbs of) Detroit or elsewhere. I have no idea the percent of people in each group, but I don’t think we should take for a given than if all big industry leaves the Bay Area, that it will still be as popular as it is today. Not everyone loves it that much.
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    >I want to live in the nice, beautiful, low-stress place As long as whatever you consider nice is the same as whatever every other similarly paid white collar worker with a spouse and 1.75 kids considers nice you will never be able to get that. Those places always will be overprices and high stress. Look at how Boston area money has shit up Cape Cod, southern Maine and NH. NYC money has shit up all of Long Island, large parts of PA, upstate and VT. CA money has shit up Colorado so bad that CO money shits all over Utah. Chicago money shits all over Wisconsin. What you're really trying to get away from is the secondary effects of people like you (and me, and most everyone on HN). You're trying to get away from a service and tourism economy where everyone else is (somewhat rightfully) out to screw you for every dollar you're worth. Unless you have radically different tastes in what you want this will never be possible because all the other people of the same means will gravitate toward the same places.
    - seattle_spring 6y ago
      I think you just succinctly described the root cause of my crippling depression.
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      >You're trying to get away from a service and tourism economy where everyone else is (somewhat rightfully) out to screw you for every dollar you're worth. I wouldn't characterize this as someone trying to "screw" someone. It's just a consequence of demand outstripping supply, and hence the way society allocates the resources in low supply is by who can pay the highest prices. If anyone comes up with a better way to allocate scarce resources, I'd love to know.
  - bosswipe 6y ago
    A big city with world-class skiing nearby is pretty rare worldwide. If you don't appreciate it that's ok but many other people do appreciate it.
    - j8014 6y ago

arethuza 6y ago

For what its worth, I'm not from the US but I have travelled a fair bit round the US and Colorado and Boulder were some of the few places that really appealed to me.

bosswipe 6y ago

Throwing in Tahoe kind of disproves your point because Tahoe is one of the reasons to live here, it's a very popular weekend trip.

OkGoDoIt 6y ago
I meant living in Tahoe. I’ve done the weekend trip from SF a few times and with the long drive, the traffic (everyone has the same idea), the cost of hotel, trying to fit everything in a couple days, etc, I find it more stressful to take a weekend trip there than I find it enjoyable. Living there would be great but calling it a perk of living in San Francisco is a bit of a stretch for me. If your criteria for a good place to live is having a beautiful place within a 4 hour drive, then a lot of the USA is included in that. I want to live in the nice, beautiful, low-stress place. But again, it seems to be a very personal preference. Maybe for some people having the ability to drive 4 hours to get somewhere amazing is a good balance to the things they love about living in San Francisco. I don’t consider it close enough to be a factor in my opinion of SF though. Edit: I’m not trying to get into an argument about how amazing or horrible the Bay Area is. I’m just saying that some people find it amazing but other people actually would prefer to live in (the suburbs of) Detroit or elsewhere. I have no idea the percent of people in each group, but I don’t think we should take for a given than if all big industry leaves the Bay Area, that it will still be as popular as it is today. Not everyone loves it that much.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  >I want to live in the nice, beautiful, low-stress place As long as whatever you consider nice is the same as whatever every other similarly paid white collar worker with a spouse and 1.75 kids considers nice you will never be able to get that. Those places always will be overprices and high stress. Look at how Boston area money has shit up Cape Cod, southern Maine and NH. NYC money has shit up all of Long Island, large parts of PA, upstate and VT. CA money has shit up Colorado so bad that CO money shits all over Utah. Chicago money shits all over Wisconsin. What you're really trying to get away from is the secondary effects of people like you (and me, and most everyone on HN). You're trying to get away from a service and tourism economy where everyone else is (somewhat rightfully) out to screw you for every dollar you're worth. Unless you have radically different tastes in what you want this will never be possible because all the other people of the same means will gravitate toward the same places.
  - seattle_spring 6y ago
    I think you just succinctly described the root cause of my crippling depression.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    >You're trying to get away from a service and tourism economy where everyone else is (somewhat rightfully) out to screw you for every dollar you're worth. I wouldn't characterize this as someone trying to "screw" someone. It's just a consequence of demand outstripping supply, and hence the way society allocates the resources in low supply is by who can pay the highest prices. If anyone comes up with a better way to allocate scarce resources, I'd love to know.
- bosswipe 6y ago
  A big city with world-class skiing nearby is pretty rare worldwide. If you don't appreciate it that's ok but many other people do appreciate it.
  - j8014 6y ago