4 ms·

My feeling is, at least in California you're getting something for your money. DC rents are high because the average income there is so high, but you don't get

by funkah 15y ago

My feeling is, at least in California you're getting something for your money. DC rents are high because the average income there is so high, but you don't get very much "city" for your money, culturally at least. In SF it's just the opposite. I didn't move there though, I live in Oregon now.

danbmil99 15y ago
> at least in California you're getting something for your money. DC Not in Palo Alto or any of the desirable bay suburbs. You get what would in any other part of the country be a starter 3-bed with 1/10 acre plot for upwards of $2M. It's insane and unsustainable.
potatolicious 15y ago
> "but you don't get very much "city" for your money" It's typical in SF to pay $2K+ for a 1BR overlooking a back alley where homeless and drunks fight every night, where your neighborhood is contested by gang wars, your building is a creaky little Victorian built at the turn of the century, where a favorite topic of conversation are routes you can take to get from point A to point B in the city that maximizes personal safety, and only-half-joking comments about getting mugged on the bus. It's not the worst city in the USA to live in, but having lived here for six months now, and many major cities in two continents before that, I honestly think SF is completely overblown. It strikes me as a city where a bunch of suburban folk come after college and are blown away by all the Big City(tm) things, and every negative point simply becomes "how cities are", despite many other cities not suffering the same crime, housing, or other social ills. If it weren't for the booming and incredibly professionally satisfying tech scene, I'd have high-tailed it to a city where rents are halved, crime is quartered, and transportation not so sucktastic.
- deleted 15y ago
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- tptacek 15y ago
  As true today as when he wrote it: http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/ http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/ It's an incredibly satisfying place to be a tech company employee, by the way. It's less satisfying to be a founder there, unless you're in it as much for the social scene as to run a business. The noise level is crazy, the distractions are extreme, the battle for talent is fevered, the costs are stratospheric.

by funkah 15y ago

danbmil99 15y ago

> at least in California you're getting something for your money. DC Not in Palo Alto or any of the desirable bay suburbs. You get what would in any other part of the country be a starter 3-bed with 1/10 acre plot for upwards of $2M. It's insane and unsustainable.

potatolicious 15y ago

> "but you don't get very much "city" for your money" It's typical in SF to pay $2K+ for a 1BR overlooking a back alley where homeless and drunks fight every night, where your neighborhood is contested by gang wars, your building is a creaky little Victorian built at the turn of the century, where a favorite topic of conversation are routes you can take to get from point A to point B in the city that maximizes personal safety, and only-half-joking comments about getting mugged on the bus. It's not the worst city in the USA to live in, but having lived here for six months now, and many major cities in two continents before that, I honestly think SF is completely overblown. It strikes me as a city where a bunch of suburban folk come after college and are blown away by all the Big City(tm) things, and every negative point simply becomes "how cities are", despite many other cities not suffering the same crime, housing, or other social ills. If it weren't for the booming and incredibly professionally satisfying tech scene, I'd have high-tailed it to a city where rents are halved, crime is quartered, and transportation not so sucktastic.

deleted 15y ago
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tptacek 15y ago
As true today as when he wrote it: http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/ http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/ It's an incredibly satisfying place to be a tech company employee, by the way. It's less satisfying to be a founder there, unless you're in it as much for the social scene as to run a business. The noise level is crazy, the distractions are extreme, the battle for talent is fevered, the costs are stratospheric.