9 ms·
I live in SF and I think the doom loop narrative is true of downtown. So many job cuts (though I think the AI boom is already gaining traction). However the ne
by cleandreams 3y ago
I live in SF and I think the doom loop narrative is true of downtown. So many job cuts (though I think the AI boom is already gaining traction).
However the neighborhoods are dreamy, as good as ever. The city lost population during the pandemic but it has been gaining and in 2023, it is the fastest growing in the state.
I've been in tech for years here and it is the best job market, most lucrative, and most advanced. It's an opportunity to work here. Just don't live in the tenderloin.
- pj_mukh 3y agoSeconded. It is nutso good in the neighborhoods and the startup energy and ambition between Hayes valley and Silicon Valley (south bay) is absolutely unmatched. It just sucks people are forced to make a these difficult choices for rent.
- ex3ndr 3y agoDo you really need a vibe to build though?
- cable 3y agono.
- happytiger 3y agoNo but it’s nice to be surrounded by like minded people. What you need isn’t always what you want.
- pj_mukh 3y agoI’ve seen confused founders become relentless executors when surrounded by the right vibe. And I’ve seen ambitious founders burnout fighting for traction in an environment that doesn’t foster their energy. So I’d say yes.
- staticautomatic 3y agoIn theory but good lord the pitch event circuit here is excruciating and the coworking spaces have way less vibe than people imagine.
- mike_d 3y agoAh yes, the brofounders. To be a _good_ founder you should also be capable of starting a tractor dealership in Iowa or taking over an accounting firm in Dallas. You have leadership, entrepreneurship, and decision making skills. Silicon Valley has enough tide to lift all boats that mediocre people like you describe can still have a chance at success and being heralded as mold breaking visionaries.
- pj_mukh 3y agoTo me the guy who can run a tech company in the valley and a tractor dealership in Iowa usually becomes the MBA bro. They’re good leaders no doubt but they inevitably become some Private Equity bro, just absolutely inconsequential to the larger economy. I quite prefer the valley environments ability to take deep domain experts and turn them into the best managers of their own technology.
- c0pium 3y agoWhat are you talking about, of course the emperor has clothes. Just look at color, the undisputed kings of vibe.
- j7ake 3y agoIt’s similar to asking whether students need to go to university to learn a subject when everything there is to learn is available at the touch of a keystroke. Technically not needed, but turns out it is really beneficial to be with likeminded people with common goals.
- pixelatedindex 3y agoI’m leaving SF to go to Seattle because they changed the job on me but are paying me more than I ever have. I’m relocating to improve my finances temporarily but I really hope I can come back to SF. I’ve been here for over a decade and this feels like home to me.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIf you are working in Seattle and not the east side, Queen Anne and capital Hill have some of the SF vibe.
- water9 3y agoSo there’s lots of homeless and poop all over the streets? Sign me up!
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI haven’t seen much poop (although sometimes neighbors throw bags of dog poop in my garbage can, grrr). Seattle attracts more homeless per capita than SF, although the problem is obviously not as bad in the winter as it is in the summer.
- water9 3y agoI live in San Diego and every morning at around 6 AM downtown There are people pressure washing the streets. I like to go for early morning runs before work and if I go any earlier than 6 AM it’s a mine Feild.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI think Seattle is a bit different because we don’t have any
- pixelatedindex 3y agoY’all got any of that sun over there tho? That’s the main issue. I have been there for all of two weeks and the lack of sun is real. I never knew how much the difference is until I went home for the holidays.
- matrix87 3y ago> Just don't live in the tenderloin. Or Bayview-Hunters Point, apparently that one is even worse... /watch?v=FXLD6wn2VBQ
- iaseiadit 3y ago> However the neighborhoods are dreamy I never got this. I lived in a “good” neighborhood, but still the TL issues (drug addicts, unhoused mentally ill people, dirty sidewalks, needles) still crept in. What neighborhoods are immune to this?
- tnel77 3y agoThe ones we can’t afford.
- mdgrech23 3y agoI feel like the ability to deal w/ this type of thing is more person to person assuming you don't have young kids to worry about. Like I do encounter that type of behavior but I don't know for the most part it doesn't bother me. It does make me feel uncomfortable from time to time but I can look past that.
- jacobolus 3y agoI live in the Mission district with young kids, and we walk / take transit all over the city. Smash and grabs of backpacks left in parked cars are annoying, as are bike thefts, and every once in a while a shouting homeless person is a little sketchy, but just like anywhere else in America automobiles are by far the most dangerous feature of daily life for small kids. We've never felt any serious personal safety concern from pedestrians or people hanging out outside.
- hellisothers 3y agoI feel the same, when I travel to other larger cities (Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, etc) there are similar problems. It’s not an SF problem it’s a city problem, especially the more “downtown’s” it gets as opposed to more “neighborhood’y”.
- jacobolus 3y agoCities have plenty of problems, but by and large they are not a particular danger to children. I generally feel significantly safer in cities with relatively walkable sidewalks, relatively narrow streets, and lots of pedestrian/bike traffic than I do in typical American suburbs full of strip malls and 6-lane roads. The latter are in my opinion horrendous places to raise children.
- annexrichmond 3y agoI lived in SF for ~10ish years up until 2020 and still return regularly for work/friends. I agree that it is mostly downtown that is dead but the rest of your comment seems hyperbolic to me. Hayes Valley, Valencia, Polk was way more lively when I was there. > best job market The hundreds in SF laid off this year may disagree > most lucrative yes, incomes and stocks do generally increase yoy. Tautology. > and most advanced as does technology
- cleandreams 3y agoAfter all the layoffs we still have an unemployment rate of of 3.4% (as of Nov). In Seattle it is 3.6% (as of Oct). Also the fact the population is increasing probably reflects job hires. It's expensive here. Who else would move here? Maybe AI startups...
- presidentender 3y agoI quite liked living in the Tenderloin. It's close to transit, it's cheap, and it's got great restaurants. I wouldn't live there if I had a cohabitating partner or kids, though.
- water9 3y agoYeah, you forgot to mention all the transient and shit on the streets
- presidentender 3y agoDuring my year and a half there I had to wash poop off my shoe once. It took me a few minutes. My rent was several hundred dollars per month cheaper than any other place I lived in the Bay area. I'll wash anything off anything for a thousand dollars a minute.
- drywaller 3y agoYou sure that's really the Tenderloin or along the edges which is more like Nob Hill?
- presidentender 3y agoI lived on Turk between Hyde and Leavenworth. It has all the bad things. The advantages are, to my reckoning, overwhelming.