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San Francisco is an excellent place for a hacker. 1) Plenty of other hackers in close vicinity 2) Lots of startups all over the city 3) Excellent public

by zain 18y ago

San Francisco is an excellent place for a hacker. 1) Plenty of other hackers in close vicinity 2) Lots of startups all over the city 3) Excellent public transportation 4) Awesome bike trails all over the place Plus, you can walk into pretty much any coffee shop in SF and see at least one or two techies coding away on their macbook :)

psadauskas 18y ago
Boulder, CO is pretty much the same. The cost of living here is only overpriced, compared to extremely overpriced in SF. Also, we have better snowboarding here. :-)
tptacek 18y ago
Did you seriously just suggest that San Francisco has "excellent" public transportation? Because, seriously, it doesn't: the Muni is one of the worst large systems in the country, and a lower percentage of residents use it than any comparable city. What's worse, most people who work "in San Francisco" don't, and commuting to south bay is untenable without a car (and even with the car, a good half of the market is at least a 90 minute daily commute away from SOMA).
- zain 18y ago
  It seems to be fashionable to rag on Muni these days, but after living in two other urban cities, Muni is the best public transportation I've seen. It runs practically everywhere and is quite affordable and prompt. Muni cars run on clean electric lines, and their busses are now electric hybrids. Each is outfitted with a GPS that updates boards at each stop to let you know in real-time how long before the next bus arrives. They have a phone number and a website that has this real-time info too. Hell, that website even has an iPhone version! It costs 45 bucks a month to go anywhere you want. It runs 24 hours a day with plenty of frequency and services pretty much every inch of the city. What more can you ask for? Ever checked out Atlanta's MARTA system? The bus service is random and wait times are often 30 minutes to 2 hours. Without a car, you're basically screwed.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Sounds awesome. Last experience I had with the Muni involved buses skipping stops, lines being shut down with minimal notice, and busloads full of sweatshop textile workers. Maybe it's improved since then. But news.google.com doesn't think indicate that. But then, GPS or no GPS, it's going to be hard to impress people from cities with real public transit systems with a bus; there's nowhere in NYC or Chicago you'd reasonably want to go that you can't get to on a train that runs every 5-15 minutes. I agree with you, I wouldn't put Atlanta on my list of awesome public transit cities either.
    - randallsquared 18y ago
      "and busloads full of sweatshop textile workers." Wait... you're complaining that you have to share the bus with other people who can't afford a car? Perhaps you'd prefer two separate systems, so we can reserve one for those who are just too cool to use cars? :/
      - tptacek 18y ago
        Getting rid of the sweatshops would do fine, thanks.
        deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
    - menloparkbum 18y ago
      Which muni bus has loads of sweatshop workers? The trains are fine. The big bus lines like the 38 are pretty good. Some of the other bus lines, like the 19 which goes through the tenderloin to SOMA are gross and can be unpredictable.
      - tptacek 18y ago
        I lived in SOMA, so the bus I'm mostly thinking of is on Howard running downtown. It's possible things have gotten better. But I'd never take a bus anywhere in Chicago (or NYC); the trains go everywhere.

by zain 18y ago

psadauskas 18y ago

Boulder, CO is pretty much the same. The cost of living here is only overpriced, compared to extremely overpriced in SF. Also, we have better snowboarding here. :-)

tptacek 18y ago

Did you seriously just suggest that San Francisco has "excellent" public transportation? Because, seriously, it doesn't: the Muni is one of the worst large systems in the country, and a lower percentage of residents use it than any comparable city. What's worse, most people who work "in San Francisco" don't, and commuting to south bay is untenable without a car (and even with the car, a good half of the market is at least a 90 minute daily commute away from SOMA).

zain 18y ago
It seems to be fashionable to rag on Muni these days, but after living in two other urban cities, Muni is the best public transportation I've seen. It runs practically everywhere and is quite affordable and prompt. Muni cars run on clean electric lines, and their busses are now electric hybrids. Each is outfitted with a GPS that updates boards at each stop to let you know in real-time how long before the next bus arrives. They have a phone number and a website that has this real-time info too. Hell, that website even has an iPhone version! It costs 45 bucks a month to go anywhere you want. It runs 24 hours a day with plenty of frequency and services pretty much every inch of the city. What more can you ask for? Ever checked out Atlanta's MARTA system? The bus service is random and wait times are often 30 minutes to 2 hours. Without a car, you're basically screwed.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Sounds awesome. Last experience I had with the Muni involved buses skipping stops, lines being shut down with minimal notice, and busloads full of sweatshop textile workers. Maybe it's improved since then. But news.google.com doesn't think indicate that. But then, GPS or no GPS, it's going to be hard to impress people from cities with real public transit systems with a bus; there's nowhere in NYC or Chicago you'd reasonably want to go that you can't get to on a train that runs every 5-15 minutes. I agree with you, I wouldn't put Atlanta on my list of awesome public transit cities either.
  - randallsquared 18y ago
    "and busloads full of sweatshop textile workers." Wait... you're complaining that you have to share the bus with other people who can't afford a car? Perhaps you'd prefer two separate systems, so we can reserve one for those who are just too cool to use cars? :/
    - tptacek 18y ago
      Getting rid of the sweatshops would do fine, thanks.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
  - menloparkbum 18y ago
    Which muni bus has loads of sweatshop workers? The trains are fine. The big bus lines like the 38 are pretty good. Some of the other bus lines, like the 19 which goes through the tenderloin to SOMA are gross and can be unpredictable.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      I lived in SOMA, so the bus I'm mostly thinking of is on Howard running downtown. It's possible things have gotten better. But I'd never take a bus anywhere in Chicago (or NYC); the trains go everywhere.