"I do think that a creative culture (which includes tech!) can't really flourish in such an expensive city. It just limits options too much when you have to mak

"I do think that a creative culture (which includes tech!) can't really flourish in such an expensive city. It just limits options too much when you have to make so much money just to live." This is exactly why I moved to Portland, Oregon instead of San Francisco 4 years ago. We've had a very strong creative tech scene here, that has not had the same levels of cost pressure. It emulated the situation during the Homebrew Computer Club days in Silicon Valley, it had the formula I thought would make it a good place to do tech startups. The affordable cost of living has allowed me to work on projects I otherwise would not have been able to in SF, because I simply couldn't have afforded it. Concernedly, Portland rents/houses have been trending upward recently, largely due to a lot of people moving here from California. It's my hope that Portland is able to maintain that balance of affordability and ambition... we'll see.