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In Oakland, a Sign of Some Very High Times
- taylorlapeyre 12y agoI accepted a good job offer in San Francisco, starting when I graduate next June. It seems like everything I've read about the Bay Area has has been the same: "The expenses are insane. They are getting worse. Turn back now." Articles like this make me wonder what I've gotten myself into.
- mrj 12y agoBah, get yourself some roommates and enjoy the ride of a lifetime.
- prezjordan 12y agoDoesn't hurt to try it out! That's what I'm doing (been here for 3 months now). If you ever get nervous or have any last-minute questions feel free to ping me!
- taylorlapeyre 12y agoThanks for the kind words. I might take you up on that.
- rhizome 12y agoTip: you don't have to go to Tartine every morning.
- superfunc 12y agoyou can live basically anywhere in the east bay for pretty cheap and hop bart into the city btw. source: first 22 years of my life.
- gress 12y agoHave you tried to rent in the east bay lately?
- klipt 12y agoStill cheaper than SF.
- wtfleming 12y agoI recently moved to the East Bay from Los Angeles - I gave up on even trying to find a place to live in SF. I'm paying 2X the rent I had in Silver Lake (which is a relatively expensive part of LA) and competition was so tough I had to go to over 10 open houses just to find something decent a landlord would rent to me. Even the East Bay is pretty insane right now.
- nedwin 12y agoI'm assuming it's some kind of tech job. Keep in mind there are thousands of people living in the city who make minimum wage. You're going to be doing substantially better than them. Find a share house with people with similar interests, get a studio in the Tenderloin or (potentially) move to the East Bay. Either way you're going to have a blast. :)
- dllthomas 12y agoMost of those people aren't starting to rent a place now. Someone I know moved to SF about 7 years ago. If he were to move, rent for something comparable is more than 2x what he's paying.
- ericdykstra 12y agoSince you're a developer out of a good university, you will be fine living in the city. I'm assuming you're making at least $100k at the very minimum, and have no dependents. There are still good deals to be had in SF, you just have to know what neighborhoods are overpriced and which are underpriced. You should be able to get a good-sized studio for under $2500/month, which is a reasonable portion of your salary. If you're cool with roommates, you can get a nicer room in a more convenient part of the city.
- pizza 12y agoSo.. where's a good place to live in SF?
- ericdykstra 12y agoIf I were looking again now, I'd check Glen Park, Twin Peaks / Noe Valley, and Inner Richmond. All 3 are pretty close to the happening parts of the city, relatively reasonably priced, and have their own merits. Glen Park is quiet and has Bart access, Twin Peaks has views, Noe Valley is very conveniently next to the Mission and the Castro, and Inner Richmond has some of the best food in the city.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- cobookman 12y ago> ...100k at the very minimum... If its a big corporation sure, but not at a startup. That said, he could also live in one of the various co-ops in SoMa for not too much money (if he's fine sharing a room). And the inner-Richmond does have cheap rent as well (~$750-1000 per single room)
- te_chris 12y agoWait, sharing a room??? What the hell?
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- eru 12y agoSydney is worse. Rent is about the same, everything else is more expensive.
- diafygi 12y agoI have a startup in a solar accelerator program in downtown Oakland. Our building right around the corner from a BART stop. When I have a meeting in SF, it's only 15 minutes to get to Embarcadero. It takes my co-founder longer to get from North Beach to that stop. Also, Oakland is pretty flat, so riding your bike around is super fast and easy. You don't need a car at all to have an active social life. I constantly go to meetups all over the bay area, and the only time I drive is when something is in the peninsula. Heck, San Jose is easily accessible via BART + express bus. If only they would make BART 24/7 like NYC...
- ultimoo 12y agoNice, it seems like you've found a good transit solution that works (which is rare in the Bay Area) and I'm happy. A couple of questions came to mind, and I mean them in the nicest way -- 1. Do you live in the same place that the accelerator is -- in Downtown Oakland? Is that considered a safe neighborhood? You compare that with your founder commuting from North Beach, which is not a business district, so he likely lives there. North Beach is good neighborhood that lacks an underground lightrail but is otherwise a desirable neighborhood -- plenty of bars/restaurants, walkable from downtown, close to the bay, less crime, etc. I think it is unfair to compare commuting from Downtown<->Downtown with Community<->Downtown. 2. There are many commonly biked routes in SF that have no gradient, failing which, one can always walk, muni, or ride-share over to the destination. Owning a car is pretty unnecessary in SF (like it is in Oakland). 3. As someone who has done the BART + 181 journey more times than I wanted, in my experience it takes 1:30+ reach downtown San Jose from east bay. Which is kinda acceptable if your destination is in downtown San Jose. Even a few miles out (N 1st St., Cupertino, Mtv., or Sunnyvale) and you're in for a 2:30 + hour one way commute using the public transit. What I realized was that nothing beats a car in South Bay. Why do you say that San Jose is more easily accessible from Oakland than from SF when SF has a < 1 hr bullet Caltrain that reaches all South Bay cities' downtown?
- dllthomas 12y agoDowntown Oakland is pretty safe. It's still a city, so you should have your wits about you, but it's not bad.
- hamburglar 12y agoWhat a bizarre article. It's about the real estate crunch, but they spend so much time at the beginning talking about the weed store and the gardening sensor startup (not to mention the clever use of "high times" in the headline) that I was thoroughly confused about the point they were trying to make for a while. The relevant part of the example is basically, "SF tech startup finds relatively cheap office space in a long-vacant storefront in Oakland."
- thrownaway2424 12y agoIt is quite a weird read. A lot of these articles feel like the realizations of people who previously were too blinkered to even notice Oakland's existence. It will be bad for Oakland when such people start flooding over here.
- gregcohn 12y agoWe are definitely past peak Journalism.
- sv123 12y agoYeah, probably the longest TC article I have ever read.
- devindotcom 12y agoOh boy, you must have missed Kim-Mai's last major article and one or two of my own :D
- jedberg 12y agoIf they want people to live/work in Oakland, they're gonna need to convince the BART folks to run past midnight. That is probably the biggest thing holding Oakland back.
- thrownaway2424 12y agoYou could stand in Oakland and say the exact same sentence about SF.
- Confusion 12y agoHow about sane working hours?
- jasonlaramburu 12y agoThere are also some great, affordable restaurants in downtown Oakland. Highly recommend it to startups looking for space.
- degio 12y agoSo here's a question for the readers: would you rather live/work in the Berkeley/Oakland area or in the south bay?
- mahyarm 12y agoBerkeley/Oakland if your single, the south bay if you want suburbia.