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For 4 years I've lived about 5 blocks from the WTC compound and walk by it daily on my commute and as we move around the neighborhood. When we first moved here

by kator 12y ago

For 4 years I've lived about 5 blocks from the WTC compound and walk by it daily on my commute and as we move around the neighborhood. When we first moved here we were surprised at all the openings, it seems most of the financial companies have folded up or left the area and it's being rapidly developed as a residential area. The building I live in is something like 9 years old and all around us new buildings are going up with signs all over them about new residential housing. Still many other buildings are being refurbished to support residential housing and "fully furnished" housing. When I heard Conde and Media Math were moving in I told my wife "Here it comes Silicon Valley on a single campus". I recently learned of another very large tenant in Media and Tech that's moving in (can't share the name) along with several others related to the media and tech scene in NYC. My wife and I had been considering moving to another part of the city until we realized I'd have a 10 minute walk to most of the tech and media companies I'd either work for or consult for. Maybe the buildings are filling up slowly, but if they keep filling with tech and media companies the surrounding residential spaces will fill up quickly as the employees snag walking distance housing. This could create a really nice synergistic geographic location for tech and media innovation. I know this won't be a popular comment since most of HN is valley based, I spent 5 months of 2014 in the SF area, working for a start-up and consulting for clients in the valley. I burned so much time on the road my wife offered to commute with me so I could be in the carpool lane. Our company sold and I came back home to NYC. I've enjoyed being back home. One of my frustrations with "The Valley" is having to own a car to really be able to move around. Yes there is some transit but nothing like NYC. I lived most of my life in Los Angeles so I am overly aware of how horrific the car culture becomes. You lose so much time in the car, you're less productive, you have less family time and you're stressed and burnt before you even sit in your chair in the morning at work. When you have to start your own bus company to get your employees in and out of work something is amiss. I am hopeful that downtown could become the next challenger to the valley and do it with less people stuck on a freeway somewhere.

jobu 12y ago
Every 5 minutes further from the office is about 40 hours of commuting over a year. When I look at a job that's further away from my house it helps me to weigh the cost/benefit of losing a week or more of vacation.
- dandv 12y ago
  While that puts commute in perspective, time is not fungible like that in reality. 5 minutes on the margin won't make much of a different. Will you really take an extra week of vacation if move 5 minutes closer? No. Let alone the huge time cost of changing workplaces or residences.
littleweep 12y ago
Wow. Great post. "When you have to start your own bus company to get your employees in and out of work something is amiss." - hits the nail on the head. I lived in NYC for three years and desperately miss my time there. I've forged some strong friendships and had some great experiences.
SeoxyS 12y ago
I'd say the biggest resurgence in tech on the west coast is not actually in "The Valley," where you spend your time on the 101 between Palo Alto and Mountain View, but rather in San Francisco.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  Much of the criticism still applies - if you want to cap your commute at, say, 30 minutes door to door, the range of places you can live in SF is vastly smaller than the NYC equivalent (with easy access to Midtown or downtown). There is a reason, after all, that the Mission is priced higher than even the most expensive neighborhoods of Manhattan.
  - SeoxyS 12y ago
    You can get between any two places in SF in less than 30 minutes by hopping into an Uber/Lyft. And the distances are small enough that that trip will never be unreasonably priced. Plus, everything that matters in tech is located in either SoMa/FiDi, Mid-Market, or the Mission, which is rarely ever further than 15min away and easily bikable / Uber-able / often walkable.
    - a_c_s 12y ago
      Taking a taxi everywhere seems like it would be expensive: how much would taking an Uber/Lyft 30 minutes each way to and from work actually cost? (For reference, my commute is 30 minutes in NYC and costs me $112/month pre-tax for an unlimited MetroCard, which I can also use for non-commuting trips too)
      - SeoxyS 12y ago
        I sometimes take Uber/Lyft or UberPool/LyftLine to and from work, which costs me ~$4-7 without surge pricing. Most of the time I walk. I probably spend ~$40/month on commute to work via Uber/Lyft, walking the rest. That said, I'm not suggesting that as a commute option. I'm suggesting it as an option when you have to get to and from meetings at various startup offices / cafes. For commuting, most people have a good option that's cheaper than that. If you live on the other side of the city, driving or riding a scooter is not a bad option. If you live a little closer, which is likely, many people bike. There are also quite a few bus lines. There are also privately run commuter busses that connect the Marina / North Beach with downtown.
akgerber 12y ago
New York tech is already pretty heavily ensconced in the mixed-use neighborhoods around Union Square— a lot of tech seems to be moving to the Financial District because big players have leased out a lot of the spaces in the area & prices have jumped. Google, Facebook, and Twitter all used to be in Midtown but moved to the Union Square neighborhood in the last couple years. If you want to live near most tech employers, they're already all 'downtown'. Just not all the way downtown in the Financial District.

by kator 12y ago

jobu 12y ago

Every 5 minutes further from the office is about 40 hours of commuting over a year. When I look at a job that's further away from my house it helps me to weigh the cost/benefit of losing a week or more of vacation.

dandv 12y ago
While that puts commute in perspective, time is not fungible like that in reality. 5 minutes on the margin won't make much of a different. Will you really take an extra week of vacation if move 5 minutes closer? No. Let alone the huge time cost of changing workplaces or residences.

littleweep 12y ago

Wow. Great post. "When you have to start your own bus company to get your employees in and out of work something is amiss." - hits the nail on the head. I lived in NYC for three years and desperately miss my time there. I've forged some strong friendships and had some great experiences.

SeoxyS 12y ago

I'd say the biggest resurgence in tech on the west coast is not actually in "The Valley," where you spend your time on the 101 between Palo Alto and Mountain View, but rather in San Francisco.

potatolicious 12y ago
Much of the criticism still applies - if you want to cap your commute at, say, 30 minutes door to door, the range of places you can live in SF is vastly smaller than the NYC equivalent (with easy access to Midtown or downtown). There is a reason, after all, that the Mission is priced higher than even the most expensive neighborhoods of Manhattan.
- SeoxyS 12y ago
  You can get between any two places in SF in less than 30 minutes by hopping into an Uber/Lyft. And the distances are small enough that that trip will never be unreasonably priced. Plus, everything that matters in tech is located in either SoMa/FiDi, Mid-Market, or the Mission, which is rarely ever further than 15min away and easily bikable / Uber-able / often walkable.
  - a_c_s 12y ago
    Taking a taxi everywhere seems like it would be expensive: how much would taking an Uber/Lyft 30 minutes each way to and from work actually cost? (For reference, my commute is 30 minutes in NYC and costs me $112/month pre-tax for an unlimited MetroCard, which I can also use for non-commuting trips too)
    - SeoxyS 12y ago
      I sometimes take Uber/Lyft or UberPool/LyftLine to and from work, which costs me ~$4-7 without surge pricing. Most of the time I walk. I probably spend ~$40/month on commute to work via Uber/Lyft, walking the rest. That said, I'm not suggesting that as a commute option. I'm suggesting it as an option when you have to get to and from meetings at various startup offices / cafes. For commuting, most people have a good option that's cheaper than that. If you live on the other side of the city, driving or riding a scooter is not a bad option. If you live a little closer, which is likely, many people bike. There are also quite a few bus lines. There are also privately run commuter busses that connect the Marina / North Beach with downtown.

akgerber 12y ago

New York tech is already pretty heavily ensconced in the mixed-use neighborhoods around Union Square— a lot of tech seems to be moving to the Financial District because big players have leased out a lot of the spaces in the area & prices have jumped. Google, Facebook, and Twitter all used to be in Midtown but moved to the Union Square neighborhood in the last couple years. If you want to live near most tech employers, they're already all 'downtown'. Just not all the way downtown in the Financial District.