SF bay area, to move or not to move?

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  • Noggin1

    I lived near 21st/York. Good neighbourhood. Now in Castro/17th, amazing views etc.

    Pros

    - Quality of life is generally pretty good if you make 90k+
    - Wine tasting, slumming around the city, Tahoe all doable in a day
    - Entertainment
    - You can be pretty much who you wanna be (alt lifestyles etc)

    Cons
    - Homeless, tent cities
    - Bike theft
    - Rent price
    - Techie overload

    • 90k+ for getting a pretty good quality of life? Man, sometimes i love to live in the "poor" EuropeOBBTKN
    • 25,000 cars have been broken into in SF so far this year. 25FreakingK! Mine was one of them.instrmntl
  • instrmntl1

    I moved back to SF from NY. SF is more expensive that NY, dirty, has a huge homeless and drug problem, and traffic has increased tenfold as everyone takes Uber. My advise is to go and enjoy what NY has to offer. We moved back to the Bay Area for family, but I imagine at some point we will venture back to NY.

    • I think over all, California has huge issues of homelessness and the worst poverty in the nation. Added to that, 71 genders to identify with...robotron3k
    • Not to mention NY pays better and has a higher quality of life. SF has also been taken over by bros, and still has a little city complex.instrmntl
    • I'd consider LA before SF.instrmntl
    • I'm still shocked at the homeless issue in SF. It was bad when I left, and it's so much worse now.monospaced
    • Not to mention all the drugs right out in the open. Saw so many open drug deals. Unless police see it happening, they don't do anything. Its a free for all.instrmntl
    • yes, the tech bro thing is the worst thing in this city, gave up a noddle place bc it was full of these, but you can still find places that are techbro freefeel
    • Northern Cali's extreme tollerance created normalization and one day 10k homelessness men appear in downtown SF!robotron3k
    • c'mon robo, they didn't just appear "one day," that's pure nonsense and has nothing to do with "extreme tolerance." you sound so naive and ignorantmonospaced
    • if you think open rampant drug use is bad in SF, you should head up to Vancouver. if you are in Gastown-needles needles everywhere.lvl_13
    • But, but communism is successful.Hayoth
    • what the fuck are you taking about: communism?monospaced
    • Hayoth is like that little fella in Top Gear who tries to chime in the conversation of the other two but is usually ignored.face_melter
    • I miss that show.monospaced
    • haha face... totally. Hayoth is QBN's hamster.fadein11
  • Maaku0

    I think I changed my mind after all these reviews. Yesterday I was willing to give it a try but yeah, you guys convinced me not to do it, lol.
    If I'm going to pay that much for rent, I rather do that in NY, which is familiar.

  • zombiewoof1

    I lived in the mission for a few years 16th and Guerrero, It was fun for a bit, but the shine wore off after too many petty crime incidents. Once my first kid was born, we decided the junkies on the play sets at Mission Delores Park prob not where I wanted to raise a kid. Moved over to Berkeley. The trick to living in the East Bay is a motorcycle. You get to skip the toll plaza (as an mc you are considered high occupancy vehicle) and split lanes across the Bay Bridge. Tons of mc metered spots in soma and such (at least there used to be). Even so, after a few years the Peoples Republic of Berkeley started wearing on me as well. I never made more money and had less in my pocket at the end of the week. Fanatics are sooo far left, they are coming back around to the right again.... I now live very rural in the midwest and couldn't be happier. guess i just got old faster than i expected, or i developed a super low tolerance for general human bs. Best of luck in you endeavors!

  • Beeswax-1

    When I was there last time I realized that I could live there when I was in my 20s but when you're 40, you don't want to step on a homeless shit in the heart of the city or get familiar with urine smell or share your commute with some crack addict screaming his ass off.

    • most of SF is not like this. just a couple of bad BART stops.sarahfailin
  • Beeswax0

    If I had money, I'd live in or around Pacifica or Marin but not in the shitty.

    • I was always in Pacifica surfing those shitty waves locals were all territorial aboutmoldero
  • Hayoth0

    No such thing as a 30 min commute in the North Bay.

    • Or south bay :)Hayoth
    • Hyperloop!monospaced
    • yea, I meant like 30 min of train rides, it would take around 10min to get to the train by bike, and more 5min to get from the station to work by bike :Dfeel
    • That's better. Thought you mentioned driving.Hayoth
    • mono nailed it!utopian
    • calm down utopianmonospaced
  • feel1

    same here, around 3k for a 1 bedroom on Cow Hollow, close to the marina
    I guess the pros are that the city is beautiful, full of restaurants, I love living there for my bike rides, just get on the bike and cross the bridge for a ton of great routes.
    One thing about living and working here is that you'll get very well payed, but the cost of living in the city is huge. So i bike everyday to work to compensate a little.

    I'm thinking on moving to San Mateo, I can get a 2-bedroom on a building that has gym, pool, parking spaces for the same price as this very simple 1-bedroom at the marina, the only downside would be a 30min commute everyday to work (I work around Soma)

    So maybe look for apartments in the near cities

    • how far does Bart go down now?moldero
    • I'd just get caltrain, it would be a lot easier for me since it crosses San Mateo and arrives right at the Soma, but yea, there's bart all the way downfeel
    • i like turtlesmoldero
    • 30min ain't bad!e-wo
  • robotron3k1

    Lived in SF for 2.5 years, moved there from Austin. Thought I was going to be in a "big" city, realized it's as tiny as Austin(!) loved the weather, weed and events. There are plenty of beautiful apartments but you'll never be able to live in them and that makes things very depressing and the options were slim. Went for a visit to NYC and was blown away at the options in housing, jobs and pay ranges, I asked myself, "what the fuk are you doing in Frisco!?" then I moved fast.

  • robotinc0

    I loved living in SF, but left 2 years ago for New Zealand. There are parts I miss: a great area for biking, tame weather, great food, easy access to art and music.

    That being said, its crazy $$, and the constant drama about tech this and that gets old really fast. And holy fucking bike crime batman. I didn't mind the shit everywhere and piss smell while I lived there, but now that its absent its feels gross when i visit.

    Lots of my friends moved to the east bay from SF, and all have mixed feelings about it. If you are thinking about taking a job in SF (and in the city, not down the peninsula), its worth having a look.

    • woah, we left there a the same time. 2 years now in Seattle. and yeah, my first bike was stolen within 6 weeks of moving there...lvl_13
    • so many gutter-punks with massive bike chop-shops there. it's ridiculous and cops don't do shit about it.lvl_13
    • Oh, and when we left our apartment rented for $1000/month more than we were paying.robotinc
    • yup-and there was probably a line of 30 deep waiting to put there application in. fucking brutal competition.lvl_13
  • Maaku0

    Thanks, I appreciate y'all for putting in your 2 cents.

    30 mins commute isn't that bad, I can deal with that but the other cons are a bummer. Not entirely sold on it but I can't lose anything trying to get the job, first.

    • yeah for sure. good luck!lvl_13
    • yea, you could try living in the city for like 6 months, and then deciding if you keep living in SF or move to a closer city, anyways, good luck!feel
    • yea - 30min is no biggie, that's what my NYC commute typically is.bulletfactory
  • monospaced0

    There are lots of neighborhoods in SF where the rents aren't insane yet. Consider living in the outer Richmond or Sunset districts where you can still get large living spaces for decent prices. They aren't outside the city, but they aren't downtown either. It's almost purely residential out there, closer to the ocean and great access to Golden Gate Park and all the happenings there. Personally, I prefer those areas to the insanely expensive areas downtown where all the new developments are.

    • that's true...but prices have been rising there pretty rapidly as well. the other thing is that if you need to get into downtown, it will take forever.lvl_13
    • as the buses are sloooowwww and the N line makes too many stops.lvl_13
    • yeah, I took the 38 downtown from 35th Avenue for years ... it's about a 40 minute commute, but a pretty fun bike ridemonospaced
    • yeah, the bike trek wouldn't be too bad. mostly flat except for the one giant hill. I always just walked my bike over that.lvl_13
    • Yes, the hill that peaks at Van Ness is a bitch. :) I left SF about 9 years ago today, and I don't miss it THAT much.monospaced
    • why would anyone downvote this?monospaced
    • who the hell knows. weirdos.lvl_13
    • it's good advice, based on experiencemonospaced
  • lvl_130

    the pros is that it's an amazing city with a great food and art scene. it's very expensive (as you already know), and the city is very slow to get on top of the rental shortage (although they are currently building a ton of large apartment buildings). Just don't expect to get in there without plopping down at least $3K/month for a small 1-bedroom...unless you move somewhere outside of the city (why would you though? you move to SF to be in the thick of it all IMO).

    also be aware that a lot of the bigger tech-based places take a lonnnnnng time to get through the interview process. and often times recruiters will set up a call with you and not have even looked at your portfolio. they see key words on linked and the like and just reach out to tons of "potentials". Also be aware of commute times. if you have to commute out to somewhere like mountain view...well, let's just say traffic is awful and the bus system is sub-par.

    I'd recommend looking at places in the mission area that is somewhat close to the 24th street or 16th street BART line. and if you currently own a car, sell it. it's more of a pain in the ass to own one then to just take public transit/uber/zipcar etc.

    • Agreed on the car front. It's a hassle just having one there. Parking is hard to find, and all the restrictions make it so frustrating.monospaced
    • Better yet, just live and work around mountain view / sunnyvale / palo alto
      and just visit the city on the weekend
      Without the bullshit of living there
      futurefood
  • dasohr0

    just escaped the yay area. to expensive. to many techies crowding everything. to many teslas and hot mommies. it's an unholy shitshow. infrastructure is shoddy as hell.

    • yeah when the .com days started it was like all the cunty assholes in the country moved to SF. SF used to be A LOT cooler than it is now.moldero
  • moldero2

    I owned a house over in 'ocean side', it might be a good place to look as your right by the Daly City Bart station and you have easy access to all the freeways going in and out of the city, + you have parking (unlike most places in the city) it wasnt the safest area when I was there (even for $700k homes), 10 years ago was when i sold it, I'm sure the neighborhood got a lot better since I left (probably because I left) those houses are at a mil now, so I'm sure all the ghetto fucks sold and bought mansions elsewhere. when I moved to MX I was renting rooms out for $1k. I'm assuming you can find rooms for $1.5k today. you'll probably be rooming with SF state kids as that's mostly who i rented to.

    its foggy as fuck most of the year there though. so is the sunset district, but there's no Bart there, you can bus it, but those are slow as shit compared to Bart.

    consider this when looking for a place, the commute literally SUCKS hours out of your life, if you value your time, pay a little more and move into the city, it all adds up.

  • nuggler0

    I've been in SF since before the internet. My rent quadrupled and my friends left town. I said, if you can't beat em, join em, and I started making web sites in '99.
    It's expensive here because there are tech jobs and it's a beautiful city. If you get one of those jobs, you might like it.
    If I had it to do over, I would try living in a car, or under a desk, and save a lot of money to buy my freedom with.

  • instrmntl-4

    SF is garbage.

  • utopian0