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Comment by dawhizkid | Hacker News Reader

I lived in the TL in SF for 2 years. A studio in a new construction building for $1795/mo with a rooftop (with bbq area and small gym!). My walk to work downtown was 15 minutes.

It's actually very funny how the (perceived) worst/cheapest area in SF is right in the center of the city with easy transportation everywhere.

Of course, after 2 years I felt mentally exhausted from walking around so many mentally ill homeless and seeing garbage everywhere, but it was a calculus I made at the time and looking back the pros of a short commute, cheap rent for sf, and being centrally located with short walk to lots of transit at civic center muni/bart outweighed the cons.

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TBH - It makes no economic sense for startups to get $$$$ address in downtown SF than to massage the ego of the founders. This obsession to locate in downtown SF is costing both the company and employees tremendously.

If they really want to be located in the city have an ego office in downtown and open satellite offices in the east bay or south bay. Makes for happy employees and cheaper costs.

why stop there? the last "who's hiring" post made it clear to me that more and more startups are locating outside of the Bay Area entirely

One of the factors that permits Bay Area employees to take risks on startups is the density of alternatives. Few people are willing to move across the country as frequently as a normal startup employee changes jobs.

SF is a little unique in that post apocalyptic way

A fifteen minute walk with the Walking Dead theme song playing on spotify always beats the commute from hell.

You get exercise, cardio, and All of us here are able to monetize those additional 2-9 hours daily to amplify our salaries #yayinequality. Plus lets be honest you can always just walk on Van Ness or summon an uber.

Nice place to live to have visits and hang out. I hear you can even save more if you live under a bridge.

Of course the TL is cheaper. Its not safe and its a terrible experience on all regards.

I actually never felt unsafe...it was more just a feeling of pity. I was on the "edge" of the TL next to UC Hastings/City Hall and a block away from a Philz Coffee.

The TL has some good things going for it. Good Vietnamese/Thai food, some cool bars. But agreed, I lived there because it was central and relatively cheap, not because I enjoyed hanging out there. But a 5-10m Uber ride in any direction made it much more bearable than it would've been 10 years ago.

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