Ask HN: Seattle vs. Bay? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Seattle vs. Bay?

11 pointscivicsquid17 comments

I have an option to work for a large tech company in the Bay Area or in Seattle. I'm not sure which to pick, and as far as I can tell the work experience will be about the same.

Any thoughts one way or another?

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You don't have to file state income tax in Seattle and the housing market is less zany. A lot of people are fleeing SF for Seattle.

SF is beautiful and the weather is better. It seems to be An Experience.

Many years ago, I lived 45 miles from SF and I spent some time wishing I could live there. It's an incredible city.

It was unaffordable then and it's only gotten worse. But both cities have serious homeless problems. That is not peculiar to SF.

I guess it depends in part on how much you want An Experience and how much you want a relatively sane lifestyle. If you can afford it, I think the Bay Area is amazing. I'm glad I lived there and a little sad that moving to SF was not possible. But I'm currently in Washington and my life works vastly better here. So I'm getting over those feelings.

My big concern is while I was interning in the bay I didn't really like it that much -- it felt like a big suburb to me.

I didn't really get to do much in the city, so most of what I saw of it were sprawling hills of close, run-down housing with the exception of the financial district and SOMA. The city honestly seemed really dirty to me too. Maybe there are parts of it I didn't see?

When I visited Seattle the city seemed clean and full of interesting places to visit. I heard the housing market there is more reasonable, and it just seems more affordable overall. My concern is the weather in the winter, but maybe it isn't that bad?

It rains a lot in winter. I don't think that's such a big deal.

I was a military wife. I've lived a bunch of places. To me, bad weather is 115 in the summer or heavy snow and ice in winter or tornados or hurricanes etc.

I also grew up in Georgia. Georgia gets terrible storms. Seattle doesn't get a lot of storms. It just rains and rains.

California has Fire Season as one of its seasons. That alone made me consider leaving. That's not a season I want in my life.

The big concerns for the Seattle weather are if you suffer from SAD or allergies. If you have SAD, it doesn't get enough sunlight. If you have allergies or certain other health issues, the combination of rain and temperate weather means you have a lot of mold there. That's a big problem for some people, but there are ways to minimize its impact on you.

I have allergies and respiratory problems. I don't want carpet, among other things. If my indoor air quality is tolerable, I'm okay up here in Washington. (I'm like 2 hours from Seattle, near the coast.)

They are both world class cities with a lot to offer. If you have been to both and you liked Seattle, then go there. Feel free to use sites like bestplaces.net to compare some of the metrics, but there is nothing wrong with going with your first impression if you don't personally have specific issues that need to be addressed.

I have a long list of personal issues and I heavily researched where to move. I live without a car. I have a limited income. I have health issues. So I had specific needs.

If you are basically healthy, can drive if you need to and make adequate money, then it really comes down to what you like and if you have specific career goals that would be better met in one of the cities. That's actually a wonderful problem to have and I envy you.

Best.

Thank you! Lots of great information.

I've lived/worked in Seattle for 15 years. It's a nice place. There are interesting things that happen here.

I really like the sun though, so the 9 months of gray and dark are hard. I often fantasize about leaving, but I think a tropical vacation in April can really help that.

Affordability is still much better in Seattle. You still have a (small) chance of buying a house here, depending on income. My career opportunities have been solid.

I'm a little sad that I missed out on the Bay Area Experience in my younger years. If I had things to do over again I think I'd work in the Bay for 2-3 years first, then leave. At this point I'm never moving there because the cost of living is too high with a family.

9 months of oppressive cloud cover a year and people that refuse to drive over the speed limit even a little and overt racism a short drive in any direction vs ridiculous rents/home prices and a culture that would rather see people die on the streets than mess up their neigbohood character by building houses but the weather is better and there’s more VC money and startups. Source: I’ve lived both places and currently reside in San Francisco. Sorry, that was probably not helpful.

SF has slightly better weather than Seattle, but we're not talking SoCal weather better.

I also find it a bit silly to base your life on the dang daily weather. Of all the human experience and pain, the daily weather matters not.

I didn't realize those were problems in Seattle. I guess both places have their downsides though.

Professionally, did you have any problems after living/working in Seattle? I had slight concerns that people in the bay might lack preference for engineers coming from outside of the bay, but hopefully that isn't true.

Most engineers in the Bay Area didn't start in the Bay Area.

To be fair to Seattle I never worked there. Lived there for several years as a teenager so hopefully people have gotten more tolerant since then. I do have family there and was there a few weeks ago. Can confirm everyone still drives too slow:)

No one in tech in sf cares if you’re a transplant.

> people that refuse to drive over the speed limit even a little

The nerve! Personally, I like riding my bike and sharing the road with people who aren't driving as fast as possible. There are still plenty of idiots driving, but at least they're driving a bit slower than where I grew up (deep South).

To be clear this is on the freeway and it’s super annoying.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I don’t actually drive so I wasn’t aware that the speed limit on the freeway was just a recommendation.

> people that refuse to drive over the speed limit even a little

A place with responsible drivers! Sounds like heaven compared to where I live.

I worked for a large tech company in Seattle and the actual living in Seattle part of it was tremendous (I didn't really enjoy the work, but that's a whole other story). I really loved living in Bellevue in particular -- it's very clean and beautiful.

You'll save a lot more money living in Seattle compared to SF. The weather is a bit dreary sometimes, but I didn't find it to be much of a problem.

That sounds nice. Was the winter weather hard to get over?

I'm from Chicago so I figured I'd just be trading lots of cold and snow for relatively less cold and mostly rain in the winters.

If you embrace it, its totally fine. Lived in Pittsburgh for 2yrs before moving to Seattle and the trading of snow storms with the rain/wet weather in the winters is a win in my opinion. You have 3 fantastic ski resorts within 2hrs of Seattle & Whistler/ Mt. Baker is 4-5hrs away so plenty of opportunities for winter activities. Wineries in WA and OR are open all year around (AFAIK) and plenty of winter brews to enjoy all around.

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