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Comment by moate | Hacker News Reader

If we're going to do this, let's do it right: Where did these numbers come from, what are the sources? What is "Land area" defined as, and what does it include relating to uninhabitable/unusable space? What about zoning laws (in order to affect things like housing density)? Is average a mean or median wage? What are the rates of poverty in both regions? What the hell is an "elite of the world" defined as?

Start defining your perimeters and we might be able to get an answer to your first question.

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Wages:

  Houston wages [1].
  SF wages [2].

Rents:

  Houston rents [3].
  SF rents [4].
  San Jose rents [5].

Land Area:

  Houston wiki [6].
  Bay Area wiki [7].

> What is "Land area" defined as

The total geographic area as defined by the city or region's CSA.

> what does it include relating to uninhabitable/unusable space?

Examines land area without regard for zoning or habitability.

> Is average a mean or median wage?

Average means average. Mean.

> What are the rates of poverty in both regions?

Irrelevant.

> What the hell is an "elite of the world" defined as?

Don't know that's why I requested more information from the OP.

  1. https://www.bls.gov/regions/southwest/news-release/occupationalemploymentandwages_houston.htm
  2. https://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/occupationalemploymentandwages_sanfrancisco.htm
  3. https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/houston/
  4. https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ca/san-francisco/
  5. https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ca/santa-clara-county/san-jose/
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Houston#Metropolitan_Statistical_Area
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area

Comparing "Houston" to "the Bay Area" is really not a useful exercise.

The Bay Area has a number of different independent cities that are geographically isolated, and connected by limited infrastructure (e.g. the bay bridges and a few congested highways). You can debate the latter point, but realistically, large parts of the Bay Area are impractical commutes from the major tech centers. Even getting between SF and silicon valley is a miserable daily commute -- I wouldn't want to do it from Berkeley.

A more realistic comparison would be Houston vs. San Francisco County, or Houston vs. Silicon Valley.

That's the entire point of using a CSA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_statistical_area) as GP did.

No, that's not "the point" of a CSA. CSAs use a fairly liberal definition of economic linkage to define regions, and it's transitive. Just because you live in the bay area CSA doesn't mean you'd be able to reasonably commute from Oakland to San Jose for work.

The New York CSA spans into upstate New York and Pennsylvania. It isn't reasonable for normal people to make a daily commute from upstate New York.

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