>Nobody really brings up that the bay area is one of few places in the US where you can live without a car.
Not really, not compared to Boston or, particularly, New York.
Not really, not compared to Boston or, particularly, New York.
Nobody's putting Boston and NYC on the list of cheap places to live, any more than SF.
That said, someone in a different part of this thread brought up Chicago, which seems plausible! Though I haven't been there enough to know if that's true! (Though when I visited, their transit definitely was very good).