Ask YC: What is the best area in SF Bay Area for startup hackers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: What is the best area in SF Bay Area for startup hackers?

16 pointsyrashk26 comments

In regards to my previous submission (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295139) — I've moved to SF within 24 hrs after that submission and now I am wondering – what is the best area/neighborhood around in terms of possibility to meet startup hackers and/or attend interesting related events, etc.?

Any ideas?

Thanks :)

View on HN

Last night Yahoo! YUI engineers hosted a meetup for the new 3.0 version at the Brickhouse in Soma. There was also another geek gathering at Cnet and all headed afterwards over to the 21st Amendment Brewery also in Soma. Our office is in Soma, as is Justin.tv and many other startups, so Soma is probably a good area to look around.

The Mission has a pretty high concentration of young people, and a lot of the startup people I know live around there. Rent in the area may be more reasonable than elsewhere but not by much, given its popularity. If you aren't here permanently you might try the Sublets/Temporary Housing section of Craigslist - I had good luck there, and you should be able to find something for less than $500/wk.

500 per week??

so less than 2k per month? that seems pretty pricey...about to move into the mission and paying 800/mo.

500 per week??

The high rents in SF are caused by rent control.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html

Supply and demand also may be a factor.

Does rent-control decrease supply/demand?

Sure.

My point is that the major factor in the pricing of San Francisco housing is that it is one of the most desirable housing markets in the USA. With or without rent control, prices would be high because it is a relatively small city where a whole lot of people want to live.

SF has a land area of 121 km², and a population density of 6,324.4/km². (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco) Here is a list of cities with higher population densities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_population

Delhi 26,276 Kolkata 24,760 Chennai 24,418 Mumbai 22,658 Bangalore 22,426 Hyderabad 21,293 Ahmedabad 19,979 Seoul 17,213 Tokyo 13,682 Wuhan 12,868 Jakarta 12,738 New York City 10,452 Tehran 10,260 Moscow 9,644 Lima 8,544 Yokohama 8,182 Lagos 7,938 São Paulo 7,148

With or without rent control, prices would be high because

...Because the buildings have been built as high as physically possible? If not that, why are San Francisco buildings so short? New York City has 82 buildings over 600 feet high. San Francisco has 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Ne... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Sa...

If not because of rent-control laws, why does San Francisco supply not follow San Francisco demand? Did you read the William Tucker paper, linked above, that explains why?

I was referring to the price he stated in his original post (he said he didn't want to pay more than $500/wk). I'm living in the mission now and paying much less than $500/wk (but I have 4 roommates).

ok gotcha, didnt see that.

I host a Meetup called Hackers and Founders in Sunnyvale every month. It's been growing a lot though, so we might end up going to every other week. We have 30 people planning to attend on September 18th, and I'm holding off on allowing more RSVP's because the bar we have it at gets pretty crowded. If you wanted to crash the party around 7:30 or 8pm it would probably clear out by then. There is another one scheduled for October 1st.

It's a low key event which consists of having a burger and a beer with hackers and people interested in startups. Our Meetup page is here: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/

As far as where to go to meet Hackers.... In the Bay Area, just strike up a conversation with people. 1 out of 10 people living in the area are engineers. You're bound to meet someone.

If you're looking for places to live, I really like San Jose. Sure, it's not, The City(tm), but down town does have a lovely little, urban lite feel to it. There are plenty of working class people and plenty of hackers in the area. It's not the sexy place to live, but heck, for what people are paying for a one bedroom apartment up in SF, I'm getting a 4 bed/2 bath house with a yard and an office big enough for 3 people. And, if I want to go up to Yoshi's and hear some really great jazz, it's only 80 minutes away.

+1 on this.

I recently took a job at a startup in Campbell, and the San Jose area is really nice. It's not as expensive at SF, but it's still "bay area".

Either San Francisco proper (especially SOMA), or around Palo Alto / Mountain View would be my suggestions.

Most of the meetup type events I've been to have been in SF. Lots of startups are based in SF too (of the winter 2008 YC companies I think only a handfull are still in the valley, the rest are in SF or elsewhere).

Startups seem to congregate in or near SOMA in particular. The three SF JS meetups I've been to have been in SOMA: Hi5, SlideShare, and Serious Business. Also: Twitter (and their old office's new residents, Get Satisfaction), Engine Yard, and numerous YC companies like Disqus, SnapTalent, Xobni, Justin.TV. And lots of others I would probably know about if I actually lived up there.

But the valley is great too. Of course there's lots of startups there as well. Palo Alto and Mountain View are both quite nice. But be careful because there are lots of boring suburban and strip mall type areas in Silicon Valley.

This probably doesn't answer your question directly, but (if you haven't already) I'd recommend taking a look at: http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html (and his other essays)

Except that's old news (at least the real estate part of it). All that marginal space has been turned into paying real estate. Not only in SF but in just about every slightly expensive city in North America.

There was an article last week in the NYT about garages and what they add to the value of a property in Manhattan. Its in the millions. Chances are, if you pay a million extra for a garage, at the very least, you're parking a car there.

Admittedly, if you go far enough out in the suburbs, its not the case. But then you're in the suburbs, which has other challenges (transportation, etc).

All that aside, SOMA is where everything happens. If you can't afford to live there look incrementally further south until you find a place that you can live.

Thanks! I am currently in a hotel in SOMA, but think to move a little bit southwest I guess — I don't want to spend more than $500/wk for rent, and housing is really a bit crazy in SF ;)

You can definitely find a place cheaper than $500/wk in SF. I live in the city, and pay way less than that.

Yep. I lived (alone) in a studio in Potrero Hill, $1050 a month.

Short term rentals seems to be more expensive than long-term ones

I would recommend roommates. 3/4 bedrooms are a lot cheaper per person than 1 bedrooms and you get a porch.

If you post that you're looking for roommates here I expect you will find some. Or http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/

I agree completely - contingent on getting good roommates of course.

1. Keeps you sane having other people about. 2. Means you're in a big place. Staying and working in a studio would be claustrophobic. 3. You will probably meet other people. 4. It's loads cheaper...

Course, if the flatmates aren't the right people then it would be hell on earth.

You should probably be upfront if you're planning on working from home - wouldn't suit everyone.

We just moved our startup to the Bay Area a couple of weeks ago :) My partner and I found a temporary place in Mountain View for the next few weeks while we look for a more permanent place -- but everyone has recommended us to either live in SF or Palo Alto.

We should meet up some time once you are settled!

I hope I'll be settled by Monday ;)

Done. I am settled and would love to meet with people around :)

Meetup.com is good resource for events, also sf.garysguide.org - helped to give me a feel for what goes on where.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com