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Ask HN: What are some fun things to do in the bay area?

3 points by civicsquid ↗ HN
I'm trying to decide whether or not the bay area is a place I could live. When I interned there last summer I didn't have a car and lived in Sunnyvale, which made things pretty boring. If I were to move there I'd probably try living in SF, but in general I want to understand why people love this part of the country so much. I feel like I missed the experience that makes others enjoy it.

I'm currently contrasting the bay area with Seattle, and the argument I always hear is the weather and difficulties finding a job in one place over the other. But I figure there has to be more than weather and work!

1 comment

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mchannon
To each their own, but the people who love the area love it because of its weather (meh), family ties to the area, and highly affordable cost of living tied to owning your house for decades, or having rent control for decades. If you're a newcomer, you don't get the last one, which is a huge determinant. It's all you can think about for the area's youth, and the area's old-timers forget about it very easily.

SF is like Sunnyvale in that it's way overpriced, highly-paying, and close to (but doesn't have) scenery. (Yes, I get that there's all kinds of scenery in SF, but I'm referring to Market St. downtown where all there is to look at is buildings, people, pigeons, buses, needles, broken beer bottles, feces, and maybe the bay). SF is older, denser, more decrepit, and smells a lot more like human urine. Having a car in SF is more trouble than it's worth, whereas in Sunnyvale it's a bit less clear-cut.

If you don't have ties to the area, and you don't have to be earning well into the six figures (or have to be there to be earning well into the six figures), I'd skip both Seattle and SFBay. They're rat races, the both of them.