Looking to move out west

[Luftmensch]

Howdy thumbers,

I'm young and talented and attractive, so I'm thinking I should move out of the deep south and off to somewhere where I can expand into a full career. My top choices are San Francisco and Los Angles; LA because that's where most animation studios in the US are based, SF because that seems like a place I'd actually like to live.

I'm not in a rush to move, but I'm slowly doing some research and trying to make the right moves, because I've never lived in a city with a population much greater than 100,000. I don't have any support network out west, so I'm curious if any of you, many of whom live in San Francisco especially, have any suggestions for where to look and what to avoid.

Cheers.

[melmer]

http://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=34c916ccabdb3f9c&from=serp

[subbes]

SF is full.

[Sean]

What line of work are you in?

[Kraznor]

Calgary, Alberta (that's in Canada!) welcomes you. Not all the way west, but we have mountains and prairies and stuff, in addition to a bustling metropolis rated 5th best in the world! Vancouver and Toronto, also top five. Note, no US cities in the top 10. Jus' sayin'! North is where its at. Oh, and I personally welcome you, but some of our immigration folks are jerks, so if you don't get in, sorry, not ma' fault.

[Chris]

  On 10/10/2012 at 1:19 AM, subbes said:

SF is full.

This is 100% fucking true. Please do not move to San Francisco.

However, feel free to move to Oakland or Berkeley, which are right across the bay from San Francisco and share the BART transit system, and are cool and fun and hip places to live in their own right.

[David]

  On 10/11/2012 at 8:04 PM, Chris said:

This is 100% fucking true. Please do not move to San Francisco.

However, feel free to move to Oakland or Berkeley, which are right across the bay from San Francisco and share the BART transit system, and are cool and fun and hip places to live in their own right.

Please hold off your East Bay move until I can find a new apartment first. Thanks!

Seriously though, it's competitive

[Chris]

  On 10/11/2012 at 8:18 PM, David said:

Please hold off your East Bay move until I can find a new apartment first. Thanks!

Seriously though, it's competitive

I guarantee it is not as competitive as SF right now. It's truly unreal.

[feelthedarkness]

I moved to SF for awhile with a friend back in the early 2000s, and the apartment hunt was brutal, coming from NY. We found a place near Haight that was pretty perfect and we were in the place filling out the paperwork when a dude walked in and said "I've got $1,000 cash right here if you give me those papers first." (not a deposit) Needless to say, he got the place.

[TheLastBaron]

I live in San Jose and have 4-5 friends who within the past couple of years have moved to SF and I don't bother visiting them ever.

[dibs]

Is it hilarious that i'm going to be letting my entire 3 bed house for around €700 a month and moving to an area where i can probably get one for €400 a month? Do you SF people find that hilarious?

Ooh, i can get this one for €650 where I'm moving!

/taunt

[Lu]

Fuck, that's a whole house.

[elmuerte]

holy crap.. that's huge

[toblix]

HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT WHAT AN ENORMOUS HOUSE

[JonCole]

In the area I used to live in Central FL, you could easily get a 2500+ square foot house for $1000 a month. Nuts.

But yeah, I have a friend who recently moved to SF and was looking for apartments at a rate of 2 or 3 per night and didn't manage to find one for several weeks. Even then, it was hardly a good deal.

[subbes]

If you're scoping out jobs around SF, try to live and work on the same side of the bay so as to avoid bridge tolls. For ex, work in San Rafael and live in Novato, thus staying north of the GG Bridge the whole time.

LA is not as full, but it is not as nice.

(Went to the Mission when I visited last week. Saw a band in Dolores Park with a Manic Pixie Dream Girl accordionist. Is... is that a regular thing in SF? Is that what hipster is? I'm scared.)

[Seraph621]

For what it's worth, I do see "For Rent" and "Roommate Needed" signs pretty regularly in the apartment complexes around my neighborhood (Fillmore/Japantown, near the corner of Geary and Fillmore).

Of course, the prices are...pretty steep.

[darthbator]

I lived in SF back in 02. It's a really awesome city, but expensive as all hell and with a HYPER competitive job market. I'm from LA and currently reside there again. I love Los Angeles but the sprawl is almost unbearable. The city is actually doing a surprisingly good job extending our anemic public transit system it's just taking a long time. I think we're still 4-5 years out from largely functional public transportation through most of proper Los Angeles. Even at that point it's still bound to be a pain as getting off a train exposes you to another large section of sprawl that will likely require a buss. Driving in near constant traffic is a depressing reality for almost all LA denizens.

[Henroid]

I grew up in the Bay Area and lived there 'til a few years ago, but my memory of it is that job competition has always been high and commuting can be a big nightmare. Thankfully though, the BART train exists, so if you have a job in one part of the bay and live in another, it might make it easier depending on walking distance at your arrival location. I wouldn't specifically aim to live in one part of the Bay Area. The nice thing about it is that you can live anywhere in it and be an hour tops from getting anywhere else. I lived near Hayward and trips to San Francisco were easily (and cheaply) a daily event.

[toblix]

If I lived in San Francisco, I'd probably be dead. Sounds like Jurassic Park over there.

[Henroid]

  On 10/12/2012 at 7:18 AM, toblix said:

If I lived in San Francisco, I'd probably be dead. Sounds like Jurassic Park over there.

You're thinking of San Diego.

[brkl]

  On 10/11/2012 at 8:36 PM, feelthedarkness said:

the apartment hunt was brutal, coming from NY.

Jesus. From what I hear it's not exactly easy in NY either.

[tabacco]

  On 10/12/2012 at 12:52 AM, darthbator said:

I lived in SF back in 02. It's a really awesome city, but expensive as all hell and with a HYPER competitive job market.

This depends heavily on what you do. At this point, if you're a software engineer, it's competitive in the other direction. Way too few candidates for way too many jobs. Hiring has been extremely difficult for us in SF.

And yeah, the market for apartments in SF is insane to the point of absurd.

[David]

  On 10/11/2012 at 8:27 PM, Chris said:

I guarantee it is not as competitive as SF right now. It's truly unreal.

I don't doubt that, but It's no picnic over here, either. The landlords/ladies we've interacted seem fairly bemused by the hundreds of applications they're now having to digest, and the swarms of folks attending open houses.

[Henroid]

Where exactly in Oakland is this though? The city, suburbs, or the hills? It's pretty different in every sub-region.