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Back to the front page and rules...
Posted by David B. on 2/6/2005, 11:23 am, in reply to "Land of Lowered Expectations" As someone who tried living in the Bay Area for a little over a year, decided it wasn't for me (for many of the same reasons you bring up) and thus left, I understand where you're coming from. Yet there really are reasons to live in SF. I doubt Charlotte has cultural institutions the calibre of what you find in SF, for example. People for whom access to world-class museums or classical music is very important might well find the hassles worth the trade-off. I also know people who've lived in SF since the 70's (and bought a house back then) and have lots of friends and family in the area. For them, housing costs aren't an issue, and moving would mean real losses. Regarding rent control, SF is in a really tight bind. Probably bigger parts of the housing problem are density control (i.e. zoning), San Francisco's place in popular mythology, a Mediterranean climate, and overzealous micromanagement of the construction industry (i.e. strict building codes). If it were a simple matter to replace single-family homes with multi-family ones, it would happen all over the place in the face of such a pent-up demand for more housing (new construction is exempt from rent control). And if SF weren't so famous a city a lot less people would think of it as a place to consider living in. Zoning limiting densification is equally a part of the picture in all the other cities in the Bay Area. In other words, the problem isn't SF's alone; it would require the region acting in concert. Not bloody likely, given how balkanized and uncooperative the various local governments are. The popularity problem is even harder to fix, and the climate "problem" (effectively, part of the popularity one) is flat-out unfixable. I decided to "fix" the popularity problem by personally declaring the Bay Area unpopular for myself and leaving. As, apparently, have you and your SO. I just hope that you've recently spent time in Charlotte during a summer heat wave so you have some appreciation for what you're getting yourselves into. There's bad things about every part of the country. Wherever one lives, one always seems to take the positive things in stride as a given, while the negatives continually grate on one. I wish you well in your upcoming move and in your new home.
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