#1 – Decreased probability of getting randomly laid. The male/female ratio in geeky circles around SF is probably at best 3 to 1 and probably more like 4 to 1. So that cute little thing you saw at Starbucks has many more options than you.
Drawback #1 only applies to young unmarried heterosexual geeks. It doesn’t apply for Gay Geeks, Girl Geeks and Married and/or Monogamous Geeks. As a matter of fact, if you fit into anyone of these categories, you should seriously consider moving to the West Coast pronto.
In Boston, the female to male ratio in the 18 to 30 age bracket is trending towards 1.5 to 1. There are approximately 425,328 college students in Boston and 63% are women. Each year a new batch shows up. This means every year approximately 53,568 young freshmen woman flow into Boston and they don’t know you’re somewhat of a jerk and/or sleep with your socks on. For the Young Heterosexual Male Geek (hereinafter YHMG) this is called hope.
Drawback #2 You pretty much need to have a car to have any kind of a life in SF. (more on this later).
Drawback #3 High cost of real estate means you won’t own any unless you score big. (more on this latter).
Drawback #4 A major earthquake fault runs through San Fran. See my related article Why Smart People Do Really Stupid Things or… Yo, Schmidt!! Why are you parking Google’s assets on the San Andreas fault.
Drawback #5 New England has seasons; San Francisco does not. More to come on this along the lines of Mark Twain’s famous quote that the coldest winter he ever experienced was the summer he spent in San Francisco.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Michael Kuznetsov (@MichaelKuz), a Boston based YHMG who asked me at OpenCoffee Boston whether he should move to San Fran upon graduation. I’m also inspired by tweets from Dan Grover (@DanGrover), a former Boston YHMG who recently moved to the Bay Area and Rod Begbie (@RodBegbie), a happily married former Boston/Glasgow geek currently living in SF.
Mike,
Great points, if not a bit crass/blunt. Hopefully some of the cultural shifts occurring right now can continue and lead to an ecosystem here that takes away any benefits existing in Silicon Valley.
Thanks,
Jason
ps: Shameless plug…my site, GreenhornConnect.com is focused on helping young entrepreneurs make it here by discovering all the resources, events and more that are in the Boston region.
Hey Mike, Haven’t seen you in a while, hope to make it to Open Coffee again soon.
Great minds think alike!
http://blog.bos.genotrope.com/2009/12/16/the-real-reason-youre-wanted-in-silicon-valleysf/
Tom, it’s always nice to have one’s casual observations backed up by hard scientific facts.
See you at OpenCoffee and/or BarCampBoston5.
Wow, you’re mostly wrong on the first 4 points.
1. There are more women than men in the SF Bay area. They complain (read a recent article on this in SF Weekly) that there aren’t enough men and the ones that are here are gay, nebulous or just reticent about dating and making moves. I, who am not circulating in that category, have also noted this phenomenon. Testosterone does not live here.
2. Rents in the greater SF Bay area are as obscenely high as Boston BUT you don’t have a mega-heating bill. As far as buying something, the prices are plummeting here just as in Boston’s overpriced real estate market. Just as in Boston, if you go one hour out, like to San Leandro, East Palo Alto (yes, there is a low-budget Palo Alto), and San Jose, and other places, you’ll find more affordable real estate.
3. You do not need a car here. Mine is still in Mass. I’m thinking of leaving it there (anyone want to buy a 98 VW New Beetle diesel?) There’s good public transportation (like, not like Boston’s), and many folks ride bikes. I’m on the CalTrain platform with swarms of Yahoo, MS, and Google workers every day.
4. I don’t remember what 4. is.
5. Yes, you won’t have 4 seasons here. It’s a drag, but it also means you won’t be driving on snowy roads.
You should replace your top 5 reasons with: California is bankrupt.
However, this too shall pass. Or Mass. too shall be bankrupt.
Oops—just saw #4:
Yes, there is a quake fault line. I was in Mountain View when a 4.5-er shook the place for 5 seconds in January. No one else in the office seemed to care, although the UPS guy did. I would not buy a house anywhere on the San Andrea or Hayward fault lines. Earthquake risk is a dealbreaker. That said, I’m surrounded by houses built in the 1930s on former Silicon Valley orchards. They withstood a couple quakes. As far as relative risk, I think my car spinning on an icy highway in Mass. is a more acute, prevalent, and immediate risk.