The map massively overstates the case. I've lived here for 6 years. Keep zooming in and you'll see it's the heat map library over-blurring the radius on the epicenter, which -- surprise, surprise -- is the Tenderloin.
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Can you live in San Francisco on the cheap?
- Thread starter Armadilo
- Start date
1. Get an old van, finance it for $200/month.
2. Get an indoor/underground parking pass in a tolerable neighborhood preferably with a washroom, close to a mall and close to a laundromat for $200/month.
3. ?
4. Profit
2. Get an indoor/underground parking pass in a tolerable neighborhood preferably with a washroom, close to a mall and close to a laundromat for $200/month.
3. ?
4. Profit
I mean, the main problem in SF is that an extraordinary affordability crisis combined with the year-long temperate weather has driven the homeless population sky high. It also doesn't help that the kinda "toursity" areas of SF are kinda near the "shitty" parts of it too. So yea, the 'shit map' is just a reflection of an out of control homeless population.
Is it possible to live here affordably? Yeah, I'd say it's possible. But it's precarious, especially as a newcomer. I don't know that I'd recommend living on a shoestring here, because any unforseen event is going to be amplified magnitudes by not being able to access the social capital and equity capital needed to avoid catastrophe. And I like San Fran. TBH, I like Berkeley or the Peninsula more though.
Is it possible to live here affordably? Yeah, I'd say it's possible. But it's precarious, especially as a newcomer. I don't know that I'd recommend living on a shoestring here, because any unforseen event is going to be amplified magnitudes by not being able to access the social capital and equity capital needed to avoid catastrophe. And I like San Fran. TBH, I like Berkeley or the Peninsula more though.
OP
OP
If I plan to move to SF, it's probably a good time to get things in motion, so if I go to fill an application for a room, I need a credit report? But do they ask for references I have no chance, I don't have any, what if I pay 6 months in advance. Surely that could work too right ? Hope to move by the end of summer and start city college in the fall
17ft. Uhaul
Solar conversion
4 deep cycle batteries
Power converter
I've built 1 of these as a tiny home and you can do this for about $13k and live like a champ, $8k if you get lucky.
Solar conversion
4 deep cycle batteries
Power converter
I've built 1 of these as a tiny home and you can do this for about $13k and live like a champ, $8k if you get lucky.
OP
OP
City College, I want to become a filmmaker and they offer a major in Cinema, I can get financial aid and it's free if you live in San Francisco is what I hear.
It just seems like I can finally learn what I've always wanted to get into and all that I would have to do is to survive basically, rent and bills, etc...
Maybe get some work around the city in any type of production and hope to improve and advance in this career field.
I, uh, hmmmm.
Have you looked into what the alumni of city college's cinema degrees are doing?
You're going to want to look at what most grads with that degree end up doing before you spend time or money on it, yeah. If you take on debt, look into how long it takes to pay off.
Obviously you don't since no one outside of tourists calls SF "San Fran"
Cuz we don't
We call it The City, San Francisco, or SF
Just like how New Yorkers don't usually use NYC
You have to have lived in the City for a year to get the freebie.
Locals don't call it Frisco either. :P
You can live in a tent city, we have plenty of those. Seriously though find another city this place sucks.
Temperate weather has nothing to do with not building houses.
And no, it has been proven over and over again that the vast majority of homeless in SF are from SF.
Ruin the views and build housing.
SF is extremely conservative.
People just confuse the national political identity of the city with its state/local political identity.
http://www.sfweekly.com/news/news-news/how-to-take-advantage-of-free-tuition-at-city-college/
"If you are a San Francisco resident who has been living in the city for one year (plus one day), you will be able to register for Fall 2017 and pay nothing in the way of tuition. This also applies to students who are residents under Deferred Action for Child Arrivals as well as to undocumented persons qualifying for in-state tuition under Assembly Bill 540. City College will invoice the city for the cost of classes.
Out-of-state students living in San Francisco, international students (including those on an F-1 visa), and undocumented students who are not eligible for DACA or AB 540 won't be able to take advantage of the program just yet. These students still face a $211 per unit fee."
Out-of-state students living in San Francisco, international students (including those on an F-1 visa), and undocumented students who are not eligible for DACA or AB 540 won't be able to take advantage of the program just yet. These students still face a $211 per unit fee."
OP
OP
I think I should still be good since it's a community college I believe, I live in the Central Valley in California and currently attend a community college, BOG fee waiver and all makes the classes free because I don't make a lot of money, LA is the film making paradise but there's just something about San Francisco that I really like
Just spent a week there with friends, they and their friends used to love the city and hate it now. They all basically plan on moving if they can find an equivalent job in another city. That was the consensus among the dozen or so young people I was hanging with. Personally the hour I spent in the tenderloin at 5-6 am was enough for me to never even want to visit the city again. Literally saw more homeless in about an hour than I have in my entire life combined despite having spent alot of time in alot of big cities. dozens of likely human shits either on the sidewalk or in bags, turned a block to see someone shitting multiple times. 2/3rds of the doorways had someone sleeping rough. Fucking sucks :/
Actually, the local minority community has always called it Frisco. it's the uppity yacubians that have enforced the largely racist whitewashing of the acceptable short form monikers.
Right? I have absolutely heard born and raised locals call it Frisco.
BOG waivers are different then free city and supersedes free city.
I can't speak on their filmmaking program but their culinary program is amazing, especially through free city/BOG waiver.
That's like me saying oh man I spent an hour at Skidrow in LA or Southside Chicago and never want to see those two cities ever again
Jesus fuckin Christ
If you did that I'd have no problem, I said I didn't want to be back in SF, not that I think it should be burned to the ground.
I've been to the South Side of Chicago 4-5 times, it never made me feel like a failure of a human being like the tenderloin did.
I've only been to "nice" parts of LA and have nothing but bad things to say about the whole place EXCEPT Korea town.
Can confirm. Either way, I've never understood giving a shit what people call it.
I have a question. Let's say you're single with no kids. What if you could live in San Francisco in a small apartment for free? Would life be expensive? I mean utilities, transport, going out etc...? Would it be more expensive than living for free in a cheap city? Is it just the rent that makes these cities so expensive or are there other parameters to consider?
Live in a van. Google started pushing up "van life" videos in search algorithms to make it seem like a cool, hip, adventurous lifestyle for potential googlers worried about housing costs.
Those Sprinter van conversions are so much money that I always laugh when people treat them like they are feasible for people that do not work remotely or have no funds.
You still have to pay for the land you park this on which will be godawful expensive in the Bay Area.
Its largely the rent. Prepared food can get expensive because you have to take into consideration the cost of living for employees. There are thousands of places to eat and for someone single, can be relatively cheap if your smart.
Groceries can get expensive if you opt to shop at WF/Rainbow or any other local upscale markets like Molly Stone/Gus/Canyon Market but there are a plethora of ethnic markets and farmers markets that are very affordable.
Utilities are not bad considering most places have no AC and you really only need to use the heat during the mornings in the winter months but my garbage collection fees are the same as a 100 Mbps internet for a single residential dwelling. I don't know how that relates to a multiunit building.
Relying on public transit can be time consuming and opting for lyft and uber to mitigate the loss of time can become costly.
Alcohol, bars and restaurant's will drain your finances. Weed prices are okay: $30-45 an 1/8th after taxes. Honestly aside from rent, the cost of living is controllable.
Have any family there, if you do just live with them? I stayed in the city at my uncle's house for free for about two months.
Seems like a cool place to live but it's definetly too expensive for me. I'll just stay in the suburbs of San Diego instead. Just as nice for half the price.
Seems like a cool place to live but it's definetly too expensive for me. I'll just stay in the suburbs of San Diego instead. Just as nice for half the price.
Or you could buy a monthly parking spot at local garage.
City has some major problems that need fixing, but it's a far cry from being extremely conservative. A study was even done a few years ago that determined SF to be the most liberal city in the US: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Is-San-Francisco-really-America-s-most-liberal-6412585.php
Would also highly recommend people against living in a van in SF.
It is a city whose population is extremely resistant to change and the policies they implement have contributed to the highest income inequality in the country.
It is a extremely conservative local government in its actions.
You probably could. Didn't think of that. Quick google search shows the average parking spot is 20' long so a 17' Uhaul would fit alright.
Koreatown? Well, I can't imagine what utopian metropolis you must live in.
Thank you for taking the time to write this comprehensive response. I really appreciate it :)
I don't smoke and if I go to a bar I barely drink so I don't spend a lot of money. I do eat quite often in restaurants and I know it can get super expensive.
I asked those questions because I have a childhood friend who lives in San Francisco and he's always telling me that life isn't much more expensive than any other big city and that he's loving his life there. He works for a french company that pays for his rent so that explains why but he's only there for 2 years.
How much do you pay for your internet? Here in Canada prices are high and the service is shitty :(
I heard that the public transit in the bay area is terrible but I thought that San Francisco being a very liberal city it might be better there. Are they doing anything to fix the issue?
I paid 450 dollars up front for fiber for a year. It's really nice, but not available everywhere. If you want TV things are different, you have to go with the shitty cable service if so but it's no problem for me to forgo cable. As far as public transit, it's not great but it's pretty good within SF itself (which has a fairly extensive Muni system). If you want to travel further out, you need a car. It's getting better, but slowly, and some areas of the Bay are pretty resistant to change (silicon valley, especially).
At any rate, while I don't disagree that the city politics here tend to be very business friendly (some might even say conservative) I would characterize most of the city as socially liberal but extremely steeped in NiMBYism. The problem is the politics don't fall along a liberal/conservative dichotomy as some might want to generalize it to be. Rather, factionalism has made it difficult to build in a way that is really needed here -- as local interests protect their own extraordinarily well. That's a result of city politics being different than state or national politics. SF has a rich history of community activism and the housing crisis is the dark side of that.
You're paying less than 40$/month for Fiber? That's a great price tbh.
NIMBYism seems to be on the rise everywhere. It's like a plague that has spread in every big city in the World and most big cities being more liberal than the rural areas. People proclaim they are liberal but would do anything to protect their privilege and unearned wealth while people are living in squalor because of unaffordable rent prices. I don't think it's a specific problem to San Francisco but it's probably worse there than anywhere else.
Until the city allows permits for thousands and thousands of affordable housing units, it will only get worse.
Too bad that it hasn't been updated in three years.The map massively overstates the case. I've lived here for 6 years. Keep zooming in and you'll see it's the heat map library over-blurring the radius on the epicenter, which -- surprise, surprise -- is the Tenderloin.