San Francisco, the influence of mega-wealth and the great divide.

brianlux

justam said:

I grew up in San Francisco but by the time I went off to college I realized that other cities were better places to live if you were not rich. Houses were affordable in other cities!! In San Francisco, even 20 years ago, average people were "house poor" because housing used up most of their income.

It's painful for me to watch what has happened to the Bay Area and San Francisco in one short life time. I grew up right on the border of Palo Alto and Mountain view. When me moved to our little cracker box house, my folks paid the enormous sum of $12,500 for the place. I just Zillowed it and it's estimated worth: $1.7 million. In 1971 I moved into a flat on the upper Haight with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Nice neighborhood, spacious three bedroom flat, garage, roof deck, backyard: $200 per month rent. None of my two to three roommates or I made much more that minimum wages. Different times.

rgambs said:

Mr Lux, you might be old, but you are no shriv by any means!

Thank you, Gambs!

tempo_n_groove

Brian were you there when Biafra ran for public office?!?

brianlux

tempo_n_groove said:

Brian were you there when Biafra ran for public office?!?

No, I lived in S.F. from 1969 through half of 1973. J.B. ran for mayor in the fall of '79, just months after I returned from a year in western NY state. It was wild because I had spent a year in rural NY and all of the sudden I'm back in my home state and its going very punk and Biafra is taking a vacuum cleaner to the streets and the changes were great and exciting! At that time, I was living down on the peninsula (Sunnyvale, Mountain View area) but my best buddy was living in the city and I spent a lot of time up there just loving the scene and going to great clubs- Mabuhay Gardens, The I-Beam, The Kabuki Club, and others . That was a great era in San Francisco before Big Money took it over.

ldent42

justam said:

I grew up in San Francisco but by the time I went off to college I realized that other cities were better places to live if you were not rich. Houses were affordable in other cities!! In San Francisco, even 20 years ago, average people were "house poor" because housing used up most of their income.

Last year in St Louis a cab driver told me his rent was less than half mine, and he gets a garage AND a laundry. I immediately started looking at housing costs out there

rgambs

I know Denver is suffering badly with this right now, and up in Estes Park people (many European immigrants) are paying 500$ a month for a couch to sleep on and a shower to use once a day. Yikes.