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In a recent column in Voice of San Diego, Alexander Bakst, a computer science student at U.C. San Diego, said that while he and his peers would love to work in the city, "I'm positive that they all will leave."
The reason? It's not so much the gap in pay relative to Bay Area employers, though that is a factor, as it is the location of many of San Diego's tech companies, Mr. Bakst wrote.
Most of San Diego's tech jobs are in parts of the city — such as North County or Sorrento Valley — that they consider too far from downtown, San Diego's cultural epicenter and millennial stamping ground.
Some fresh graduates say they have little interest in living or working in the industrial park atmosphere of Sorrento Valley, where less costly rents have exerted a strong pull on tech companies ever since Qualcomm set up shop there in 1985.
One column from one millennial, but does that sentiment track with other Soylentils? Is a suburban office park environment enough reason to decamp for another city?
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday September 15 2016, @10:18PM
While the traffic in SD isn't exactly good, these guys will get a reality check if they want to move to the Bay area...
Maybe SD needs to build more fast rail to connect its nice downtown to the tech areas ... but then the rents would go up and the companies expand elsewhere.
...
Dear college students: real life requires tradeoffs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @10:42PM
The trolley is being extended north to UTC, not quite far enough but slowly getting there. Downtown to Sorrento Valley is about 30-45 minute drive during rush hour. On the other hand rent is frigging ridiculous, $2k/mo for a 1br studio apartment IF you can find one, cheaper if you go east or south of S.D. Housing prices are higher than Cheech & Chong, but that's OK because the house I bought there 15 years ago has tripled in value.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @05:59AM
That would be Tijuana, in Mexico. Would you even be legally allowed to live there by the Mexican government? Mexico is really unkind to illegals. At least you wouldn't be taking a job in Mexico, because Mexico would punish you quite a bit more if you did so.
Your commute would be Hell. Every trip north you'd get to meet the drug-sniffing dog and answer weird questions about fruit, vegetables, seeds, and other plant matter. Every trip south you'd get checked for guns.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @11:14AM
On the plus side, your genitals would see more hand action than they've seen since you downloaded Ikki Tousen...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 15 2016, @10:48PM
I was recently offered a relocation job in SD. I turned it down. It was either rent at ~2000+ per month. If I wanted the same house I have now one of my former co-workers put it 'you must be rich'. It was 800k+ for the exact same house I can buy in most of the rest of the US for 180-230k. House living expenses are 4x more than most other places in the country. The other costs are only ~20% more which you can negotiate. Living cost is no where in line with saving money for a retirement. I did not want a 2 hour commute everyday just so I could afford to live there.
Also that city better pray QCOM never moves out and its business stays good. It will inside out that whole city.
if they want to move to the Bay area
Which is even worse cost wise. But the job prospects are better.
the companies expand elsewhere
That is not how the people who own these companies think. They 'want to be where the talent is'. Not realizing talent is everywhere.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday September 16 2016, @12:12AM
San Diego is a hell on earth, held loosely together by suntan oil and real estate speculation.
I spent eight years living there. Know many fine San Diego folks, and will never willingly visit them in that "Phoenix with a beach".
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday September 16 2016, @12:44AM
I live here, and I'd leave if I weren't stuck with such high costs that I can't even save up enough to move. You think it's bad now, there's talk on the radio that there gonna gentrify Convoy Street next...where things are moving towards now is that people pay $3000/mo rents to live away from the truly "Phoenix-like" industrial areas...well, next it's paying $3000/mo rents for the privilege of living in the industrial parks next to the strip clubs, traffic fistfucks, 52 and 163 freeways, and warehouses.
And the reason why Convoy Street became popular in the first place - its cheap, authentic, and ultra-tasty Asian food - will go away when those rents skyrocket and the real Asians are priced-out while "Fusion" and "Pacific-Rimjob" caprices run by absent Wolfgang Pucks shit up the place.
Every other decent neighborhood with character has suffered the same fate - notably Barrio Logan, which is now where Slashdot resides, although admitting that reduces ambiguity about whether or not Barrio Logan is still a shithole.
On its face this sounds like a good idea only if you're a trust-fund baby who doesn't have to work, until you get randomly shoved and called a "faggot" in the streets. Due to the high concentration of former and current military here, people will make racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes in the workplace and if you have a problem with it, then you're outta there and you're not gonna do a goddamn thing about it.
And, assuming you can find tech work that isn't outsourced, [sandiegouniontribune.com] aggressive out-of-state recruiting ensures that you'll be making the national, rather than the local, average salaries...and of course you still have to endure having your own car and traffic to get to the industrial parks where the work is.
Sorrento Valley is but one small nugget of work with nearby housing, with ridiculous rents because UCSD and the penalty of having to endure the constant partying of wealthy students. You want to work where the other 90% of tech jobs are, you're gonna pay 5k/mo rent and/or drive, because public transit don't go out there.
And, unlike San Francisco, San Diego hates poor people -- you will be harassed by cops, bum-proof benches, spikes and irregular rocks placed under the overpasses, sprayed down with watercannons (for "sidewalk cleaning") every day before a big game downtown or during election season, beaten brutally if not murdered randomly by members of MMA gyms looking to get away with killing because your life has no value, etc.
Too bad, so sad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @01:25AM
Bumping into you and calling you a faggot is just how they say hello in the Marines/Navy.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday September 16 2016, @01:47AM
It was always like that in the Navy, but only after Obama's purge did that become the norm in the Marines.
How the mighty have fallen.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Friday September 16 2016, @11:37AM
That sounds awesome! Does that mean there are few hipsters? Or do they join in ironically?
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday September 16 2016, @02:57PM
I used to live 28th and E - back when there was a PCP epidemic. I know Logan and "Lomas De Oro" well - at least pre-gentry.
At least that's "real" San Diego. The entire sprawl that was once sparse pockets of realtor-fueled, non-places from the Valley and Tierra Santa up through Penosquitos, Bosall, etc.?
Death seems preferable.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday September 16 2016, @03:00PM
Trump country. Bland, middle-class fascism, brought to you by people who cast their first vote for Pete Wilson think Schwarzenegger didn't get a fair shot.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @12:46AM
But... San Diego has not one but two drive-in theaters. Name another town that has amenities like that. Actually, it's changed quite a bit since we moved here in the early 1960s. People are assholes, most don't know how to drive, it's filthy dirty from smog fallout, it's just another L.A. now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @01:04AM
One in Buffalo, but plenty more in the general western NY area,
http://www.freewebs.com/wnydims/currentwnydriveins.htm [freewebs.com]
Want to see a few of the gritty parts of Buffalo? Watch Ken Block's Gymkhana NINE: Raw Industrial Playground. I live nearby and can attest that the cityscapes are real, not a Hollywood set.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @02:09AM
Portland, OR.. ok, Newberg isnt THAT far away. ok, maybe Dallas OR is a bit of a drive. but no further than Temecula is relative to Sunny Ego.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday September 16 2016, @02:46PM
Cincinnati.
www.starlitedriveinohio.com/
www.holidayautotheatre.com/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @12:57AM
and real estate speculation
No kidding. Every single one of the people I used to work with at QCOM was some sort of land lord. I think one dude I worked with had 18 units. He bought it all with hefty down payments from QCOM stock options. I took the money and paid off my house and live very nicely. I knew one guy who had 8 of the exact same year and model of car one of each color. They had better pray QCOM sticks around.
The dichotomy of San Diego and Tijuana was quite stark too. One side of the fence is a 'run down' area. The other side? 3rd world tin shacks. The amazing bit was the signs along the road on the border warning you of people jumping the fence. The Cal DOT made signs for a road hazard. It was one of the reasons I was like 'wtf is everyone on about building a wall'. There already is one half built!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @02:04AM
no, if Camp Pendleton & the Navy bases get BRACed, there goes things. Lockmart, SPAWAR, SAIC, General Atomics, et al will go too. There are lots of government & spook companies in that area. But, Border Patrol might be hiring if Small Hands Donald beats Billary...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 16 2016, @03:47AM
Oh I agree. But I think you underestimate the impact qcom has had on that area. I ended up with only a 'small' portion of it (nearly 1.5 million across 8 years). I was a very small cog in that machine. There were literally several hundred overnight millionaires in 1999. One guy I worked with said it best 'I screwed up I watched it go up and the watched it go all the way back down, I did ok but I should have sold much sooner and we wouldnt be having this conversation, I got greedy'.