How true is this theory (San Francisco, Sacramento: low income, hotel, houses)

[CA2000]

So a good friend of mine and I have been out of work for quite some time now, and even though he is now on disability (both of us have Asperger's, and are white men attending Sacramento State), both he and I are still more or less looking for jobs. As opposed to my previous thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/sacra...ho-sees-8.html where I essentially ranted on why I suspected that most of the Sacramento region (with the exceptions of the cities in Placer County - Roseville and Rocklin) is scared of hiring white men. At first I thought it was because of policies like affirmative action, but among the somewhat laughable answers I got I was able to find some legitimate information - mainly that it's become a trend among cities along coastlines such as Sacramento to hire people who look outwardly multilingual (meaning Hispanic or Asian in most cases), and that employers often will often hire minorities 'right away', so to speak, because they feel like they are doing 'good' to society by hiring a minority.

Anyways, an update on my situation: I am in the process of getting a job at Swift, a trucking company, in Rancho Cordova - I need to get a commercial driver's license, and go down to Southern California for a week to do some training. Swift will pay for the training, and according to another friend of mine, the pay is actually pretty decent. My friend that I mentioned at the beginning of this is now working part time with a botanical company with deliveries, etc., though he has been having some problems involving a drug relapse that I've been trying to help him get over.

But now to the main issue: one of the reasons why I wrote the original thread was because of a situation I had that made both me and my friend start to ponder the following question, which I will describe now:

Is it easier in general to find jobs in the Bay Area versus the Sacramento area? My findings are that in the Bay Area it's easier not just because of the larger number of businesses, but also the public transportation infrastructure. In the previous thread I had, something was said about how large and/or coastal towns were seeking more outwardly bilingual employees for public contact jobs because of the large number of immigrants/foreign language speakers that came in - particularly Spanish-speaking. While this would definitely be a problem in say, Sacramento, San Francisco, or Oakland, I don't think it would be as big of a problem other Bay Area towns, especially in the Lamorinda and Concord areas due to their distance from the bigger cities and smaller populations. (Once my friend and I joked that the only reason why BART built stations in Orinda and Lafayette was to allow whites who didn't want to learn computers or activism easy places to find jobs, and that it should have been designated the 'white' line on maps). While I doubt my joke has any real value, I am interested in seeing if the Bay Area really does outdo Sacramento in job-finding and hiring. If so, is this part of the reason why the Bay Area is so expensive to live in?

[Malloric]

Is it easier in general to find jobs in the Bay Area versus the Sacramento area?

Yes.

If so, is this part of the reason why the Bay Area is so expensive to live in?

Not sure which part of your convoluted rant you're asking about. But yes, part of the reason the Bay Area is more expensive is because of the large number of high paying jobs far in excess of the available jobs. It's not really jobs though. It's wealth generation. Most people even with high paying jobs cannot afford the $2-3 million houses either. People that got in early with equity holdings in startups that got bought out, of which there are thousands in the Bay Area, can. Sacramento simply does not have them.

[sacite]

Dude you're still too focused on things unrelated to actual money making skills. You've referred to race and language in both of your threads. Just focus on what makes money and find a way to acquire that skill, whether that's through some type of trade schooling, college, etc. Sounds like you found a match with some of your skills with the trucking company. Good job. But otherwise, leave the other BS analysis alone. It doesn't lead to anything good.

[CA2000]

Originally Posted by sacite

Dude you're still too focused on things unrelated to actual money making skills. You've referred to race and language in both of your threads. Just focus on what makes money and find a way to acquire that skill, whether that's through some type of trade schooling, college, etc. Sounds like you found a match with some of your skills with the trucking company. Good job. But otherwise, leave the other BS analysis alone. It doesn't lead to anything good.

I've referred to race and language (and gender) in both of my threads because it's an issue that both me and my friend feel are getting in our way of finding jobs. While my friend does have a slightly checkered past in terms of drug use (I do not), we both are trying to do exactly what you said in terms of finding on what makes money - that's why we're focusing so much on our college work and the like. But even with all of what you said in mind, we're both still tired of being treated like we're 'the magic white men' by what seems like the majority of the area. We both feel like we're expected to not only own cars, but have jobs and pretty much everything that middle class Americans have if not more (my friend once told me that his landlord always approaches him like he's rich or something - 'made of money' was his words), yet we are barely any better off than say, a low income Hispanic family who lives on El Camino or Watt Avenue. Unfortunately most of the folks in the area (as well a lot of the ones in the Bay Area, with even fewer exceptions there) either don't see this or think we are somehow faking it and being 'leeches', and thus give us the short end of the stick.

That is why my friend and I are suspicious of our race, language, and gender. People think we're somehow on the same level as say, Brock Turner, and yet we aren't. That is our issue.

[CA2000]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Yes.

Okay. How in which way is it easier? How well does my "joke" theory of Lafayette and Orinda being full of white employees versus blacks and Latinos as far as the eye can see in almost everywhere else hold up? Does BART (or Muni or any of the other transit agencies) play a role in this?


Not sure which part of your convoluted rant you're asking about. But yes, part of the reason the Bay Area is more expensive is because of the large number of high paying jobs far in excess of the available jobs. It's not really jobs though. It's wealth generation. Most people even with high paying jobs cannot afford the $2-3 million houses either. People that got in early with equity holdings in startups that got bought out, of which there are thousands in the Bay Area, can. Sacramento simply does not have them.

I'm asking if it's easier to 'enter' or 're-enter' the workforce in the Bay Area versus Sacramento. My friend is getting a major in graphic design, but he does have some background in horticulture. I, as I've mentioned before, am getting a major in government and journalism, and I might get a minor in art or else criminal justice (the latter is thanks to a trend I've noticed over my years). I have a background in hospitality and the hotel industry and worked in 2 small scale motels right up until I moved to Sacramento.

[marcopolo666]

Two guys can't get a job. They are both white. It *must* be a race issue. Sigh. Fail.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by sacite

Dude you're still too focused on things unrelated to actual money making skills. You've referred to race and language in both of your threads.

Yup. A move to, say, Lamorinda, would make sense only if you've correctly diagnosed the problem: preference for employees with foreign language skills.

As opposed to, say....your Asperger's possibly being a factor in interviews.....
You can't outrun your Asperger's by moving to Lamorinda. But since you've already found en employer willing to hire and train you, why are you asking about where to move for better chances of being hired?

And how would hiring Asians address a need for English/Spanish bilingual employees? Or is there a huge population of non-English-speaking Asians in Sac? How would you know whether any or every generic Asian-American spoke an Asian language, much less--the one spoken by whoever the predominant Asian group is in Sac?

OP, you're way off base. All you need is an employer who understands Asperger's, and isn't reluctant to hire someone with that symptomatology. And it sounds like you found one. So...what more do you want?

[CA2000]

Originally Posted by marcopolo666

Two guys can't get a job. They are both white. It *must* be a race issue. Sigh. Fail.

It's only a suspicion that we have, and it also results from other things we've noticed.

[CA2000]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Yup. A move to, say, Lamorinda, would make sense only if you've correctly diagnosed the problem: preference for employees with foreign language skills.

As opposed to, say....your Asperger's possibly being a factor in interviews.....
You can't outrun your Asperger's by moving to Lamorinda. But since you've already found en employer willing to hire and train you, why are you asking about where to move for better chances of being hired?

And how would hiring Asians address a need for English/Spanish bilingual employees? Or is there a huge population of non-English-speaking Asians in Sac? How would you know whether any or every generic Asian-American spoke an Asian language, much less--the one spoken by whoever the predominant Asian group is in Sac?

OP, you're way off base. All you need is an employer who understands Asperger's, and isn't reluctant to hire someone with that symptomatology. And it sounds like you found one. So...what more do you want?

I only brought up Asians because they are a race that looks outwardly multilingual - no, neither me nor my friend think there is a large population of non-English-speaking Asians in Sacramento. And what we are wanting to know is if we would be better off living in the Lamorinda area or some predominantly white area in terms of job prospects because of the preference Sac employers have for multilingualism. If it helps, it kind of goes hand in hand with us losing some friends because they thought we were essentially 'lazy hood rats' that weren't looking for jobs, when in fact we were doing just that.

Basically, is Sacramento not a good place for white Aspie guys in terms of job prospects. That is what we are wondering.

[DougStark]

Re: the sky-high cost of living in the Bay area. Not only are there lots of high tech firms and jobs located there, but there is also an extreme housing shortage due to lack of available land, public opposition to more development and strict environmental restrictions.

Sacramento doesn't have nearly the housing shortfall that the Bay area does- thank God. I would guess that many, many employers in the Bay area have trouble finding suitable applicants due to the region's insane housing costs. I sure wouldn't apply for a job there.