The Bay Area Sucks! (San Francisco, Oakland: rent, insurance, condo)

[Joe_Ryder]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

such as where?

East LA, Detroit, Bronx,...Those are also cities.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by Taboo2

My friend is a nurse at packard childrens at stanford and she makes about $55 an hour. Not bad for a nurse.

Originally Posted by City Boy

Being that there is a Nursing shortage not just in the Bay but all over the state. I find it hard to believe thats all they take home after taxes. You sure your friend is an RN not an LVN? All RN's I know make 90-150k per year with huge bonuses and paid vacations.

I also have a friend at Packard, and she is definitely an RN - with a Master's degree, nonetheless... and she makes what Taboo said, about $55/hour, which works out to $112K/year if they worked 40 hours a week (which they usually don't).

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by monkeyfist

Top 5 reasons why the bay really does suck (oakland, berkeley, and SF).

5. The cost of basic living is beyond the beyond, but this is obvious.

Duh... but any other decent big city is the same, like Boston & NYC for example. Few big cities are affordable these days, and the "cheap" ones are typically not somewhere you could PAY me to live.

4. The homeless are professionals. I get hit up for money and cigarettes 10 times a day on average. no joke. These people have been selling their stories for years and years. I think it comes from all those hippies who embraced vagrancy decades ago. There seems to be this long standing attitude of entitlement. I don't even think most of the bums are actually homeless. This one I see everyday has a cell phone.

Yeah, that's a definite problem in the city... but I'm personally not bothered by them, and simply walk past or offer something (usually a smoke) if the mood strikes. I'd rather deal with homeless than other alternatives, like the gangbangers you see in LA or Detroit, since at least they're not out to hurt anyone.

3. BART is pathetic. It's a train that services 3 major cities and yet shuts down at midnight each night. 20 minute waits between trains. Always smells like ****. Can't take your bike on during "peak" hours which means you really can't bike to work in this so called bike-friendly city.

I agree with this one! My major complaint about SF is the public transit, which is horrible for a big city.

2. Crime is horrendous and the police are worthless. My car was broken into five times last year and just this month was stolen and stripped for parts. This was in a "good" section of town. Police did absolutely nothing.
This kind of thing is just expected out here.

1. Oakland was rated 4th most violent city in the US last year. SF and Berk aren't much better. I know of three people who have been mugged recently in very public places. I hear about kids getting shot each weekend. it's embarrassing.

Sorry, but I cannot agree with you on this... considering I live 2 blocks from Hunter's Point, and haven't yet been a victim of crime, violent OR non-violent. I've also lived in East Palo Alto and other parts of SF, and haven't even had my car broken into - except once in (West) Palo Alto, and another time in San Mateo Park, which are both supposedly nice neighborhoods. Maybe I'm just a lucky person, but I've never felt unsafe in San Francisco. I walk my dog at 2am through Bayview and Visitacion Valley, and nobody even looks my way, let alone tries to mess with me... and my dog isn't that big, LOL.

Only reason to live out here is the food. even that's not worth it.
move to a real city.

Such as?? What exactly do you consider a "real" city? I'm not moving back east, and L.A. makes San Francisco look like paradise... I do love Seattle and Portland, but the former is just as expensive as SF, and the latter doesn't have comparable salaries or job opportunities in my field (trust me, I've looked!). Anyway, I hope you found/find a place where you're happier, but I'll stick with San Francisco for now.

[KRISTINsf]

God these people do not know what they're talking about. Many people (working class, or whatever the hell you want to call it) live in San Francisco and make it with food, a car in the garage, and some extra money for a movie night. Unless you're planning to live high like Donald Trump without the salary to back-it-up, I suggest you calm down. This is San Francisco, not Monaco honey. Good luck.

[Taboo2]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

I also have a friend at Packard, and she is definitely an RN - with a Master's degree, nonetheless... and she makes what Taboo said, about $55/hour, which works out to $112K/year if they worked 40 hours a week (which they usually don't).

Yeah she worked like 36. 3 -12 hour days.

[City Boy]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

I also have a friend at Packard, and she is definitely an RN - with a Master's degree, nonetheless... and she makes what Taboo said, about $55/hour, which works out to $112K/year if they worked 40 hours a week (which they usually don't).

Is she a Nurse Practitioner? We employ Family Nurse Practitioners and Pay them $95-$135 per hour but thats working in the prisons which is not the horror that many think.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by City Boy

Is she a Nurse Practitioner? We employ Family Nurse Practitioners and Pay them $95-$135 per hour but thats working in the prisons which is not the horror that many think.

No, she's still working as a regular R.N., splitting her time between Packard and a private clinic on the Peninsula... her master's is in Nursing Education, so eventually she hopes to become a professor (will probably go for the PhD). I joke with her that she could have become a doctor by now, since she's been in & out of school for the last 14 years.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

I joke with her that she could have become a doctor by now, since she's been in & out of school for the last 14 years.

I kid you not... there ARE some doctors working as Nurses.

Being a Doctor isn't all it's believed to be and there's a lot to be said for getting paid for all the hours you work and being able to go home at the end of the day and leave work behind you... not to mention some Hospitals will consider hiring you, even if you can only commit to 1 weekend per month...

California has a special law the requiring Nurses to get paid for every hour they work as well as overtime and double time...

Most other professionals... Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Architects, etc., are exempt once they cross a certain pay threshold... Regular RN's, not in a managerial roles, are required to be paid for time worked... even if they earn 150K or more...

I know 2 Doctors working as Surgical Nurses and find life to be much better without the burden of running an office, employees and high malpractice premiums...

[City Boy]

Yup unless you're a specialist most General Practice/Family Practice doctors make as much and in some cases less than nurses and work more hours and are in HUGE medical school debt. The Physicians who make good money are Dermatologists, OB/GYN's , Radiologists, Psychiatrists etc. I know two Nurse Practitioners who are MD's but chose to not finish their residency and instead became Nurses.

[Joe_Ryder]

Originally Posted by KRISTINsf

God these people do not know what they're talking about. Many people (working class, or whatever the hell you want to call it) live in San Francisco and make it with food, a car in the garage, and some extra money for a movie night. Unless you're planning to live high like Donald Trump without the salary to back-it-up, I suggest you calm down. This is San Francisco, not Monaco honey. Good luck.

Well that's the rub isn't it? People have gotten used to living high on credit. It's manageable if you live in a flyover state where real estate is dirt cheap but housing is expensive in major cities and they can't have all their bling and live like a king on a working man's wages. America has become a nation of spoiled brats who think any home less than 3500 square feet is ghetto and they think they're poor if they don't buy a $45K new car every two years. People actually manage to convince themselves they truly need all the crap they blow their money on. The way they waste waste waste it's no wonder they can't survive on a median wage in SF. Most of these people can't make ends meet even in a place where the cost of living is half because they don't save and if they have two coins to rub together they'll buy a new cell phone and if there's a few bucks left on their credit card they'll charge it up and work two jobs to make minimum payments and no progress.