
Ask HN: Seattle vs. Bay? - civicsquid
I have an option to work for a large tech company in the Bay Area or in Seattle. I&#x27;m not sure which to pick, and as far as I can tell the work experience will be about the same.<p>Any thoughts one way or another?
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DoreenMichele
You don't have to file state income tax in Seattle and the housing market is
less zany. A lot of people are fleeing SF for Seattle.

SF is beautiful and the weather is better. It seems to be An Experience.

Many years ago, I lived 45 miles from SF and I spent some time wishing I could
live there. It's an incredible city.

It was unaffordable then and it's only gotten worse. But both cities have
serious homeless problems. That is not peculiar to SF.

I guess it depends in part on how much you want An Experience and how much you
want a relatively sane lifestyle. If you can afford it, I think the Bay Area
is amazing. I'm glad I lived there and a little sad that moving to SF was not
possible. But I'm currently in Washington and my life works vastly better
here. So I'm getting over those feelings.

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civicsquid
My big concern is while I was interning in the bay I didn't really like it
that much -- it felt like a big suburb to me.

I didn't really get to do much in the city, so most of what I saw of it were
sprawling hills of close, run-down housing with the exception of the financial
district and SOMA. The city honestly seemed really dirty to me too. Maybe
there are parts of it I didn't see?

When I visited Seattle the city seemed clean and full of interesting places to
visit. I heard the housing market there is more reasonable, and it just seems
more affordable overall. My concern is the weather in the winter, but maybe it
isn't that bad?

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DoreenMichele
It rains a lot in winter. I don't think that's such a big deal.

I was a military wife. I've lived a bunch of places. To me, bad weather is 115
in the summer or heavy snow and ice in winter or tornados or hurricanes etc.

I also grew up in Georgia. Georgia gets terrible storms. Seattle doesn't get a
lot of storms. It just rains and rains.

California has Fire Season as one of its seasons. That alone made me consider
leaving. That's not a season I want in my life.

The big concerns for the Seattle weather are if you suffer from SAD or
allergies. If you have SAD, it doesn't get enough sunlight. If you have
allergies or certain other health issues, the combination of rain and
temperate weather means you have a lot of mold there. That's a big problem for
some people, but there are ways to minimize its impact on you.

I have allergies and respiratory problems. I don't want carpet, among other
things. If my indoor air quality is tolerable, I'm okay up here in Washington.
(I'm like 2 hours from Seattle, near the coast.)

They are both world class cities with a lot to offer. If you have been to both
and you liked Seattle, then go there. Feel free to use sites like
bestplaces.net to compare some of the metrics, but there is nothing wrong with
going with your first impression if you don't personally have specific issues
that need to be addressed.

I have a long list of personal issues and I heavily researched where to move.
I live without a car. I have a limited income. I have health issues. So I had
specific needs.

If you are basically healthy, can drive if you need to and make adequate
money, then it really comes down to what you like and if you have specific
career goals that would be better met in one of the cities. That's actually a
wonderful problem to have and I envy you.

Best.

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civicsquid
Thank you! Lots of great information.

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andymoe
9 months of oppressive cloud cover a year and people that refuse to drive over
the speed limit even a little and overt racism a short drive in any direction
vs ridiculous rents/home prices and a culture that would rather see people die
on the streets than mess up their neigbohood character by building houses but
the weather is better and there’s more VC money and startups. Source: I’ve
lived both places and currently reside in San Francisco. Sorry, that was
probably not helpful.

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civicsquid
I didn't realize those were problems in Seattle. I guess both places have
their downsides though.

Professionally, did you have any problems after living/working in Seattle? I
had slight concerns that people in the bay might lack preference for engineers
coming from outside of the bay, but hopefully that isn't true.

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andymoe
To be fair to Seattle I never worked there. Lived there for several years as a
teenager so hopefully people have gotten more tolerant since then. I do have
family there and was there a few weeks ago. Can confirm everyone still drives
too slow:)

No one in tech in sf cares if you’re a transplant.

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trykondev
I worked for a large tech company in Seattle and the actual living in Seattle
part of it was tremendous (I didn't really enjoy the work, but that's a whole
other story). I really loved living in Bellevue in particular -- it's very
clean and beautiful.

You'll save a lot more money living in Seattle compared to SF. The weather is
a bit dreary sometimes, but I didn't find it to be much of a problem.

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civicsquid
That sounds nice. Was the winter weather hard to get over?

I'm from Chicago so I figured I'd just be trading lots of cold and snow for
relatively less cold and mostly rain in the winters.

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shivaas
If you embrace it, its totally fine. Lived in Pittsburgh for 2yrs before
moving to Seattle and the trading of snow storms with the rain/wet weather in
the winters is a win in my opinion. You have 3 fantastic ski resorts within
2hrs of Seattle & Whistler/ Mt. Baker is 4-5hrs away so plenty of
opportunities for winter activities. Wineries in WA and OR are open all year
around (AFAIK) and plenty of winter brews to enjoy all around.

