job market is booming

rent prices are comparable to NY, but you get more space and benefits for the money.

your mileage may vary, but this is what I've found. i left NY about a year ago after a lifetime. didn't think there was anywhere else to live, but I was wrong. loving the bay area. welcome!!

Kat,

What kind of work do you do?
Do you have a job lined up, yet?
What brings you out here?
Inquiring minds wanna know :)

Herb

Hey Kat, thanks for joining. I startted this group because I was so CONFUSED about SF v. NYC. Why are you moving out??


Laurie

Hi. Did you move to SF? If so how do you like it? 'cause we are moving to SF this summer and
I am little bit anxious 'cause there will be a part of me that will always in love with NYC, especially Brooklyn.
But it's time to experience some place else. Please let me know. Thanx.

Hello all! I am now all settled in the Bay Area (not exactly SF, but close enough :) )

Thank you all for your replies. My apologies for posting and then not returning for so long. As you can imagine, the last several months have been very hectic with the cross-country move, so it took me a long while to finally get back to my online conversations... :)

Now that I've been here for a little over 3 months, I can answer some of your questions, and give an update. When I first got here, I spent the first 3 weeks in utter frustration and desperation because the SF rents WERE indeed scary. However, I'm not coming from Manhattan. I'm coming from Queens. So, compared to outer borough rents, SF was a real shock. After those first 3 weeks, I gave up on SF and started looking in the East Bay. I found something reasonable (comparable to outer borough rents) almost immediately! This is perfectly fine by me; I live right near a BART station, and the trip from here to SF is almost identical to what my commute from Queens to Manhattan used to be, so no biggie... :)

To answer why I moved away and what I do, etc... I'm a freelance artist; there's a little bit about that in my profile now. Basically we lined up a job for my husband first (he's a tattooist, it was easier to line something up for him first); so when we got here, he started working, and now that we're settled I'm back to my freelance projects. Funny thing is, though, I'm still working for my NY clients, haven't gotten anyone new here yet!

Why I moved: now this is a slightly more complicated question... I used to be a very elitist New Yorker, just like most other New Yorkers I suppose. However, this changed almost immediately as soon as I started traveling further than the tri-state area! The more I traveled, the more I realized that New York really wasn't "all that." I found that every time I returned from my travels, I was sad and disgusted to return to my home. Compared to other places, New York really started to seem overcrowded, dirty, smelly, overly materialistic, and impersonal. I kind of hate to say all these things, because after all, it is where I grew up, and I wouldn't have had that any other way. It helped make me who I am today. But I suppose it was just time to move on. I've been in a rut for the last few years in NY, and I needed a shake-up.

Among my travels, I visited the Bay Area twice. Once in 1997 by plane, and once more recently in 2003 as part of a cross-country road trip. Although there are parts of the world (outside this country) that I'm even more enamored with, in THIS country there is no place I've grown to love more than the Bay! When I visited the first time in 1997, that trip planted the seeds of desire to move here. But I wasn't done with NY at that point - I still had school to finish, loose ends to tie, etc. Finally, after a decade, my husband and I were able to break free and move here. And we haven't looked back.

So far, being here a bit over 3-4 months, I do miss the friends and family I left behind on the east coast, but I don't miss NYC, and I don't believe that I'll have the desire to return there. I do miss a few things... there's some amount of nostalgia (but that stuff is long gone!) and there are a few things I miss, like 24-hour laundry, high-quality bagels, and panhandlers you can safely ignore without getting some snotty remark. But there are many more things I DON'T miss... the asshole drivers, the pollution, the smelly subways, the cold winter, the sweltering summer, the rats, the roaches, getting trampled during rush hour, driving 3 hours to get to any semblance of nature.

So yeah, I am LOVING the Bay Area. It is gorgeous here - the architecture, the gardens and foliage, the weather (WOW! From fall straight to spring!!). I can see stars at night!! So many parks around, so easy to get to! And really great natural settings no more than an hour away (like Muir Woods!) People seem generally mellow, not in a rush all the time. GREAT food. Indian and Thai galore. A farmer's market every couple of days with local, organic produce to die for! Beautiful hills, a joy to walk around everywhere! Obviously it's not perfect, nothing is. The panhandlers bug me the most, they're very aggressive. But in general, I love it here.

For those wondering whether they oughtta choose SF or NYC, I would say it depends on your own personality. SF and NYC are VERY different... If you are no-nonsense and career-minded, you'd probably prefer NYC. I've realized that NYC was never a great fit for my personality, despite my having grown up there... I'm pretty mellow, I don't like being rushed, I love nature; those things about me make SF a better fit for me.

So... I hope all that makes up for my lack of a reply for so many months... :)