Other parts of the bay area are still very expensive, but more affordable than those figures.
âAs of February 2016, average apartment rent within 10 miles of San Francisco, CA is $3770.â
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-francisco-rent-trends/
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And even then you have to add in utilities . More than $ 800.00 a week . Even if you are sharing the rent , thatâs tough . Let alone even getting a apartment with 50 people applying for the same apartment that you want .
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Well, not quite. They can well afford to live in some very nice, safe communities in Queens, Hoboken, western Nassau, and have a half hour commute or less. They can easily afford to live on the upper east side if they want some space for their money.
Huh? UES of what???
And in SF youâll never find anything with a half hour commute thatâs remotely affordable. Hell, I lived IN the city and my commute was more than 30 minutes.
There are safe communities in Queens? 
God, yes! I LOVE Queens. Flushing is part of Queens and is one of my favorite places on the planet!!!
I have been to Flushing Chinatown about 4-5 times. It is pretty amazing, and it looks totally safe. I would walk alone 7-9 PM and donât feel anything. It wasnât until later that I looked up the crime rate and found out Queens is much more dangerous than Manhattan and BrooklynâŚetc.
Well, Manhattan is one of the safest cities in the country. And Brooklyn is so damn hipster I wouldnât go there. Yuck.
Much of Queens is safe, but the safer/nicer neighborhoods are quickly falling prey to hipsterization and rising real estate prices. One can still afford to rent a 1 or 2 BR apartment or purchase a small co-op or condo on a low 6-figure salary, but forget about buying a house.
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Thats pretty much what I have heard, and thatâs for a 6 figure salary.
I wouldnât want to try it on $15 - $20 per hr.
I agree that tipping should be eliminated and the menu should reflect the total/real price of the meal.
One thing no one is noting is that in many states, wait staff is paid less than the official minimum wage because estimated tips are considered to be enough to bring their actual pay up to minimum wage. In these states, tipping is clearly necessary. But this is not the case in California, where wait staff have the same minimum wage coverage as everyone else. That being so, why should one tip wait staff and not, say, the chef?
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Why canât everyone just get paid in 6 figures? Like a $150,000 or possibly $200,000
Alternatively, we should forcibly lower the rent by electing âRent is too damn highâ party.
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Iâm not sure what you mean by âmuch more dangerousâ but there are safe and less safe neighborhoods everywhere.
Iâm talking about violent crimes, not crimes against property. Some of the safest neighborhoods in Queens have high crime rates due to burglary, but not robbery, car theft, but not murders and muggings and gun fire at night. My brotherâs Forest Hills house was routinely burglarized due to sitting empty all day and sometimes weeks, he lived alone there. Once he wired it, no one came in. But youâd be comfortable walking the streets at night.
There are less pricey similarly safe neighborhoods all over.
We rented a big 3 bedroom apt for our daughter and a friend to live in with a friend and rent to another person on a quiet, residential street in a town house in Astoria a few years back for $1950 per mo. Split three ways, it was eminently doable on lower pay. The smallest room went for $600 per mo. and a share of the internet bill.
Maybe I got confused. I was doing some search on violent crimes and somehow I remember Queens being dangerous, but I could remember it wrong.
Iâm sure there are pockets where thatâs the case.
I think I know why. I may have used a less than reliable website. Now that I searched again using a few websites, it seems Queens is relatively safer than many other places. However, this website (which caused my confusion) has Queens really high in crime:
That would be a VERY lucky find these days. Most of what I have seen lately in Astoria is $2500+ for 3BR. Northwestern Queens has gotten INSANE with housing costs. People are starting to realize that Brooklyn is now as expensive as Manhattan and the commutes are twice as long as those in Northwestern Queens, so Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside have seen MASSIVE increases in housing costs. Long Island City was a complete wasteland 10 years ago; now itâs full of luxury high-rise condos retailing for well over a million dollars for a 1BR.
LIC was way out of reach when we rented that apt. in Astoria. There were expensive luxury apts going up nearby when we were there, definitely. Co-ops there and elsewhere are the most and maybe the only economical way in. The apt. we rented was the second floor of a private home, with an ownerâs apt. and a basement one, I believe. Spacious, in good condition but not luxury or updated in any way, though once they recarpeted and replaced the kitchen cabinets, it was pretty nice.
As I said, I think we stopped renting in 2011 or 2012.
