Struggling to Make It at $250K per Year

[CurtEgerer]

This has got be the most ridiculous thing I've seen in quite a while. Subsidized housing in Palo Alto for those special snowflakes trying to subsist at only $250,000 a year. Maybe the ultimate '1st World Problem'. Says resident Randy Bean, “We have people struggling to make it at a quarter-million dollars a year. That’s a terrible thing.”

Hey, I've got an idea: stop spending more than you make. You're not entitled to any minimum standard of living and have no right to expect taxpayers to subsidize you. If you really want to live in Palo Alto and are on their $250,000 poverty line, looks like you may need to move into a 1-room apartment or your Mom's attic. Maybe you need to be driving a ... gasp ... used Range Rover. And buy your coffee at McDonalds. And stop grocery shopping at Whole Foods. How bad do you want to live there?

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...alo-alto-plan/

[RSTarga]

It's all relative. Housing for tech workers in that area can be 70% of their income. Maybe time to do what the Chinese factories do, and have housing on campus. I'm sure Apple could do this. Certainly not the government.
We already subsidize fast-food companies by giving help to their workers who can't live on their low wages.

[37yrold911]

"unaffordable for middle-class people, your firefighters, your teachers, and, frankly, some of your doctors,”


hmmm... those are all important jobs to get filled


even Monkeyside Hts. used to be a ghetto of sorts way back when

[ajwans]

One guy's solution, living inside a truck inside the Google parking lot: http://frominsidethebox.com/

andy

[CurtEgerer]

It's all relative. Housing for tech workers in that area can be 70% of their income.

Exactly. Earning $250K in Palo Alto is apparently the equivalent of earning about $40K in 98% of the country. These people don't need a subsidy, they need a reality check. So if you're offered a job in Palo Alto for $250K, you need to understand it's not a good wage - you will be living near the city's poverty level and you may need to live in 'a van down by the river' (ref. Chris Farley ) Unless you make $750K+, why would any sane person choose to live there?

[37yrold911]

why do they need to buy or rent a dwelling anyway? they should be living in the lab like everybody else

[sithot]

The Akin-Stuck-Bell Fabcar 935 had it right:

[911MRP]

Surprised it is considered expensive? Thought NY was the most expensive residential av. per sq ft in USA and according to this (fairly recent) article -- even that city is only in third spot in global tables after Hong Kong and London?

http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/...rices-9450.php

[LiveFromNY]

My favorite part:

"I just find it kind of sad that we are reducing ourselves to this small profile of young, rich, mostly white, mostly tech. It’s not the community that I moved into 33 years ago,” Bean said. And now, as a documentary film producer, she says she can’t afford to stay here.

As someone who spent years as a documentary film producer, let me tell you what you should already know. You made a personal decision to embark on a career that virtually guarantees you will never make a good living. I recognize your right to make that choice. But now you don't get to live in Palo Alto or anywhere close. Shut up and move.

[37yrold911]

Surprised it is considered expensive? Thought NY was the most expensive residential av. per sq ft in USA and according to this (fairly recent) article -- even that city is only in third spot in global tables after Hong Kong and London?

http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/...rices-9450.php

NYC has transit; Cowifornia doesn't except right around SFO - so they can't live in a cheaper area and make it in to work