Two words: rent control
And if not rent control, some folks are retired and just living it up. My neighbor is a retiree whom I saw on a cruise last year. I find out she is a legitimate regular on the cruises. When I called her recently to get her Yelp rating on the SF to Hawaii cruise she happened to mention that she has been on over 80 cruises in her lifetime!!! She is easily in her 80s…
Rent control only applies to older multi family buildings. Who wants to raise a family in one of those? SF is 13% children. That’s lower than even NYC.
Fact is most people leave S.F. once they have kids.
The vast majority of the housing in the Fab 7x7 is older and probably under rent control. And remember, if everyone and their mother are adding inlaw units to SFHs as reported on the news last night well those become essentially rent controlled dwellings. People have been leaving for supposedly better schools for eons yet the old girl is doing as fine or better. I have said this before, it is all about the jobs. Nothing more, nothing less. If we have them, we good. If we don’t, all bets are off and we should see a decline but even during the Great Recession we didn’t fall like say Sacramento or Vallejo. At the end of the day, we are fairly diverse in terms of industries to weather most storms.
If SF wants to become world class it needs to get rid of it’s parochial neighborhood control. Visitors never go to the Sunset District. Allow high rise development and the city will become more like Hong Kong or Vancouver not such a bad thing…
Nothing is broken. In fact, booming…
You can’t say it’s about jobs when the list of tech employers in the South Bay dwarfs that of SF. If it’s about employers, then the south bay wins. People will want to live close to work.
I don’t even get how rent control fits in with the argument over which city will dominate in 20-30 years. Rent control will make it so old people never leave, and it’ll be harder to attract young talent. That’s not good.
Home values aren’t determined by tourists.
Do you honestly believe you are the first person ever to concoct the notion of San Jose overtaking San Francisco? The fact is, the San Jose government is not exactly with it and cutting edge. San Jose can’t even hire enough cops for its police force. San Francisco is soooo far ahead of San Jose in terms of world recognition and respect that you will be dust before San Jose even comes close, if ever, to holding San Francisco’s jockstrap…
San Franciscans need to grow up. Stop being a bunch of neighborhoods and become a real city, which includes SJ by the way. It is one mega city and should be incorporated with boroughs like NYC… now it is just a balkanized mess
Here is an interesting story about this. The fact is, we could care less about San Jose. New York is truly the competitor that we want to beat…
Over the last 30 years has San Jose gotten closer or further away?
You want to talk local government when you have a thread going about your board of stupidvsors? SF is literally out of land to grow and won’t approve new developments. San Jose still has land and is approving new developments. In 20-30 years San Jose population will double or triple that of SF.
So far the case for SF amounts to, it’s been better in the past so it’ll be better in the future. Investing isn’t about the past. It’s about the future.
Good question, don’t know. Don’t care. SF is not scared of SJ, believe me…
No one, including me, ever said that SJ is not bigger in terms of population. Come on, it is in black and white and in the tally counts. So SJ becomes a large office park. Wow, that means it is a great city… maybe SJ better beef up the mass transportation system big time to handle that masses and hire more cops to keep the gangbangers from taking control…
The Bored Of Stupidvisors thread simply means I am acknowledging the shortcomings of our great city. That means I am at least objective. Come on, who states “urine scented sidewalks” more than me? But, even with all its deficiencies The City shines well over SJ.
I quote this guy’s response from that article I posted. He at least is a realist…
Does that mean that in the future, San Jose can catch up to San Francisco on Google or Sporcle? “I don’t know that it’s realistic for us,” Roschke said.
Liccardo said he was fine with that, citing San Jose’s strong standing on lists he said mattered more to him: job growth, patents and future readiness. “If San Francisco gets the headlines, they can take the problems that come with those, too,” he said.
That statement by Liccardo is just sour grapes. You know it, and I know it. When you are beaten, and badly, of course you are going to try to take some shine off what the winner is doing. Kind of like what other teams are doing to the Warriors. Deep inside, they wish they could be like Mike, but… no one can be like Mike…
Look the bottom line is this. It is not going to be you or me, a survey or a beauty pageant that will determine whether San Jose or the Fab 7x7 becomes the prom queen of the Bay Area. It will be the actions of what each city does. Liccardo has it partially right, concentrate on the jobs creation, build your economy so that it is the envy of even the Fab 7x7 and countries abroad. But, here is where San Jose really needs to transform and become a world leader. Start legislating and being cutting edge. Introduce law that other cities and countries want to copy and learn from. That, is how San Jose could become great. Just saying it will is not going to do it, my friend.
Exactly. You don’t care about information. You’ve made up your mind and are emotionally attached to that decision. Time will tell.
Wow, I don’t care about information. You have information that suggests/hints SJ is better than SF???
Here is some granted survey numbers that Apartmentlist came out with just in time for our lil discussion:
Some lessons can be gleamed from this information. San Jose has some areas that it needs to address (so do we).
And keep in mind that I have not ripped San Jose yet on culture and activities. Tell me, @marcus335, when Jane and John are contemplating a domestic vacation as they are shivering back East, tell me why would they exactly come to visit San Jose for a week? Tell me how great a city can be if there is nothing really great there to engage and excite oh someone from Wisconsin? San Jose doesn’t have a particularly interesting history or background. Nor are there any attractions there. If someone wants to see an office park, I believe they have them at home…
@sfdragonboy, I understand you claim that SF is superior to SJ, but can you clarify “in what sense”?
Number of tourists?
Housing price?
Number of jobs?
Median Salary?
In what sense, is SF superior to SJ exactly?
Hi @jane,
To me, it is well-roundedness really. It is NOT about just finances, which is what I am trying to get through to you guys/gals. It is about being and acting as a world class city. It means being a leader on various social issues. It means coming up with brilliant ideas that solve some of these problems. Imagine this, if you will, let’s say the leaders of San Jose came up with a policy that really is cutting edge regarding homelessness. Think about that. Now, wouldn’t that be a great feather and a resume item to cite as a great city? Then, other cities from all over the world will be sending representatives to San Jose to learn from the creators of said policy. So, when and if San Jose does that, that will contribute to its greatness.
On the cultural and fun side, San Jose has to do something drastic or dramatic to make Jane and John want to come and visit and stay for a week. Surely, you recognize that there isn’t a whole lot to do in San Jose proper for a visitor right? I mean, SF has the food scene, GGB, cable cars, etc etc etc
I said in 20-30 years not today. Home prices aren’t determined by tourism. Being a tourist in a city and living in it are 2 different things. For one, tourists don’t care about schools or proximity to major employers. They are there to have fun not work and raise a family.
SF used to be the city and SJ was just farmland. San Jose has been gaining in median income, educational attainment, and median home price. SF can’t compete with the lineup of tech employers in and near SJ. SJ has more room to expand than SF. Do you really think SF will still be “the city” when SJ is has 3x the population?
SF violent crime rate is 718 per 100,000. SJ is 373 or 48% lower. SF property crime is 5,716 per 100,000. SJ is 2,374 per 100,000 or 58% lower.
http://sfgov.org/scorecards/public-safety/violent-crime-rate-and-property-crime-rate
http://www.sjpd.org/CrimeStats/crimestats.html
Now I can tease SF people about living in the Ghetto 
Why not buy properties both in SF and in SJ to hedge your bets? You never know what’s going to happen 20 years down the road… 
I tell you what, pay for a airline ticket and a week’s stay in San Jose and call it a vacation. If you don’t shoot yourself after two days with a gun from your favorite gun lobby, I will drive down there myself and drive you up to nirvana for some chicken wings.
That’s exactly why I strongly prefer SJ over SF.
As a person who grew up in big city, I really don’t want to live in the city with bunch of tourists.
SF is fun place to visit but not great place to live in for me.
Living in 1-hour driving distance from tourist city is good enough for people like me.
Anyway, I guess marcus and I prefer life style in SJ over SF.
There is nothing wrong with that.
Why is it so important to prove SF is superior to SJ?
Why do you even care?
I’d need a gun to protect myself if I visited SF. Now I get why you are so anti gun. You’re scared of all the criminals in SF.
I lived in San Jose for years. Besides you’re again missing the point that I said in 20-30 years not today.
