hahaha yesss i have heard about some other anecdotes from users travelling to tech land for similar reasons my dad is (was ?) a silicon valley business man (both of my parents are east coast transplants) that knew about the lack of females in tech so he really pushed for me to be in comp sci , which was GOOD because i found out in high school when i got at D in coding that it wasnt my path i actually toured a school for compsci at the time and found my love for biology there instead but thats a story for another day ... i digress
we actually dont have any dunkins really we have one in the south most part of the bay that , when i woke up suuuper early one day i drove 30 min (towards) the sunrise to get a doughnut (service was awful btw for being the only one in the area lmao) but the reciept had my lucky number on it so i consider it to be the only time it was worth it hahahah . the only other dunkin is in the other beach town in half moon bay but thats more towards SF (i lived ~1 hr out of SF)
oh interesting ! must be cool to be in an area with a lot of housing haha , there are a lot of houses here too , so much so that its very easy to fill apartments here even with the crazy rent . students might rent out houses with their friends if needed but typically most students in this area live with their families too (i did when i went to uni here)
usually each house has a master bedroom with a bathroom attached , other than that every other bedroom will have a separate bathroom . a typical silicon valley house has the master + connected bath , one guest bath (usually only has a shower and not a bath itself) , and then 2-3 bedrooms . youre considered upper middle class if you can have bathrooms attached to any other rooms in the house
personally i thought the housing bubble was going to pop sooner rather than later , but even with COVID and the recession people are still buying houses and renting ! though with houses averaging . 1 mil+ , i would say you would have to be very rich to get into the renting business haha so probably not all that lucrative
ex . we have a family friend renting out a silicon valley house since ~2005 to today , and i can imagine the landlord is makin some good money off of that !! but i bet the landlord subsequently bought that property for ~250k so haha . my close friends ' dad has 2 properties he ' s renting out , and hes still making money off of a home for an elderly couple for $1.8k / mo , which is the price for a studio apartment here (my friends dad is a very nice guy lol , he works at NASA too)
oooh man i dont think i did ?? but fb has everything including your social probably just by selling your info so im sure they know just through my cookies and IP address haha , i mightve had my high school on there atm but im really not sure . spooky to think about honestly , good thing i quit social media at least it paid off for a minute there !
google HQ is incredibly cool !! my friend lives in that area actually on one of the offstreets of the main road you take to get there . it is also on the same campus as a popular concert venue for the area so its very funny driving there to park and you see all these google bikes littered everywhere trying to find a spot in this huge dirt lot i also had my lazer tag birthday party down the road from google , i can imagine thats a fun team building locale
(2 concert anecdotes from the many concerts ive been there : i saw flight of the conchords and during one of the songs , something fell and jemaine clement said after the song "that was the sound of another startup failing" ; other concert anecdote , i saw my chemical romance there on googles campus the same day steve jobs passed . just silicon valley tingz)
my friends dad was an engineer at google (now retired) , and i went to one of their family carnival days when we were younger where we played games for toys you usually would have to pay for , all the food was free (ofc they feed their employees free anyways) ; they have showers on campus and youre welcome to park your RV there so you can be closer to work . they are on the extreme of silicon valley work culture hahaha
aah yepyep silicon valley is definitely meant for the best and brightest ; truth be told a lot of people i grew up with get jobs there from connections via their parents and not really their aptitude , i know its an awful thing to say and some of them are genuinely good at the internships / job they get but yeah its definitely not a type of place u can just "inherit" talent
haha noo not much biting you in the waters here , maybe some gross bacteria but the university of santa cruz marine bio students are measuring bacteria levels for resume experience so maybe its not all that bad lmao . because its such an established "tourist" town there are permanent gift shops for sundries and what have you , but hot dog stands are pretty much universal in santa cruz and at big events in the valley
if you have ever seen the movie "the lost boys , " its set in santa cruz and the vibe is one thousand percent captured in it . its spooky and 80s and honestly in a lot of ways it still feels kinda trapped in this lost spooky 80s world filled with creatures of the night . that place is so magical tho i love it sm !! i have a lot of spiritual connections in that place actually which are probably too personal to get into here really but trust that its a very interesting place if u get the chance to go lol . yea hwy 17 is suuuper dangerous one of my middle school teachers lost their arm there bcos they stood outside on that road after an accident - big nope
well i mean thank you for taking the time to read and respond !! im glad you got some good info out of my silly anecdotes
so my hometown is silicon valley / san francisco bay area but i grew up in san jose specifically . my knowledge focuses in the south bay (towards santa cruz , i can talk some about there too if youd like) but the general culture is the same everywhere & its a very interesting locale 2 talk abt so here we go
1 . so san jose is the most ... socio-economically "poor" area but even then , san jose specifically is nearly on every "top 10 highest rent in the US lists . growing up here and realizing this as i came to age was very crazy especially since i always thought people had no idea where san jose was . realizing not only my privilege but how cramped and unfriendly it is here as i grew up , i wondered for a long long time why people wanted to move here so badly
for perspective , the house i grew up in was bought for 200k in the mid 90s , and sold for $1.33 mil (lurkers pls dont think this is a lot of money bcos after taxes & leftover mortgage u dont come out w much lmao) . it was a 70-130k house (at BEST) in the middle of the country . you can gawk in private at the cost of living , i personally get really annoyed when people remind me of it because its like beating a dead horse . truthfully however it is a priceless investment into your career if you are in STEM , as this area is the biggest tech hub in the US / world (?) , and i am so incredibly privileged to have grown up here let alone in upper-middle class (which doesnt even offer you nearly as much as you could get elsewhere lmao ) . the buying a house thing is what i dont understand lmao , very ballsy to start a family here if you ask me especially since the value will just depreciate ; nice work if you can get it i guess
2 . random anecdotes from living here :
- i grew up 8-10 mins away from netflix HQ , 20 min from apple HQ , etc
- when i still used facebook , i got an e-mail one day asking me to come in for a research group , and i went to their HQ to do it and got a $75 visa giftcard . i signed in at their lobby via my facebook account . they asked me what i thought about changing colors / customization options in the messenger app , and like a month later that was implemented !! its crazy to think that i was helping in that decision
- i have a friend who works for apple , and her boss works directly for tim cook . you get a lot of interesting anectodes about this area when you live here for 20+ years lol . im sure theres more to talk about but i cant think of anything rn
3 . caucasians are the minority , so again coming of age & seeing so much racism in the rest of the US was kind of jarring for me . i very much pride my hometown in being so diverse & open to opportunity for the best and brightest TM minds of the world to come here & make great changes in tech & beyond , albeit more and more places across the country are becoming less caucasian-majority so while this is less novel its still kind of exciting to me lol
4 . subsequently most people that live here didnt grow up here ; its a Huge transplant area and because of rapid gentrification , a lot of native bay area residents are struggling to stay here & it creates this very stressful and angry culture on top of the already competitive nature of the area
5 . to add to that , it is a very angry and stressful area to live in ; strangers arent looking out for you , and they dont want to talk to you . i think this is because its such a huge transplant area creating a a "clash of cultures" type of deal where everyone just stays in their lane as a defense mechanism but truthfully , the pressure to deal with the costs of living here + work culture on top of the former are probably in combination of why everyone is so ANGRY lol
i feel like im lowkey doxxing myself but this is all part of a closed chapter in my life so ig thats why im so detailed in my post . wowo i wrote a LOT
a brief overview on santa cruz bcoz that somehow got popular in the last few yrs (though ik there are users that actually live in that area that could probably make addenums to this if they happen 2 see this):
1 . santa cruz is the main "silicon valley beach town" (surprisingly , a lot of california doesnt have a lot of beach access , and this is one of the few areas that does ) . as a result , locals HATE silicon valley visitors lmao . if u move to santa cruz from the valley boy ppl are Not gonna like u , theyre a very tight - knit hippy dippy beach bummy bunch , and they are genuinely cool ppl & wanna preserve their beach culture from the rapidly growing silicon valley that is the total opposite so honestly , i get it
2 . theres a boardwalk with rides and stuff thats fun & a lil wharf , ive made some fantastic memories there but tbh its just as crowded from the crowdedness of the bay venturing into the beach so over the years its gotten less fun which is kind of sad lol . there are more random beaches to venture to up and down highway 1 away from santa cruz tho & i would reccomend those before anything else to tourists
3 . its actually a very dangerous town bcos of their medicine problem & at night it is genuinely such a spooky and scary place lmao . i was driving with my friend around 11 at night and there were Two people "not entirely there" walking in the street like actual zombies in the fog , i will not forget that (not to dehumanize the serious issues that surround that kind of thing , this is just how i and probably anyone else would interpet that situation)
you also have to take a very windy dangerous forest road to get there and driving there at night in the fog is also sooo spooky but fun . i , a dumbass , have driven the alternative less-populated and more dangerous and deserted highway at the dead hours of night ALONE just for the thrill bcos o my god is it spOOky as hell
4 . i say that it got popular bcos the "santa cruz" logo hoodie has gotten popularized via skater culture / zumies , even though the town itself is much more surfer for obvious reasons and skaters are there but i wouldnt say there are a ton of them lmao . i see kids in the midwest and beyond wearing their logo stuff and im like "wow i bought my hoodie at a gift shop , now its international apparel ?? amazing "
tldr ; its a cool and magical beach town tho i think that is what i love about the silicon valley area the most