Living in the SF Bay Area is getting out of the price range of the middle class. The cost of living keeps going higher and people have to keep moving further out. Which adds costs just to come to work.
If you are riding public transportation to work it could cost you $200 to $400 a month. For example people move out to Pittsburg or Antioch, or Oakley to buy a bigger house or to pay lower rent. A BART ticket from Pittsburg/Bay Point to Embarcadero will cost $13.10 round trip add $3.00 for parking if you drive. Just for the fare, not including parking that comes to $65.50 a week. That is $262 a month. Now if you drive you have gas and wear and tear on your car.
The problem with the SF Bay Area wages have not kept up with cost of living. If you are on the low end of the pay scale and having to live further out you are problem living pay check to pay check and probably running short at times. Probably living with one or more people.
The SF Bay Area has always been expensive but there was a time when a person could make it. Everything here is out of whack. Homeless have started putting up tents in Oakland, San Francisco and other cities but the cities just let it go. They don’t even want to fight it. They may do a token raid but the tents will just go elsewhere.
The education system is busted and the politicians won’t fix it. Just throw money into it. Never gets better. I would think if you have Silicon Valley the education would be there to provide people the skills to get the jobs. Nope. Only the high income areas have that hope and in the poor areas get what you can because the politicians have wrote the poor off.
So companies higher people from Asia to do the work because they are being trained to do the job in the Tech era. Don’t learn math and science and you get to fight for the crumbs. Ride the Fremont to San Francisco train and you can see the failure of the education system. Look at job wanted posting and see the jobs in Bio-Tech and High-Tech that goes unfilled because Americans are not qualified to do the jobs.
The SF Bay Area is becoming a land of rich and poor. The middle class is disappearing and having a rough time making it. People living here should understand the reality and adjust. A high school diploma is useless. Learn a trade that can earn a higher income. Because the days of just figuring it out later on is over.
At least the SF Bay Area has mild temperatures and plenty of activities to do. Can’t say there is nothing to do, There is plenty to do and some it costs nothing. The pink section in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sundays list things you can do. Also there is plenty of hiking and bike trails.
Personally I enjoy living out here but the cost to live out here is rough. Doesn’t help the the answer the politicians can come up with is raise taxes and fees. They keep this up and why have a job when I can make more living off the state.