Reading the articles about the economy there, I have to admit that I'm surprised. My friends that still live there have not said anything positive about life there in a very long time. Every year, more of them are moving away because of the taxes, congestion and crime. If you live there, you know that there are huge areas that you just avoid, and those areas are growing in size. Where I lived in San Leandro, we drove past 3 grocery stores to get to the safe one. We only went to the mall in the morning, or we drove to the mall in the Valley. It wasn't just a fear of being robbed, the beggers where overwhelming and vandalism to your car was common.
A neighbor that I grew up with worked for a phone company there all his life. About five years ago then relocated to Nevada and offered him a job there at a lower pay scale if he wanted to keep his job. He declined and was out of work for over a year before finding a warehouse job with Amazon. That was also a big cut in pay, but he was able to stay in his house and not have to move.
Those in the dot com industry are dong good, but another buddy who was with google said it wasn't worth the money. He quit a good six figure job for another job paying half of what he made just have a life and get to know his kids.
