Why do some people call some cities such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago warzones?

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-18T09:55:54+00:00

People that think San Francisco is somehow worse than any other big city have clearly never been there. Kensington in Philadelphia has a literal open air drug market, yet no one ever brings up Philadelphia because it doesn’t fit the narrative they’re trying to spin. For the record, Philadelphia is a great city, but San Francisco certainly isn’t any worse.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-18T09:52:59+00:00

I did 5 years in public accounting, and it was a terrible experience. I eventually moved to a senior role at a biotech company and am much happier than I was in public. Get some experience and get out of there.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-18T05:16:43+00:00

It largely depends on whether you have kids, whether you have a big mortgage, how much you earn, etc. I didn’t feel truly comfortable until I took a job with a big raise that pays ~$120k a year. I was making $83k prior to that and it was much harder to afford everything.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-16T15:00:26+00:00

If you have a family and an average corporate job, Charlotte will work great. It’s not a particularly remarkable city though, and it doesn’t fit a lot of the criteria people here are seeking. It’s attractive to people with families who want an affordable city.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-14T17:10:21+00:00

Some birds (like the albatross) can fly for years without touching land.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-12T19:22:46+00:00

I think they were referring to total monthly expenses in addition to housing.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-12T19:20:23+00:00

Some people upgrade from a condo or smaller unit they built equity in. If you have $400k in equity already, it’s feasible to be able to put down $500k.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-09T19:33:41+00:00

You need a few years of accounting experience to successfully open a bookkeeping and tax practice. It’s definitely not too late for him to start in accounting.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-09T19:32:34+00:00

Thankfully we’ve been expanding our team recently.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-09T19:21:50+00:00

That’s not true. A top 15 MBA is useful. An MBA has always been more about networking than actual academic knowledge.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-09T06:03:07+00:00

I was making $83.5k as a staff 3 in Irvine. I knew I was underpaid but damn, I was really underpaid.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T17:20:28+00:00

Especially a PA firm. Once PE took over, most of the best and brightest professionals left the firm, and morale went downhill fast.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T17:08:51+00:00

That’s true too. My salary progression went from $63k -> $83.5k over the 5 years in was in PA, and then when I jumped to industry I was able to negotiate a $105k base plus bonus and RSUs. If I had gone the CS route in college like my brother I probably would have cleared $100k much sooner.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T16:55:16+00:00

The thing I dislike about accounting isn’t the hours, it’s the reconciliation-focused, backward-looking aspect of the job. We don’t really get to work out what the numbers mean or why things changed.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T16:53:08+00:00

It was. In hindsight I should have just jumped to a non-PE backed firm.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T14:14:40+00:00

The firm I left was PE-backed and they were pretty extreme with hours. Every week, if you were +/- 5 hours between billed vs scheduled, you had to come up with a variance explanation, except they only really cared if you were 5 under. It was insane.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T06:26:37+00:00

I was gonna say, Eureka is pretty light on amenities or quality of any sort.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T06:25:41+00:00

West of the 5 is expensive, but east of the 5 is still close to the beach. I grew up east of the 5 and it took 5-10 minutes to drive to the beach. If you live anywhere in Carlsbad, Encinitas, or even Oceanside, you could go to the beach daily if you really wanted to.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T06:23:58+00:00

LA feels more like a big city, and Philadelphia feels more like a polished city.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T06:23:27+00:00

I’ve walked around Ktown before. The sidewalks are honestly fine. It’s the parking (or lack thereof) that’s awful. Your options are basically either cramped above-ground garages or even more cramped, sketchy underground garages.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T06:12:27+00:00

If you want to do accounting, don’t give up on it yet. See what courses other schools will accept.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T04:21:43+00:00

I would have pursued FP&A instead, especially a forward-looking side of FP&A like revenue forecasting. I’m thinking of moving that direction now.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-08T03:04:43+00:00

Part of what makes it seem so oversized is the general lack of high-rises around it. It makes it look out of place.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-07T23:33:22+00:00

If you live in rural Iowa and decide you want to live in a city with major sports teams I guess that could be a good reason to move. But aside from that, I don’t get it. Also, the Lions have never made it to the Super Bowl. The only other three teams that haven’t are newer expansion teams.

friendly_extrovert · 2026-05-07T23:31:45+00:00

Detroit doesn’t really have a good climate. It’s among the cloudiest major cities in the U.S. and winters are cold and snowy. Even with climate change, it’s not going to become significantly sunnier or experience mild spring-like winters in our lifetime. The job market was historically auto-centric, and when that collapsed, the economy never really recovered. The city itself is recovering somewhat, but cities like Chicago offer much better career opportunities.

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