[CrazedZooChimp]

[quote author=CTcard link=topic=10167.msg91877#msg91877 date=1404357314]

The biggest surprise? [At least to me and apparently to the flow of this conversation]
The densest cities in the USA are #1 Los Angeles (world #90) and #2 San Francisco (world #104).

Yes -- that can be a bit deceptive. I think the problem here is that they're probably using MSAs rather than the city proper. According to that statistic NYC has double the land area of LA, which seems highly unlikely to me.
[/quote]

It does (you'll notice San Francisco is actually San Francisco/Oakland and has 3+ mil people).  If you look at just cities/land area SF is still #2 in the US, but it's #2 behind NY.  Still, it could be denser than it is, there were some long stretches of almost no construction, and being a landlord in this city seems horrible.

But really, if someone wants to leave California because they think it's too expensive or poorly run, they should.  I personally feel it's worth paying my super high rent to live here rather than somewhere in Texas, especially since I get paid more than what I probably would somewhere else (and actually I think it would be hard for me to move a lot of places in this country because I'd probably end up taking a pay cut for a similar job, and it would feel really silly to get paid less to live somewhere crappier).

[CrazedZooChimp]

[quote author=CTcard link=topic=10167.msg91877#msg91877 date=1404357314]

The biggest surprise? [At least to me and apparently to the flow of this conversation]
The densest cities in the USA are #1 Los Angeles (world #90) and #2 San Francisco (world #104).

Yes -- that can be a bit deceptive. I think the problem here is that they're probably using MSAs rather than the city proper. According to that statistic NYC has double the land area of LA, which seems highly unlikely to me.
[/quote]

It does (you'll notice San Francisco is actually San Francisco/Oakland and has 3+ mil people).  If you look at just cities/land area SF is still #2 in the US, but it's #2 behind NY.  Still, it could be denser than it is, there were some long stretches of almost no construction, and being a landlord in this city seems horrible.

But really, if someone wants to leave California because they think it's too expensive or poorly run, they should.  I personally feel it's worth paying my super high rent to live here rather than somewhere in Texas, especially since I get paid more than what I probably would somewhere else (and actually I think it would be hard for me to move a lot of places in this country because I'd probably end up taking a pay cut for a similar job, and it would feel really silly to get paid less to live somewhere crappier).