Bay Area → Seattle
After four years at the San Jose Mercury News, I’m leaving the paper and the Bay Area to start a new adventure in Seattle.
My long-time girlfriend and I will be making the move soon and this is my last week at the Merc. I don’t have a job lined up but will be doing everything I can to stay in journalism, the profession I love. I’m both petrified and giddy.
So, why am I doing this?
There are three big things that have been eating away at me for a while. The first is that I’m getting restless in my career, after nearly 8 years reporting in the Bay Area. I feel like I’ve soaked up about as much knowledge as I can from the great, much-better-than me peers at the paper and have covered enough of the news here that it’s becoming too routine. The exciting feeling that I used to have every day — that anything could happen when I got to work — is only there a couple times a week now, as my passion for discovering what’s new here has waned.
The second and biggest issue is that the Bay Area is just too damn expensive. It’s become a running joke on my Twitter feed to post the latest study explaining just how pricey the rent is here, or the insane non-journalistic income you need to afford a mortgage, or how some landlords are now requiring you to donate a liver as a down-payment. It’s overwhelming. The average rent in the Bay Area has gone up from $1,500 a month to $2,100 per month in the last four years and continues to climb. The region’s median home price has increased from $410,000 to $610,000 during that span.
I love it here. But the cold reality for people like me is that we have zero chance of ever being able to buy a house in the Bay Area, or afford to raise a family. And paying the rent means I’m just getting by, without being able to even start a retirement fund or save up for, well, anything. We’ve come to grips with the sad but inevitable truth that it is impossible to have a real future in the Bay Area. I’m not angry about this, it’s just the way it is.
Seattle is a city that, while expensive, will still allow us to save about $800-$1,000 a month on rent for the same 1-bedroom apartment that we’re paying $2,500 a month for now. It has a lot of the same stuff you’d want here — West Coast vibe, restaurants, good job market — but without the constant sunshine. It’s a trade we’re willing to make. My girlfriend, Veronica, is from New York and I’m from Boston, so we decided the city furthest from our families was a logical choice (just kidding, mom, if you’re reading this).
One last important thing was at play here, and I can’t understate this point. People who are wiser and older than me have taken it upon themselves to repeatedly leave me with a valuable lesson: don’t waste your youth. I’m turning 29 next month. Call it a quarter-life dilemma, but it’s a feeling that’s been hard to shake. There comes a point in a man’s life where picking up roots and risking the comfort of your established life for a new adventure is no longer possible or even worthwhile. This is likely my last chance to go out on a ledge, and I don’t want to look back and regret not doing it.
A few more notes:
*My replacement at the Merc should be announced very soon — they’re hiring someone from the outside. Stay tuned.
*Thanks to everyone at the paper for giving me a graduate school education in journalism but without the crippling debt. It will be tough to top.
*I’m not kidding when I say that had my Patriots lost the Super Bowl, I really don’t think I’d be able to move to Seahawks country. They’re going to love me coming from 49ers land, wearing my Pats shirt around town …
*I get it if you want to unfollow me on Twitter, but I’ll be keeping up with all of you. (While we’re here: I’m embarrassed to report that losing my check-mark verification on Twitter, which happens when you lose your work email linked to the account, might be the hardest part of all this. Also, I am an insecure man.)
*Keep in touch! (Especially if you have a job for a reporter in Seattle.) My personal email is rosenberg.mike@yahoo.com
Mike
