The house in question in the article is in Sunnyvale, so it's entirely possible that the closest fine dining is ... "Chili's".

I love the Bay Area, but suburbs are suburbs.

Edit: I checked; it's not quite the closest "fine dining", but there actually is one a short walk away =)

You can do a lot better than Chilis. There’s a huge variety of dining options in and around the South Bay, some of them on the higher end. I think the question is more whether the Chili’s is the only game in town or whether you have options that aren’t Chili’s or fast food.

Having lived in Sunnyvale for a bunch of years, this is just not true. Heck, there’s more than one Michelin starred restaurant with tasting menus well above $100 a head in the South Bay (Manresa, Baume, and Chez TJ).

How is it "just not true"? There are literally a couple Chili's (and plenty of TGIF's and other similar places) within a couple miles of the house in question. The fact that there are _also_ some real nice places doesn't change that (also, my wife and I literally fell asleep while eating at Chez TJ. One of my worst meals ever. Baumé is superb, however.)

The Bay Area isn't uniquely bad. It just isn't uniquely great either. It's a nice place to live. So are lots of other places. There are some great restaurants. There are some great restaurants in other suburbs, too.

I mean, surely there are shitty chain restaurants even in food meccas like NYC. Maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say here.

There are many excellent Korean, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, mid eastern, etc. restaurants all around.

Yes, absolutely. Gochi is one of my favorite lunch spots, and a short walk away. This is also true for every college town in the rest of the country. The Bay Area isn't magic.

With the money you saved you could also buy a house in India, Korea and China.

A very good point but el camino leads to koreatown or the city so hopefully you have a car or enjoy the bus/train. That road is terrifying on a bike tho.

Don't need to go to Koreatown for a good meal. Gochi and Orenchi Ramen are both within walking distance. Also a few good dim sum options there.

Have you ever actually visited the midwest or are all your negative stereotypes based completely on the casually accepted discriminatory comments you've read online?

To answer your question- people of color would be treated identically to white people. You do realize the racial history of the midwest is safehouses for the underground railroad and soldiers for the Union army during the civil war right? And that Iowa legalized gay marriage years before California.

There are good and bad people everywhere, smart and dumb people everywhere. Negative stereotypes based on city, state or region are just as bigoted as any other stereotypes.

Chicago had the first LGBT-friendly community in the United States. They were out and proud long before Stonewall. Illinois was the first state in the country to repeal its (unenforced) sodomy laws.

California, on the other hand, elected Ronald Reagan as governor in order to "send the welfare bums back to work" and then re-elected him because they loved that he banned black people from carrying guns.

Yeah - so this same list can be marked true for places in and around HCOL areas of CA, NY, Insert any other "desirable location." Your sentiment towards the Midwest is de-constructive.

No, not any worse than they would wherever you're at, yes, and no.

There is no "gotcha" to life in the Midwest, the cost of everything in coastal cities is just ridiculous. You don't have to be surrounded by luddites and people who hate minorities to buy a house for less than $2.6 million.

For that matter, while a city like Boston in the Northeast is expensive, you can drive or take a train less than an hour and be in towns where there are decent houses to be had for a few hundred thousand dollars. (Yes, there are expensive towns too.)

Is that your perception of the entirety of the midwest? California isn't just Tesla driving, hoodie wearing, tech types.

BRB, going to meet a friend for lunch at Chili's.

If you believe this, you must be living in a bubble. This will be akin to someone from the midwest not wanting to move to California because of drug-loving hippies. It's kinda a gross generalization.

Honest advice, you should probably take a break from the media.

This won't age well.

That's a little hyperbolic... some places in the midwest can be outright hostile towards certain types of people. That's a completely legitimate concern regardless of political affiliation.

I think you're being flippant, which generally contributes to the same problem you're trying to highlight.

Nobody ever drove by my house with a PA in their pickup shouting homophobic slurs when I lived in the Bay Area. That was a plus.

Haven't you heard? Conservatives are the only oppressed people in America.

Those damned progressives really need to stop oppressing the conservative freedom to oppress others. /s