• Mike Manalac has worked in the tech hubs of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Chicago since 2016.
• He says each place has its strengths, but Chicago is the best place for raising a family.
• Chicago offers Manalac and his family the perfect balance career, affordability, and family life.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mike Manalac, a 39-year-old accounting manager at Google. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

Over the past eight years, I’ve worked in the tech scenes of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Chicago. The three places couldn’t be more different in terms of lifestyle, and they’ve each appealed to me for different reasons.

Here’s how the three places compare:

San Francisco is fun but not for the faint of heart

I moved to San Francisco in 2016 to pursue world-class career opportunities and adventure. I’d spent the past eight years as an audit manager in Baltimore and the cross-country move was a big change for me.

As someone with ambitious career goals, San Francisco was the mecca of opportunity, so I joined PwC to get closer to Bay Area tech jobs. Some of the world’s most innovative companies were basically next door, and their corporate headquarters lined the city’s blocks like Lego bricks.

I once interviewed at Salesforce’s headquarters while on my lunch break since it was only a few blocks away from PwC. When doing phone screens for Uber, Twitter, and Dolby, I knew I’d be able to walk over to their offices for an on-site interview at a moment’s notice.

As a young professional with limited life responsibilities, San Francisco turned out to be the perfect place to live fast and loose. The social scene was amazing — a night out for drinks could mean stopping by a speakeasy with no sign, sipping a mai tai on a floating tiki bar, or drinks served from a bathtub at a bar the size of a walk-in closet.

San Francisco also has the best park scene in the country; I’ve yet to find a better party than a regular Saturday afternoon at Dolores Park.

It’s also a walkable city. For the first time in my adult life, I was car-free. The city was full of trendy coffee shops, unique bars and restaurants, and charming neighborhoods to explore.

But living in San Francisco also isn’t for the faint of heart. Outside of coworkers, my then-fiancée (and now wife) and I found it incredibly challenging to make friends; everyone seemed to assign others a level of importance based on where they lived and worked. I also would’ve needed an absurd amount of wealth to purchase a home and raise a family there.

I felt that the city’s biggest blemish, though, was the seedy Tenderloin district, which sits smack dab in the middle of downtown. I had to walk through the neighborhood to catch a corporate shuttle bus to work, and I saw my fair share of sketchy characters and shady dealings at the time.

Silicon Valley’s career opportunities were unmatched

Later that year, I started working in Silicon Valley after I joined Walmart’s eCommerce division in San Bruno. And the following year, I landed a job as an accounting manager at Google’s Sunnyvale campus.

Silicon Valley offers the coolest places to work and its career opportunities are unmatched. I was amazed by the sprawling corporate campuses. Walking through Facebook’s invite-only campus, which is like a walled garden city, and down its main street, Hacker Way, I was in awe. In nearby Mountain View, I couldn’t believe how nearly every building in the city was branded with Google’s logo.

I saw corporate buses and colorful bikes whizzing around and young professionals with corporate badges on their hips and branded backpacks on their backs.

While Silicon Valley may be the tech capital of the world, I’d never live there. For one thing, I couldn’t afford it; the cookie-cutter neighborhoods of Silicon Valley are reserved for millionaires and the hillside mansions for billionaires. I, on the other hand, commuted from San Francisco via corporate shuttle bus.

But I wouldn’t have wanted to live there anyway. The social scene was dead, the city wasn’t walkable, and the nightlife was nonexistent. Nobody I knew went to happy hour after work, restaurants closed early, and most people only lived there because of the proximity to work.

Chicago has a down-to-earth social scene and affordable, family-friendly neighborhoods

I moved to Chicago with my wife in 2019, transferring to Google’s Chicago office. The cost of living in Chicago was much cheaper, my commute would be shorter, and we’d be closer to her family in Michigan and mine in Maryland.

Chicago doesn’t have the buzzy tech scene or beautiful weather of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, but it’s no slouch when it comes to career opportunities. More Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Chicago than in almost every other city in the US, and the job opportunities are much more diverse than what you’ll find in the tech-centric San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

From Google’s office in Chicago’s West Loop, I can see McDonald’s global headquarters down the street and a number of other premier employers dotting the city skyline.

Chicago is a city that likes to party, making San Francisco look sleepy by comparison. Bars don’t close until 2 a.m., with some staying open until 4 a.m. Chicago’s Lake Michigan beach scene is much livelier than that of San Francisco. But the social scene also has a down-to-earth vibe; people are Midwest nice and seem to live at a more casual pace.

The best part about Chicago is the moderate cost of living. I was able to afford a three-unit home with rental potential in Chicago for $830,000 — a price I’d never find in San Francisco — that’s in a walkable neighborhood. It’s the perfect blend of family-friendly city life. Our three-year-old son loves taking the train home from daycare and running wild at one of the city’s many playgrounds.

I think Chicago is the best of the three places to start a family

After working in these three awesome places, I’ve realized that even the best cities have their flaws.

San Francisco has the coolest social scene and overall vibe, but it’s one of the worst cities for settling down because of its high costs.

Silicon Valley offers the best career opportunities, but its social scene is lacking since everything there is about work, work, work.

Chicago is the best of the three locations to start a family due to its affordability and comfortable pace of life, but it’s not quite as cool as San Francisco and can’t match the career opportunities offered in Silicon Valley.

Overall, though, it’s hard to beat Chicago’s mix of career opportunities, vibrant social scene, and opportunities to start a family.

If you’ve moved around for work and would like to share your experiences of different cities, email Jane Zhang at janezhang@businessinsider.com.

The San Francisco Giants have had some of the best players in Major League Baseball history wear their colors. That’s why the past few years have been as disappointing as ever.

The Giants are a winning organization with a rich history. Any campaign that doesn’t end in a World Series will be viewed as a failure, and rightfully so.

Buster Posey is among the legends who have worn a San Francisco jersey. He’s now the president of baseball operations, an exciting hire a few months ago.

Posey is expected to play a big part in the Giants turning this thing around, and there aren’t many better than him to do just that.

Among the others includes Madison Bumgarner, a left-handed pitcher who was as good as it gets during his time with San Francisco.

Posey spoke on The Athletic’s “Starkville” podcast on Monday, hinting that Bumgarner might join the coaching staff.

“He’s been fun to talk to over these last couple of months because he’s surprised me that he wants to have some sort of involvement,” Posey said. “I kinda figured, once he was done, that he would want to — that we would kinda never hear from him again. He would disappear and, I don’t know, go be in the woods somewhere. I’m extremely excited about him being able to just share some of his experience with some of our young pitchers.”

For a Giants team that could use all the help it could get on the mound, adding the fierce competitor would be the perfect addition.

Bumgarner understands what it takes to pitch in big moments in front of the incredible San Francisco fan base. He and Posey lived it, as they were integral parts of the franchise’s three World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

However, while Posey hinted at the possibility, he added that there isn’t anything set in stone yet.

“Look, I don’t have anything set in stone with him yet, and I don’t want to jump to anything with him,” Posey said. “I’m just happy that it seems like there’s a willingness for him to want to give back because he’s just a wealth of knowledge. And talk about a mentality, I mean, I never played with a pitcher that had the mentality like he did.”

As the former catcher said, it’s a good step in the right direction that Bumgarner at least has some willingness to help out.

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but he’d be an excellent addition to the coaching staff, even if it’s in a small capacity.

A classic Edwardian home in San Francisco‘s Russian Hill with timeless character has been snapped up for $488,000 by a savvy homebuyer.

The unusually low price is far less than half of the city’s $1.2 million median list price and an even smaller portion of the property’s estimated $1.4 million value.

Though the home might seem like a dream bargain at first glance, it comes with a rather astonishing catch: The new owner may not move into the property for the next 30 years.

According to the listing, the property is currently tenant-occupied under San Francisco’s tenant protection laws, and the current lucky occupant, who pays an incredibly low monthly rent of $417, signed a lease that locked in strict rent controls and grants occupancy rights extending until 2053.

These laws are designed to protect long-term renters, securing low costs over a years long period and enabling the current tenant to take full control over payments of all utilities, including water, garbage, and energy bills.

There’s no wiggle room either. The sale was strictly as is, according to the listing, which also noted that agents were unable to guarantee access to the property for an inspection or even a walk-through before purchase.

The seller also had the right to reject or counter any offers.

Perhaps understandably, given the legal complexities that come with the home, any potential buyers were urged to review the full disclosure package and consult with an attorney before committing to purchasing the house.

And that’s not the only “catch” to have come with the property.

Per the listing, the former male owner of the house died inside it. He was over the age of 100 and died of natural causes.

When the home was first listed, it sparked a frenzy of excitement and intrigue.

One neighbor at the time, Ilia Smith, told ABC News that there was a line of people wrapped around the block waiting for a chance to peek inside the unique home.

“My husband came in and said, ‘You’ve got to look out the window. There’s a line from the house all the way to the middle of the block,’” she said.

Ultimately, it was revealed that the home had been the subject of a bitter family feud, according to the San Francisco Standard, which reported that the home was listed by Todd Lee, who is the son of the current tenant, Sandra Lee.

According to the Standard, the property was purchased by Sandra’s parents, Florence and Kenneth Goo, in the 1970s. The Goos lived there for many years until they both died in the home, in 2006 and 2018, respectively.

Sandra, who has been living in the home since 2018, told the Standard that the property had been listed by her son without her permission. He was unaware of the iron-clad lease clauses that Kenneth had secretly written into her rental agreement before his death, she added.

“If it wasn’t for the lease that [my son] didn’t know about that was made in 2018, I don’t know where we’d be,” she told the publication. “It’s unfathomable, the deception, the betrayal—this is my son doing this to me.”

Property records indicate that the home was actually purchased by Sandra’s daughter, Cheryl Lee, suggesting that the family rift has since been put aside and that the new owner will not have to worry about dealing with the difficulties of having a stranger occupying their home for the next three decades.

At the time of the home’s original listing, experts at local company Kinoko Real Estate explained the complexities of buying this kind of property. There are a few upsides to purchasing a dwelling that already has a long-term tenant installed, they noted.

“Real estate investors might be intrigued by the long-term investment opportunity,” the company’s website said. “The guaranteed rental income for nearly three decades is attractive, especially considering San Francisco’s historically rising rents.”

However, according to Kinoko, the downsides are much more obvious.

“While the long-term rental income might be enticing, there are some significant drawbacks to consider,” the website goes on. “Firstly, the buyer has no control over the property for nearly three decades. Major repairs or renovations would be at the mercy of the tenant’s cooperation.

“Additionally, predicting the housing market in 2053 is a fool’s errand. There’s no guarantee the property will appreciate in value as much as hoped, especially considering the long wait time.”