CHEAPER TO LIVE AT THE AIRPORT THAN IN S.F.?
The airport. It’s not a place where most people want to spend more time than is absolutely necessary. Stand in line, have your documents evaluated, walk around, repeat.
Even fewer people would consider living there, even though most of them are already packed for it.
But why? San Francisco International, like most big metro airports, has many of the same features as a city neighborhood — restaurants, shopping, museums, cranky neighbors, rail transportation and public art (and the renovated Terminal 3 is only slightly more gentrified than Valencia Street in the Mission District).
And the cost of living there, apparently, is comparable to that of a San Francisco apartment.
Provided you can tune out the occasional plane taking off, there are benefits: Odds are the neighborhood is nicer than yours, there’s less crime, the BART station is a short walk, and you can sleep on a row of seats and no one rousts you for being homeless. Best of all, you might run into Lilou the Therapy Pig. (On the down side, you can’t keep your own pet, it’s tough to have friends over, and dating might be problematic, but that’s life in the big airport.)
If the only thing stopping a person from living at the airport is not having a place to sleep and shower, it turns out that one of the lesserknown spots at SFO is Freshen Up, a storefront operation in a quiet corner of the International Terminal that offers computer access, every travel-size bath product invented, disposable undergarments and, conveniently, nap rooms and shower rooms. Next door is the Airport Travel Agency, where workers will happily store your luggage, wrap your bag or notarize your documents.
The nap and shower rooms are intended for the passenger on a layover between 12hour flights, and include a desk and chair, lamp, Wi-Fi, a TV with cable, a fan, a trash can and a bottle of water. Hypothetically, you could live there — at least overnight, eight hours at a time plus 30 minutes for the shower. Cost: $140 per night. Monthly, that’s $4,200, which sounds like a small fortune — almost anywhere else.
But the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Mission, according to RentJungle.com, runs $3,981 per month. Factor in that a resident of SFO wouldn’t have to pay for basic utilities (electricity, heating, water, garbage), Wi-Fi, cable or a city parking permit — a bit under $200 per month. And at the airport, the museum and related exhibits are free.
Cost for apartment living: $4,178.
Most other expenses (dining, groceries, commuting) are the same. (You could make an argument that airport meals and groceries typically are more expensive — something about having a captive audience — but most prices around San Francisco seem to be almost as inflated as the rents, so that’s a wash.)
Truthfully, the Freshen Up services are not intended for nonfliers (often, clerks require a boarding pass), but if they were, living at the airport — and having a really cool address — would only cost you $22 a month more than in town.
And you’d never be late for a flight.
$4,178 Monthly cost for a one-bedroom apartment in the Mission District, counting basic utilities, Wi-Fi, cable and a city parking permit, plus one museum admission
$4,200 Monthly cost for “living” in a nap room at SFO