Looks like the VC's are spearheading the move to Oakland. Chamath Palihapitaya from Social + Capital is planning a developers village apartment complex in Oakland with the goal of luring more Midwest coders to the West coast.
Seems overly optimistic to think that anyone from the midwest would be dumb enough to think that $80k was a livable salary for that area even in Oakland.
As a Midwestern coder, I could definitely see peers making that mistake - 80k seems like a lot when you're used to rent in the low hundreds. That said, where are you getting 80k? I didn't see it in either the GP link or the original story, and would expect Uber to be hiring at higher salaries than that given other comments in this thread re: the cash/stock split.
It's in the TC article linked in the parent comment to mine. They are talking about reducing costs by reducing living expenses via VC provided company housing for employees to the point were 80k seems like a viable salary.
"You need to tell that engineer from the University of Michigan that he can live here on a salary of $80,000."
I'm from the Midwest as well, you're probably right it is a mistake a new grad would make I certainly remember being surprised that my starting salary, though above average for students from my university according to the published stats didn't go quite as far as I imagined it would in a more expensive metro area than I was used to.
In my last year of grad school, I splurged and got a three-bedroom apartment in the guest house behind the mansion of an auto industry magnate, with utilities paid for $745. This was an amazing apartment, too (though maybe it was only amazing in comparison to the cookie-cutter apartments I had stayed in before).
I think it's quite possible to find rent in the low hundreds for a place that is "half decent".
Sorry, I should have clarified - I'm thinking of a few friends in particular who would be fresh-out-of-undergrad developers coming from shared apartments where they were paying $300-$350/mo. The change from 8k debt/year to 80k income/year is significant enough that there are people who wouldn't question the 80k number as a far-more-than-enough wage.