[abalone]

> teachers make 100k+

You're way off. The median annual Teacher Elementary School salary in San Francisco, CA is $69,389, as of June 28, 2017.[1]

Cities also need a large number of service industry workers that make even less than this.

[1] http://www1.salary.com/CA/San-Francisco/Teacher-Elementary-S...

[vedanta]

I would say most bay area and CA cities pay their public sector employees rather well (with pensions). It's the artists, private-sector service employees, and other low-income jobs that are squeezed the most.