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Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

nytimes.com

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Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#301

Post by mjevans »

13thLetter wrote: post #50
peatmoss wrote: post #14

I've only lived in Seattle for about 6 years, but have seen / felt a rise in rents over that time. When we moved here, lots of rentals were offering one or two months free rent as a move in special. Now, not so much. Because he was sick of friends moving away, a friend of mine made his rookie run for the city council this past year. He didn't survive the primary, but he had some good ideas about housing that have in…

> Here the idea is that Seattle would run its own voucher program to subsidize rents for low-income people. The problem with subsidy programs like that is that the rents then simply go up by the amount of the subsidy.

The solution is increasing the supply (which is how you actually drive down prices).

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#302

Post by steve-howard »

s73v3r wrote: post #292
serge2k wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you are new, so you should be required to take your substantial income and use it to get a place an hour from work so you can bus everyday. That's totally the way the world works right?

At the same time, why are you more deserving of living there than them?

There are good arguments to be made against gentrification, and there are good arguments to be made that people don't deserve to have special privileges just because they got here first. It makes me sad that a lot of the public debate in places like Seattle comes down to "fuck you, go home."

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#303

Post by mjevans »

malandrew wrote: post #229

Yay, yet another city trying out the horribly naive and misguided "Below Market Rate" housing model that only serves to distort the local housing economy further. I had a front row seat to experience the process because someone I date got into a BMR house about 1.5 years ago. For those that don't know, BMR housing programs usually work like this: - In order to build a new building, the builder must agree to allocate…

The real solution, as you point out, is fixing the supply. The reason the rent is too damn high is that the market has insufficient supply. You can encourage buildings with more store frontage near the market level(s) and more housing above by offering economic incentives (possibly with conditions like rent control) until you reach a more desired outcome.

PS: While you're doing this please also include civic funding mandates. More transit, parking areas (maybe free parking transit PnRs at the edge?, better designed surface and skybridge interlinks. Parks (public and private, maybe roof top?) as well.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#304

Post by PhasmaFelis »

itsybitsycoder wrote: post #297
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many of those engineers have horror stories about women who can only talk about and refuse to discuss anything interesting, like engineering or video games.

Are you saying that all women want to talk about is bland socially-approved topics, or that everything other than engineering and video games is bland and socially-approved? I like talking about work and videogames sometimes but if that's all you can talk about without getting bored, it's pretty bad.

I meant more what mjevans said. Sometimes two people just don't have anything in common, and that's too bad, but too often blame is placed 100% on the nerdy guy for having the "wrong" interests, when really it's nobody's fault.

Remember a while back when someone wrote an entire awful clickbait article about the horror of discovering that the guy she was on a date with played Magic: The Gathering? Not that he was unpleasantly obsessed with it, not that he couldn't talk about anything else, just that he was a frequent player.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#305

Post by eastbayjake »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #304
itsybitsycoder wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that all women want to talk about is bland socially-approved topics, or that everything other than engineering and video games is bland and socially-approved? I like talking about work and videogames sometimes but if that's all you can talk about without getting bored, it's pretty bad.

I meant more what mjevans said. Sometimes two people just don't have anything in common, and that's too bad, but too often blame is placed 100% on the nerdy guy for having the "wrong" interests, when really it's nobody's fault. Remember a while back when someone wrote an entire awful clickbait article about the horror of discovering that the guy she was on a date with played Magic: The Gathering? Not that he was unpl…

To clarify, an important part of these date horror stories is literally "I could not get him to talk." Like long, awkward pauses until his interlocutor asks him about work/engineering. The problem is not "having the wrong interests", it's not being able to communicate your interests to female humans unless presented with a direct question that can be answered with a factual response, like "What do you do at [Company]?"

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#306

Post by wfo »

thieving_magpie wrote: post #68
wfo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has never been particularly welcoming to newcomers; people there tend to be insular and it can be hard to make friends if you don't already know people (even before the amazon/tech stuff -- plenty of articles about 'the seattle freeze' that predate it). Being from there helps. Not being in tech helps -- there are so many new software engineers meeting one just isn't very interesting. You can hardly blame peop…

Yeah, I'm not all that concerned with making friends with people that are hostile about my profession. That's so petty. >partly because the countless new techbros with no respect for Seattle culture who spend 11hrs/day at work and don't have time to develop a personality romping around town give it a real bad reputation What does that even mean? I hear this all the time and I honestly have no idea how to "respect Sea…

When you move to a new place, that place has a culture. If you want locals to like or accept you, you should try to at the very least understand if not adopt part of that culture. It works the same everywhere. In a small town it's much more pressing and obvious -- watch how fast you get ostracized when you dump on their culture; in a big city you can kind of get away with doing your own thing and ignoring most of the people/culture/tradition if you want.

People in Seattle have worked very hard for years to build a community and a culture that they enjoy and on the whole represents them and is different from any other city in the country. That hard work is one of the biggest reasons people consider Seattle such a great place to live. Dumping a million rich young people who are there to work themselves to death at amazon for a year before they jump ship and work at a real company somewhere else into the middle of it isn't particularly good for that community or culture.

If you don't know what respecting the culture of a place means then I don't really know what to tell you. If you "hear it all the time" that means people are saying it all the time and it means something; I'd try to understand what they mean rather than being hostile to the idea.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#307

Post by wfo »

School-Cotton wrote: post #299
mjevans wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the point. The answer to number 2 is to be more than your job. To leave work /at work/.

I'm "more than my work". But that doesn't mean my work isn't a major part of me.

Your bathroom habits are a major part of you too, but that doesn't mean you bring them up in normal polite conversation. People aren't interested in hearing about your work (especially if it's in tech and they are not) just like they aren't interested in many details of your life which are very important to you. Your goal in social interaction should be to find common ground, not force people to want to talk about what you want to talk about.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#308

Post by wfo »

JesperRavn wrote: post #257
wfo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has never been particularly welcoming to newcomers; people there tend to be insular and it can be hard to make friends if you don't already know people (even before the amazon/tech stuff -- plenty of articles about 'the seattle freeze' that predate it). Being from there helps. Not being in tech helps -- there are so many new software engineers meeting one just isn't very interesting. You can hardly blame peop…

>countless new techbros with no respect for Seattle culture who spend 11hrs/day at work and don't have time to develop a personality romping around town give it a real bad reputation. I think you do a great job summarizing the hypocrisy of the left on this issue. According to the left, if a person is financially disadvantaged, they deserve sympathy and support. However if a person is socially disadvantaged[0], they n…

So apparently having a life outside of work is now a left-wing political issue? All the conservatives I know and spend time with have hobbies too.

What does socially disadvantaged even mean? Autism spectrum disorder? Having nothing interesting to say? Having no interests or ability to socially interact?

And obviously I'm not referring to shy introverts when I describe these people as "techbros" "romping around town".

And it's Amazon. 11 hours is an underestimate.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#309

Post by [deleted] »

wfo wrote: post #306
thieving_magpie wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm not all that concerned with making friends with people that are hostile about my profession. That's so petty. >partly because the countless new techbros with no respect for Seattle culture who spend 11hrs/day at work and don't have time to develop a personality romping around town give it a real bad reputation What does that even mean? I hear this all the time and I honestly have no idea how to "respect Sea…

When you move to a new place, that place has a culture. If you want locals to like or accept you, you should try to at the very least understand if not adopt part of that culture. It works the same everywhere. In a small town it's much more pressing and obvious -- watch how fast you get ostracized when you dump on their culture; in a big city you can kind of get away with doing your own thing and ignoring most of the…

[deleted]

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#310

Post by thieving_magpie »

wfo wrote: post #306
thieving_magpie wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm not all that concerned with making friends with people that are hostile about my profession. That's so petty. >partly because the countless new techbros with no respect for Seattle culture who spend 11hrs/day at work and don't have time to develop a personality romping around town give it a real bad reputation What does that even mean? I hear this all the time and I honestly have no idea how to "respect Sea…

When you move to a new place, that place has a culture. If you want locals to like or accept you, you should try to at the very least understand if not adopt part of that culture. It works the same everywhere. In a small town it's much more pressing and obvious -- watch how fast you get ostracized when you dump on their culture; in a big city you can kind of get away with doing your own thing and ignoring most of the…

I meant "read it all the time", as I only see this on the internet.

Fairly sure I'm fitting in just fine. As I said, I don't have a bad word to say about anyone I've met. Apparently asking you what "respect the culture" means gets me a negative response where you berate for me not already know what it means and telling me I should "try to understand".

So asking you directly isn't good enough. I think I'll just pass, I'm doing fine and Seattle has been nothing but kind. But good luck with your approach, I'm sure making someone feel bad for moving to a new place works on someone.

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