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In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

nytimes.com

61–70 of 101 posts

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#61
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of people i've talked to think SF was a craphole 25 years ago. Let's see, I've been in the area for 40 years and your comment couldn't be more wrong or uninformed.

Given it's an opinion, based on a lot of data, i don't see how you can think it can be uninformed. You are welcome to disagree with it of course. But, again, based on what i have, i suspect you may be in the minority. Time will tell, of course!

If you have data on your side, let's see it.

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#62

San Francisco is one massive "tech slowdown" (although I suppose more like a tech collapse, given the baseline level of employment further down in Silicon Valley) from turning into Detroit-on-the-Bay.

That's some very wishful thinking. You have rich people like Robin Williams or Michelle Pfeiffer living here unlike Detroit, not to name countless CEOs and retired VCs who wont disappear.

As for the rest of us plebs, SF has survived many boom and bust cycles [0], unlike Detroit.

[0] http://sfist.com/2015/10/07/san_francisco_has_always_been_a_...

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#63
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: A lot of those rock throwers were probably not in bad shape. That is because the real people being hurt were probably working their first or second job at the time that was happening, and didn't have time to throw rocks at buses because they'd get fired for not showing up to work.

Serious question: Who is getting hurt by Google driving people to work on buses. It seems like this reduces congestion, and helps the environment, which is good for everyone. What am I missing here?

From what i can tell, they see it as symbolic of tech people "taking over".

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#64
i think a viable solution would be to look at internal structures of companies and really find out teams and departments that could function from a remote location. It could be tech or product or even HR. And move them to different office locations distributed at a wider spread to avoid one epicenter for influx of population.. Not sure if some company tried thinking in this way..

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#65
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue was they're using public bus stops. It's not hard to picture why it's demeaning to be standing at the public infrastructure and see a fancy shuttle come and pick up "Google People" while you're left waiting to ride with the proletariat. Especially demeaning when the shuttle is in the way of the real bus. Imagine if the NYC subway had a special car for Wall Street workers that was much more comfortable.

How is this any different from someone driving a 2017 Lexus versus a 1990 Toyota? Both may be a reflection of the income one receives. Both take up the same public infrastructure of the road and parking spaces.

I don't get your point, but if you park your car in a public bus stop you're an asshole regardless of its value.

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#66

The overall gist of this article to me seems like a similar SF argument: let's keep the city the way it was. Let's not build more housing, let's not build up, let's not move forward into the future. Obviously, this isn't how a city moves forward and grows. Peskin is not necessarily a bad guy.. I agree with him on some things, but neighborhood preservation is not one. It's easy to single out tech in all of this, but t…

The idea that "the future" is a megapolis that needs to be built up really needs to be defended a bit more. Historically, the dense megapolis has been the future, but that might have just be an accident of technology's evolution. Why can't Earth be densely covered with smallish cities like current Berkeley and San Francisco?

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given it's an opinion, based on a lot of data, i don't see how you can think it can be uninformed. You are welcome to disagree with it of course. But, again, based on what i have, i suspect you may be in the minority. Time will tell, of course!

If you have data on your side, let's see it.

Errr, i already said it's from talking to many people (~100-200 over the course of the year) who have lived there a very long time (in most cases, 30+ years). Given i stated an aggregation of what their responses were, that's valid data. Not sure what more you want here.

It seems you just violently disagree, but that doesn't make you right. It just makes you a data point in the other direction.

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have data on your side, let's see it.

Errr, i already said it's from talking to many people (~100-200 over the course of the year) who have lived there a very long time (in most cases, 30+ years). Given i stated an aggregation of what their responses were, that's valid data . Not sure what more you want here. It seems you just violently disagree, but that doesn't make you right. It just makes you a data point in the other direction.

So you don't actually have data, just anecdotes you've selectively remembered.

Noted.

Side note- Nice work attempting to attach the pejorative term "violently" to my position. Not that it makes your side any more convincing, but it's smart in terms of contemporary rhetoric.

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#69
I can't stand obstructionist politicians, but I also don't buy the argument that SF is not 'moving forward'. It's also building a significant amount of housing and getting over its fear of heights. There are 3 districts in SF getting significant up zoning. This is what SF's downtown will look like in 3 years:

http://i.imgur.com/mcJf5zK.jpg

Re: In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Slowdown

#70

I question the author's fact-checking abilities when the article starts with the statement "the city officially gave the shuttles free rein to use public bus stops". Actually, the shuttles can only use 200 out of 2500+ muni stops and have a plethora of other restrictions. That doesn't seem like "free rein" to me. See https://www.sfmta.com/projects-planning/projects/commuter-sh... for full program details, and http://…

That just tells me the author most likely is in favor of making the tech companies look bad even if it means distorting the truth.
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