The long term solution was proposed more than a century ago ironically enough by an economist from San Francisco.
http://qz.com/169767/the-century-old-solution-to-end-san-fra...
Housing in the Bay Area
241–250 of 407 posts
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#242Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think NYC is already there. It's so easy to find a tech job in NYC. Maybe it's even easier in SV, but I've never missed not being in SV. There's such a variety here. Plenty of startups, all the tech giants, and plenty of tech/IT jobs at "regular" companies, consulting opportunities, etc... And it's not _just_ tech -- plenty of other industries are headquartered in NYC. By contrast I can't think of any other industr…
NYC is far far far way from overtaking SV as the capital of tech industry. The combined value of just Google, Apple, and Facebook is $1.3 trillion dollars. To reach that scale will take many many years and some incredible companies. Honestly, places that can put in a serious competition to SV are in Asia - China and India. Chinese tech companies are raising massive rounds, with multiple billion dollar investments in…
Thank you, great comment!
> The combined value of just Google, Apple, and Facebook is $1.3 trillion dollars.
Well, to the extent that those three companies have employees in other cities, I'd count their market caps proportionally towards those cities. I'm not sure offhand about Apple or FB but Google has a huge office in NYC. But that still leaves the vast majority in SV.
> Also, most successful hubs are often one industry towns. Think Detroit and Houston.
Ominous and timely comparisons. One-industry towns are also way more vulnerable in the long run. NYC is actually a counterexample -- it is the industry hub for at least three industries (finance, fashion, advertising) and leads or has a strong presence in many others, and it's been that way for a long time.
> But it is also a mistake to think SV is just a "tech" hub.
If being close to other members of the industry you are "disrupting" with tech is useful, then that is a huge advantage for a city like NYC with a wide variety of industry. But maybe that's not that necessary -- maybe Tesla would not get much advantage out of being in Detroit near other automakers. If that's the case then a city like NYC does not have any special advantage there.
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#244This is one of the top factors preventing me from moving back to the Bay Area. It's good to know there's at least SOME serious attempt at a solution (even if folks around here are mostly pessimistic.) It still surprises me that an industry that's all about connecting the world through the internet and allowing anyone to work with anyone else on anything says "yeah but you need to work in this small area of the countr…
I think NYC is already there. It's so easy to find a tech job in NYC. Maybe it's even easier in SV, but I've never missed not being in SV. There's such a variety here. Plenty of startups, all the tech giants, and plenty of tech/IT jobs at "regular" companies, consulting opportunities, etc... And it's not _just_ tech -- plenty of other industries are headquartered in NYC. By contrast I can't think of any other industr…
so I've lived in both.
The size of the campuses in Silicon Valley literally cannot fit in NYC. No comparison.
Its fantastic that Google bought a block of Manhattan for 1 billion dollars, but Google's Mountain View campus is ALL of Mountain View. These are sprawling districts that cannot fit inside of a skyscraper.
The next fundamental difference is the variety of VCs. NYC cannot replicate this, and there is nothing eroding about it. NYC has one or two VCs looking at the same industry trends. Silicon Valley has many VCs interested in completely different things, different portfolio niches.
NYC has variety of industries and conveniences.
Silicon Valley doesn't even know how backwards its infrastructure is, while trying to change a world that functions better than it does already.
San Francisco masquerades as Silicon Valley and an international city but it is neither. New York, London and Hong Kong are international cities, SF struggles to keep up with the tech bubbles that it remains on the periphery of and only recently gained relevance for.
There is more tech focused stuff in SF and Silicon Valley, but New York has enough satellite offices to keep you occupied.
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, Marin County is "the boss-level kingdom of California NIMBYs": https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/735561614368202752
I support development but I'm kind of okay with not too much in Marin because there's no viable and fast public transit from there to SF so adding a bunch of people there doesn't make as much sense (I could also be rationalizing a bias towards keeping Marin green and "country" since I want to eventually settle down there..) I really support development along established rail corridors along CalTrain and BART lines. T…
I agree completely with keeping parks and other green space, but disagree with so little density in the actual built up areas.
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, Marin County is "the boss-level kingdom of California NIMBYs": https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/735561614368202752
I support development but I'm kind of okay with not too much in Marin because there's no viable and fast public transit from there to SF so adding a bunch of people there doesn't make as much sense (I could also be rationalizing a bias towards keeping Marin green and "country" since I want to eventually settle down there..) I really support development along established rail corridors along CalTrain and BART lines. T…
Of course theres no BART in Marin due to racist local NIMBYs so there's a bit of a paradox involved.
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what you mean to say is cheaper, not affordable. a software engineer makes over 80K if he is lucky, you would be considered an exception if you make anything over 100K. also pretty much everything else costs more in Canada than it does in US which leaves even less money for housing, so cheaper yes, but definitely less affordable.
http://www.vancouver-downtown-condo.ca/details.php?id=31618&... $300k (USD) 1 bd room apartment in Yaletown, equivalent of this in SF is at least $750k. Plus property taxes in SF are around %1.15 for a $750k condo that comes down to 10k a year, just on property taxes. Not sure about the rules in Vancouver but the link I posted above claims $1,008 in property taxes. So yea I think Vancouver is affordable.
It would be pretty much impossible to buy that unit at that price. The new normal is that you list your property at below market rate and a get nice silent auction going.
for example a friend of mine just bought a condo in vancouver last week, List price was around 500K, he put an offer of $530, got a counter of $550 and it finally sold for $580.
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/fierce-bidding-wars-a-new-reality-in-lo...
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what you mean to say is cheaper, not affordable. a software engineer makes over 80K if he is lucky, you would be considered an exception if you make anything over 100K. also pretty much everything else costs more in Canada than it does in US which leaves even less money for housing, so cheaper yes, but definitely less affordable.
http://www.vancouver-downtown-condo.ca/details.php?id=31618&... $300k (USD) 1 bd room apartment in Yaletown, equivalent of this in SF is at least $750k. Plus property taxes in SF are around %1.15 for a $750k condo that comes down to 10k a year, just on property taxes. Not sure about the rules in Vancouver but the link I posted above claims $1,008 in property taxes. So yea I think Vancouver is affordable.
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Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the actual building they live in gets demolished to build another building. Or because the new building next door is filled with 'luxury' $5000/mo rents, which might drive the rent up in their building.
If someone is living in the mission there are only 3 options; 1) They own their house 2) They are renting but their unit is rent controlled 3) They are rich or have high paying jobs (and building more actually helps them) "Because the actual building they live in gets demolished to build another building" This happens very rarely, people will literally revolt before a rent controlled unit gets demolished in the missi…
This happens all the time (#2), it's literally happening to me right now. Look at the map of Ellis and Owner Move-In evictions in SF. Thousands of people are being displaced.
Re: Housing in the Bay Area
#250This is a contentious issue and in case you are not from SF and wondering why Y Combinator is taking a stand on it, it has to do with the politics of the tech boom. The plain truth is that the housing crisis is a combination of too much sudden demand fueled by the tech boom and too little supply. The tech community likes to deflect criticism of their sudden influx of relatively high-income workers and say "don't blam…
> The tech community likes to deflect criticism of their sudden influx of relatively high-income workers and say "don't blame us, it's a supply problem." Well duh, ostensibly high-paying jobs are good, remember? Like, the tech sector is one of the few remaining industries with lots of jobs that pay well, and now we gotta demonize them too? Would it be preferable for everyone to be equally poor? And it obviously is a…
"Well duh, ostensibly high-paying jobs are good, remember?"
To whom, exactly? If those jobs are going to people who are moving here from somewhere else, then who benefits? There was a thriving city here long before tech startups came along.
The cruel irony of this kind of job growth is that it doesn't benefit the people who are being displaced. I personally think we need a more balanced approach: we need to build more housing, but we also need to start implementing some disincentives for companies to locate offices in San Francisco. It makes no sense, for example, that we're giving tech companies tax breaks to move their employees here.