This is how businesses get driven to the suburbs.
FWIW, Mountain View is definitely a suburb, and was the first city to propose the ban.
Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
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Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#12as someone who works in a place a solid few miles from restaurants, and has a break room with a few microwaves/a toaster oven as well as a vending machine with gas station tier food... how common are workplace cafeterias like this? is it just sv megacompanies or is it smaller firms across the country?
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#13"The restriction aims to increase business for local food retailers." Wow. Incredibly corrupt. I'm guessing next lunch boxes are going to be banned?
The stupid thing is that most of the tech companies, outside of the giant ones, get their food from local retailers.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#14This is very interesting, I had never considered the impact free food at a large office has on its surroundings. The legislation certainly sounds backwards, but to me the situation is reminiscent of a company using profits from one sector to subsidize another, in order to drown out competitors in that space. I don't think Facebook is actually trying to kill off restaurants, but this is definitely how you would do it in an anti-competitive way.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#15This is how businesses get driven to the suburbs.
That is the usual refrain from the "die techie scum" SF denizens: "go back to the suburbs!"
Unfortunately the suburbs are now hostile too: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/New-Facebook-Offices-M...
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#16Can anyone comment on the legality of this? IANAL and it’s just a feeling, but it seems like this must be unconstitutional somehow?
Freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly. Nope food's not in there, but perhaps I'm being too originalist. Eminent Domain is a thing too.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#17Man - California, specifically the Valley, is completely off its rocker when it comes to policy making. I really hope Amazon's new HQ helps pave the way to start de-centralizing the tech industry from that one, overcrowded, and increasingly almost hostile spot.
True but its mostly Northern Cal legislators right? I guess restaurants have lobbied successfully. They want some of that tech money too.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#18This is how businesses get driven to the suburbs.
Mountain View is the quintessential suburb.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#19Talk about fascist capitalism. If I ran these companies I'd make everything cost one cent and have a giant barrel of pennies just sitting around with "take what you need" written in it. It's not free anymore. Problem solved.
That's taxable income then, no?
Sure. In the highest income bracket that's half a penny per meal out of your paycheck.
In fact, you could just add a stipend to your paycheck, subtract a "food cost", and the food isn't free anymore.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#20Can anyone comment on the legality of this? IANAL and it’s just a feeling, but it seems like this must be unconstitutional somehow?
Nothing in the constitution says that a jurisdiction can’t ban free food.
You can’t tell corporations how to spend their money either, as money is a form of speech. Isn’t that the gist of the Citizens United decision?