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Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

businessinsider.com

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Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#271

Post by null000 »

gnicholas wrote: post #170

This was covered by the local news [1] and the city council member who was interviewed said: > “We felt the employees who work there should be able to patronize the businesses—the smaller businesses—in this shopping center” Employees already have the ability to patronize these businesses. This law is about compelling patronage. 1: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/New-Facebook-Offices-M...

It's really not compelling them. Employees are free to bring their food from home, or order outside the shopping center. It's keeping a handle on incentives, which is what any good government should be doing - incentivizing behavior that's good for the community and disincentivizing behavior that isn't.

In this case, they're removing the ability for facebook to keep the path of least resistance for food on campus to encourage people to eat outside the office, since they're already putting a bunch of effort into making the mixed-use retail/office/living area.

Calling this compulsion is like calling taxes slavery - you might feel strongly about the situation, it might impact you negatively, but don't expect much sympathy from those outside the bubble...

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#273

Post by toomanybeersies »

srinivasan wrote: post #235
knuththetruth wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>paying good wages and benefits to these people Absurdity of this proposal aside, most food service workers in these cafeterias are contractors who are not paid well and receive shitty, if any, benefits.

How does working at a cafeteria provider like Bon Appetit compare to working at a restaurant? By that I mean a place where office workers are likely to get lunch daily, where the typical lunch costs Also consider that workplace cafeteria jobs generally have fixed schedules with weekends off.

Never worked at a mass catering company like Compass Group myself, but I know people who have. They are terrible places to work compared to a restaurant.

The smaller catering companies, with I guess it's no different from your local mom & pop Italian restaurant vs Olive Garden in that respect though.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#275

Post by extralego »

justinzollars wrote: post #224
Camillo wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but are you going to do anything about it? If you work at one of the big tech companies in the bay area, chances are you either cannot vote or you're only ever going to vote for the incumbent party, so what does it matter to them if they piss you off?

I'm not sure you use the apathy card on me. I've given money to and advocate for Moderates and I was an elected Hillary Clinton Delegate. Personally I encourage you to let @AaronPeskin know how you feel on this matter. He is the "progressive" who introduced this nonsense.

“Moderate” politics == corporate donations + laissez-faire - public relations.

This policy is just the public relations part. It’s particularly designed to appease local small business owners without having any measurable effect on the corporate profits.

This is as moderate as it gets. There’s nothing “progressive” about this nonsense. This is exactly the kind of nitpicking contortions moderates perform when they are trying to address social disparities without social solutions. The issue is systemic and the solutions must be as well. The only decent solutions here are broad corporate regulations like anti-trust for prevention and much higher taxes on the wealthy.

This is precisely a result of politicians appeasing local business owners with a public display of affection rather than a real progressive agenda. What could be more moderate than that?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#276

Post by michaelkeenan »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)

It looks like the Golden Gate Restaurant Association endorsed it[0]. I couldn't find a list of which restaurants are members of the GGRA, but the board of directors[1] includes people from the Bluestem Brasserie, San Francisco Soup Company, Ladle and Leaf, Extreme Pizza, Rose's Cafe, Wayfare Tavern, Souvla, Canela, Palm House, The Dorian, and Perry's.

[0] https://sf.eater.com/2018/7/25/17614570/san-francisco-corpor...

[1] http://ggra.org/about/board-of-directors/

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#277

Post by toomanybeersies »

kazinator wrote: post #35

> San Francisco Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies ... ... while they hand out hundreds of thousands of free needles that end up on the street, among shit.

I live in one of the heroin hotspots of Australia, where they hand out free needles like candy.

It's better than the alternative, which is people sharing needles and giving each other all sorts of diseases.

Not only do they hand out free needles though, but also free sharps containers, and there are needle disposal bins all over the place for users to drop their used needles in.

I'm not sure how they convinced all the heroin users to dispose of their needles correctly, but they've done a fairly good job. It's rare for me to see a needle on the street.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#278

Post by dunpeal »

mikestew wrote: post #245
dunpeal wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering the same. Two growing trends that I'm observing: 1. Businesses moving out of California, especially NorCal. Sergey Brin already said two years ago that he would not have started Google in NorCal today. He was right. There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. 2. Remote work, and fully remote virtual offices. Personally I know a bunch of people who declined offers in the SFBay to avoi…

1. I was reading articles about people and companies picking up and moving out of California to places like Nevada...thirty years ago. California is still there, packed as ever. 2. Been hearing that for thirty years, too. Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t a breaking point, I just don’t think we’re there yet. CA might be willing to amputate a leg or a wing, but there’s too much gold in the goose to kill it all a…

> I was reading articles about people and companies picking up and moving out of California to places like Nevada...thirty years ago.

That's like saying "I was reading about government deficit 10 years ago, and look at it, it's still growing and we're still here and the deficit is even larger!".

It's a growing problem. California grows less attractive as more of these exploitative measures and taxes pile up, and the impact is noticeable. No NorCal location was in the shortlist for Amazon's 2nd HQ, for instance.

> Been hearing that for thirty years, too.

You've been hearing about fully remote virtual teams thirty years ago, before the internet really existed?

Maybe as some future prediction?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#279

Post by mc32 »

justinzollars wrote: post #114

I'm sorry but this is so f*cking stupid. As a Bay Area resident my priorities are the cost of housing, cleaning our dirty streets and alleviating traffic congestion. This is an example of progressivism gone awry. Solving the basics is incredibly important. Our quality of life is in decline (in the bay area) and this is the best our politicians can do? I'm enraged.

They're just pandering to special interest groups --groups they believe will like this move, and since there is no alternative party in the Bay Area, they know most tech workers will not break Repub, so they can do what they want.

They still get the tech voter and now they will endear some small progressive cause.

But, yes, it's utterly incomprehensible. It's reductionist. Like I said before, ban Uber, ban MUNI, they are taking jobs away from Pedicabs and Taxi drivers...

Anyway, it's not Robots (yet) prepping food at the company canteen, they have to hire workers to do the cooking, serving, etc. So it's more or less a wash. Only diff is probably company cafeterias mostly try to ensure workers have a legal right to work in the US.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#280

Post by rco8786 »

dmode wrote: post #228
dunpeal wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering the same. Two growing trends that I'm observing: 1. Businesses moving out of California, especially NorCal. Sergey Brin already said two years ago that he would not have started Google in NorCal today. He was right. There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. 2. Remote work, and fully remote virtual offices. Personally I know a bunch of people who declined offers in the SFBay to avoi…

There is no truth to your assertion that companies will be leaving Bay. Google, Facebook, Salesforce etc. are actually massively expanding their Bay Area footprint. Google is expanding their Mountain View and building a massive new headquarters https://sf.curbed.com/2017/3/8/14858200/google-headquarters-... Google is also expanding into San Jose Apple just recently completed their spaceship campus Facebook is massive…

I don’t understand the obsession with Austin. It’s actually quite a small player in the tech industry.
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