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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

#311

Post by kabdb »

munificent wrote: post #208
jotux wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit this is pure speculation. There are mentions in another article[1] that some restaurant associations supported it: >The measure has the support of Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and other local merchants. It seems suspicious that before the legislation is even introduced exceptions have been carved out for the existing big companies. [1] http://www.sfexaminer.com/…

If they tried to take the cafes away from existing tech employees, they would have a riot on their hands. Googlers and Facebookers would burn the city to the ground. It is an intensely beloved part of the job.

> Googlers and Facebookers would burn the city to the ground.

At most, they would make a website with a little game featuring an animation of the city burning down, then giggle and and share it with each other, all the while deaf to the irony that, in reality, they already are burning it down; they just can’t see it. The disconcern behind your whining threat exerts, on the broader population, a blunt misery of slow-burning economic torture the likes of which the tech worker’s comforts will not afford them to perceive. A real fire would at least offer closure and hope amidst a new beginning. This one just keeps blistering.

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

#312

Post by craftyguy »

dunpeal wrote: post #136
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.

> Solving the basics is incredibly important. Ah, but you see, it is also difficult! "Dirty streets" and "traffic congestion" are big, messy problems, requiring careful planning, managing projects and contractors, adversarial factors, etc. By contrast, passing laws that apply to corporations is so easy! They are generally law abiding, so you just tell them "no more free food for you!", and they obey. Until, you know,…

It's almost like we need a system of government where officials are held accountable for decisions they make in office years later when they prove to be incredibly poor decisions. The current system allows them to make long term decisions and get away with it since it does not impact them (term limits, etc help with that)

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

#313

Post by gamblor956 »

dunpeal wrote: post #278
mikestew wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

Hahaha. California is a very nice place to live, and very many people want to live here. Last year, California's economy grew so much that it took back its spot as #5 in the world...behind only the US, China, Japan, and Germany, despite having a population less than half the size of any jurisdiction ahead of it.

Most of that GDP is not related to the tech industry, which despite its importance to the Bay Area represents less of the California economy than manufacturing.

NorCal may not have been on the shortlist for Amazon's 2HQ, but LA was...LA and the Inland Empire also have a less severe housing shortage and are far more pro-development.

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

#314

Post by stcredzero »

perfmode wrote: post #174
stcredzero wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it turns out, poverty doesn't cause crime. It's relative poverty that causes crime. Basically, if people are low down enough on the dominance hierarchy, they feel like they have no hope of getting anywhere, then why shouldn't they start acting up? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3XYHPAwBzE (On the other hand, in societies where everyone is poor, there can be peace.)

well, wealth creates a market opportunity. when everyone is poor, there is no market opportunity.

Obviously, we don't want everyone to stay poor. At the same time, we don't want certain people to be so low on the dominance hierarchy, that they think violence is their only alternative.

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

#315

Post by a3n »

craftyguy wrote: post #312
dunpeal wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Solving the basics is incredibly important. Ah, but you see, it is also difficult! "Dirty streets" and "traffic congestion" are big, messy problems, requiring careful planning, managing projects and contractors, adversarial factors, etc. By contrast, passing laws that apply to corporations is so easy! They are generally law abiding, so you just tell them "no more free food for you!", and they obey. Until, you know,…

It's almost like we need a system of government where officials are held accountable for decisions they make in office years later when they prove to be incredibly poor decisions. The current system allows them to make long term decisions and get away with it since it does not impact them (term limits, etc help with that)

Which politicians from which decades will we hold responsible for allowing explosive tech growth without a plan for the long time residents, service workers and teachers who can no longer afford to live in the area, unless they live on the sidewalk or the bus?

Surely this was foreseeable.

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

#316

Post by malandrew »

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…

All the startups are moving to other markets. The problem long term is that all these startups provide the training for people that eventually join those other companies. Eventually unicorns will show up in other markets that don't have the insanity of the Bay Area. When that happens these companies won't be able to attract talent and risk becoming a shadow of their former selves along with the city.

At one time Armonk, NY and Maynard, MA were the center of tech too.

It's will be a long slow death by a thousand cuts.

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

#317

Post by [deleted] »

null000 wrote: post #265
jackconnor wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel what you're saying, and that definitely is something that happens. Especially for people who move for the job, it's very easy to keep oneself separate from the community. But making it illegal to feed your employees is a very stupid, very authoritarian way of dealing with it that feels like a terrible idea. I don't want to be told where to shop, ever, for any reason, and I dislike that these local governments…

I see these types of comments, and I have a really hard time viewing them as anything but pretty entitled. I mean, yeah, it's unfortunate for those who won't get free lunches anymore (I'm currently part of the group that does, although I'm not in the bay area) but it's not like you deserve free food as a perk any more than any other random worker. If it were my company inflicting the decision on me after a record ear…

[deleted]

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

#318

Post by sonnyblarney »

jessaustin wrote: post #296
sonnyblarney wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Monaco, there are a small number of 'Monegasque' i.e. actual ethnic people from Monaco - they are just 'regular folk' - not like the bankers and millionaires ex-pats that make up the most of the actual citizenry. The 'wealth inequality' issue is obviously a problem, so the government mandates that 'all citizens get meal chits' as part of their comp - this is to ensure that Monegasque folks literally are not priced…

Would you say this situation in Monaco is kind of like "universal basic income"? Has it caused any issues?

No, because the meal chits are paid by employers. No job, no chits. Moreover, it's a tiny, incidental cost. More resembling the American healthcare system (in terms of how it's paid, not in terms of cost). Also, the scale is so small ... there are 20K citizens there and only a couple thousand actual Monegasque, they literally are 1 or 2 degrees of separation from one another and 'the government' if you can even call it that. Literally Google serves more free lunches every day in their cafeterias than are served in the entirety of Monaco's restaurants and kitchens.

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

#319

Post by bob_theslob646 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #251

If cities want employees to patronize local businesses, they they should start providing enough housing so employees can live near work. Stop forcing employees to live 30 miles away by restricting housing and then complain "But why won't they shop here!?"

Highly underrated comment.

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

#320

Post by gamblor956 »

almost_usual wrote: post #243
patejam wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the SF locals, it's usually democrats vs democrats, so party affiliation doesn't really matter. Because of this, inucumbents are much more easily voted out of office on the supervisor level (which is where this is coming from). So... vote when you can!

This is true but the Bay Area local democrats will be the majority. Hell, you're pretty much a republican in their eyes as a tech worker. This will continue to be a thing as long as the upper-middle class isolates themselves through Uber / Lyft, fancy restaurants, and private shuttles. What's ironic is there are lot of upper-middle class people who live this lifestyle who aren't in tech but still shit on tech. Tech g…

Part of the problem with tech's rep is the free dinners...the tech community is notoriously insular in the Bay Area in ways it is not in other tech hubs like LA, Boston, NYC, or Austin.

It doesn't help that the most visible techies, like Peter Thiel and Vinod Khosla, abuse their tech-derived riches in blatant attempts to remake California into their own fantasy playlands. (This is a problem unique to tech--non-tech billionaires tend to do things like build museums.)

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