Live data from Hacker News

San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

techcrunch.com

81–90 of 108 posts

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#81
post #66
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe i am too, but I can't figure out how SF is "giving" [the companies] wealth? Said companies are earning their own wealth. SF is not "giving" it to them, I'm sure. Let's say you were going to lease storage (physical) and outfit A had a flat fee of 50/mo. Outfit B had a flat fee of 70/mo plus appreciation on the goods you stored. Let's say 20/mo difference had negligible impact on your disposable income. Who would…

I might choose the one that is closer to me, or closer to where I would want to use the stored items. I might choose the one that also offers a parcel reception service. I might choose the one that has better security - some storage outfits are just a single room separated into lots by loose cardboard. I might choose the one with greater hours of access. One day people will get that there is far more to 'value' than…

> SF is a nice place. People want to be there.

Exactly. I could count on two hands the number of places I'd be willing to live (unless you were paying me truly obscene amounts of money and doing incredibly interesting work). Proper cities with good public transport and fun things going on. In a country where I speak at least a bit of the language.

Quality of life is not something to be ignored; requiring employees to live elsewhere or make long commutes is a big deal. When you're a startup looking for younger employees and fostering that kind of culture, location is vitally important.

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#84
post #73
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

public transportation? I live in Vancouver and recently flew in to SFO. Being from Vancouver I thought I know I'll save time and money and just take the subway in. BART is fucking disgusting and I couldn't sit down on the train for fear of picking up god knows what. In Vancouver if you start a startup and hire someone under 30 with a degree the gov't will pay you the first $15/hour of their salary, the rest you can a…

I ride on Bart and sit down almost everyday no problem. Though from my limited sampling of Canadians you guys do seem to have a germophobe penchant.

http://www.baycitizen.org/transportation/interactive/intimat...

I would rethink that decision.

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#86
post #48
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got my heart pumping when you said Brisbane. I thought you meant Brisbane, Australia.

If it's any consolation, there are plenty of "gum" (eucalyptus) trees in Brisbane, California, too.

Well, there aren't any donut shops in Queensland anymore either. They all got washed away by the recent epic storm that made Katrina look like a fourth grade spitball contest.†

†This is of course, patently false. Oh sure, the storm was bigger and nastier, but if you do insist on building your city below sea level, then route crucial funds from the Army Corps of Engineers who are supposed to keep the levees strong, to some Blackwater dudes playing 'choose your own adventure' in the Middle East...

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#87
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be arguing against city-level taxes with examples of the ways that federal-level taxes are used...

It's not like "public transportation, fire safety, paved roads, bridges, public schools, police officers, health inspectors, safety inspectors, public parks, libraries, clean air, (relatively) fair corporations, airports, hospitals, court systems, electricity, vehicle regulation, elections, veteran associations, child support, public television..." is entirely in the domain of the city government. I just have a adver…

[deleted]

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#88
post #36
post #7

> Tech startups aren’t just driving some job growth in the city, they’re driving absolutely all of it. I assume theres a source for this somewhere?

Not sure if he has a study to prove this.. But can you think of any other industries in SF that have generated huge job growth during the past 10 years? I can't. That doesn't mean Arrington is right, but I can't think of a reason to doubt that statement. And I know I've heard that many of the financial companies have moved out of the city or downsized operations here during that span in order to avoid the high cost o…

Has the tech industry in SF generated huge job growth recently? From the scarce statistics I can find, it seems SF tech employment has actually declined over the past few years.

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#89

Why yes, because hoping to take this insane amount of money flowing into the city (and state!) and use it to make everyone else's lives that much more livable is a terrible, horrible, no good very bad thing. I'm sure nobody involved in the tech sector has ever benefited from any public monies; it's only right that they shouldn't have to pay any taxes!

And yes, giving extravagant monies to the government makes everybody lives better, cures cancer, and causes world peace too!

Having lived in cities on various parts of the city-services spectrum, I do think it overall improves the quality of life to have higher city taxes and more services (especially public transit). But fortunately people who think otherwise can choose where they want to live accordingly, since many cities are available on different parts of that spectrum. For example, if you prefer the tax/services tradeoff Houston makes to the one San Francisco makes, you can live in Houston (and many people do).

Re: San Francisco Doing Everything It Can To Drive Zynga And Twitter Away

#90
post #84
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ride on Bart and sit down almost everyday no problem. Though from my limited sampling of Canadians you guys do seem to have a germophobe penchant.

http://www.baycitizen.org/transportation/interactive/intimat... I would rethink that decision.

Oh please. There are bacteria everywhere, or do they dip those Vancouver trains in Lysol everyday?
Post reply on HN