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Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

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Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#381

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Working from home 2-3 days a week is not what I would consider "remote work," since you'd still need to live close to the office. From my perspective, this is worst of all possible scenarios. Employees are still shackled to an expensive city, but now they must pay for housing that supports a dedicated "home office" space (e.g., a larger apartment with an extra room, or carving out part of their living room/bedroom).…

I disagree. If I only had to come into the office, say, once or twice a week (3x might be pushing it) I'd be willing to live much further out because I'd be willing to tolerate a horrible commute if I only had to do it a small percentage of the time. For example, in Austin, these days anything located within a half hour of downtown tends to be horribly expensive. But just go a little beyond that and house/real estate…

Not to mention that the area available within N miles grows quadratically with N, so it'll run out more slowly/be more spacious.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. I explained it to my mother with an analogy to a cruise ship heading toward shore at full speed. Everyone knows this means the ship will run aground, but few appreciate that given the mass (and thus momentum) the ship would travel far inland just scraping across the ground. The coming economic response to the pandemic has the potential to be like that, basically 10x the 2009 "great recession" an…

It is already worse than the GFC in 2009. UK GDP dipped 21.7% in Q2, NZ ~13%, and the US ~10%. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-health-economy Where it ends is anyone's guess, and the worst part will be the second and third order effects it won't be super easy to predict. Things like pension/401K/Superannuation funds with high Commercial real estate exposure leading to reduced retirement income, state pension funds t…

It is tragic. You’d think that drawing on all our cumulative knowledge and wisdom from the past, we could handle global crises better than we do today. But we clearly have a long ways to go.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#383
post #160

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If Californians move in bulk the culture will diffuse out; especially in tech hub cities.

That’s an interesting observation that’s normally only made about political affiliations. I wonder if there is precedent with the migration out of NYC and the like in the post-WWII/mid Century period. It was a real boom time for the West...California in particular. A lot of folks came from back East or the Midwest... Not many tried to explicitly recreate their East Coast/Midwest life in the West...in fact they made a…

haha.... here you are posting on a California based website/forum, and pretty much use California based products without even knowing (facebook, reddit, google, youtube, iPhone, Android, Macs), they are all California culture, in digital form.

CA, like it or not, has an outsized influence to the whole world, to the point that it kinda becomes 'undistinguishable' as it is everywhere. I am talking about tech/SF/SV and Hollywood. They have risen to the 'metaculture' level which few places/countries have.

ps, HN, reddit, FB, started in the east coast, but had to move in the west in order to flourish. Same with the Movie industry. It started in the NYC and New Jersey suburbs, but had to move West in order to flourish.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#384
post #358

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I don't know, but my guess is the people that moved didn't like the policies of the state they left

Seems like a large portion of people in this thread at least are more concerned about lowering cost of living while still being in a large active city than about local polotics, even if those things do tie together

sounds about right.

take the bay area salary, work remote in texas/arizona/nevada because its cheaper and rationalize it by saying its the politics thats making me move.

i've had this conversation 5 times this week with friends and colleagues, and none of them have actually spent more than a week in texas/arizona/nevada.

anyone that wants to live in one of those states, try it for a couple months if you can before taking the dive.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#385

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This assumes that manager productivity is positively correlated with their reports' productivity.

It's hard for me to think about how else to measure manager productivity. Managers don't usually submit code themselves.

Lots of people in a business aren't submitting code, but that's not really my point. Depending on a manager's style they can increase synchronization overhead between team members and different teams to the point that everyone's productivity is reduced while the manager has never been busier or productive on paper.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#386
post #260

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At risk of extreme naivety, why do failed real estate investments merit Fed support and attention? I thought they were just for maintaining a sound dollar and liquidity and the financial system, not charity for real estate kings.

Because after 2008 the fed became one of the largest landowners in the country and by proxy have a vested interest in propping it up.

Owning a mortgage (on the lender side) doesn't mean you own the land.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#387
post #178

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Disagree. I love SF. The Symphony is phenomenal, love the Opera and Ballet too. The parks are beautiful, and you can get out into nature in about an hour's drive. Living in SF is expensive, but salaries are high too. Especially if you're in tech like most on HN, you can have a very nice lifestyle here.

I like SF, but symphonies, operas, ballets, and beautiful parks are like the common denominator of major US cities. But anyways I agree SF is beautiful in many areas, and no one should listen to any opinions of SF from anyone who calls it "San Fran" :)

There is a huge difference between being a classical music fan in SF and being a classical music fan in Denver or Kansas City. We're talking world-class performances.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#388
post #377

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My bigger concern with SF is property crime and homelessness. I don't feel safe in this city. It's been getting worse every year and there is no end in sight. Major conferences already relocated because of it.

Interestingly, the "visible homeless" population has decreased substantially over the course of the pandemic, and is now below pre-pandemic levels: https://missionlocal.org/2020/10/citys-homeless-tent-count-d... The pandemic has managed to cure a few of San Francisco's ills. Rents and real estate prices are trending down towards sanity, the city/county government has managed to get a large number of homeless folks si…

Just need to recall Chesa and we're off to the races..

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#389

As a homeowner in San Francisco... this is great. The cost of living has been too high here for ages, and the prices distort both our society and the economy. It'll be rough for speculators, but in the medium term everyone will come out stronger. After the pandemic, we'll have the chance to see real businesses start here that don't rely on giant checks from VCs for viability; new restaurants will see more opportuniti…

100%. If you can live in SF and then decide during these times you want to live in Boise and be happier because of it bless your heart.

I've lived in a lot of these other states, TX, NC, NV... No matter how big your backyard is, the grass isn't greener there.

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