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Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

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Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#141

Post by sremani »

dannyincolor wrote: post #125
sremani wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are pockets of Nimby in Texas - truth to be told Austin is one of the most Nimby cities in Texas. The only good thing is unlike Bay Area - the Cities in Texas a primed for outward sprawl.

How is public transit in Austin? Scalable for urban sprawl? I don’t know much about it from an on-the-ground POV

There are no real geographic barriers stopping Austin's growth. I am not in Austin but if I have to guess, the public transport sucks balls. You have to have Car unless you live in the urban core. The bigger problem in Austin is, their nimbyism manifested in such a way that City and County constrain the growth by not expanding the infrastructure. But the land is there - the city can grow into a bigger metro.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#142

Post by jonathanyc »

bcheung wrote: post #129
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting that the Bay Area is impressively diverse already, especially when considering how remarkably not-diverse cities were not that long ago. Cities like San Leandro went from 99.3% white in the 60s to having no racial majority today. I'd argue that one should step out of their tech bubble and experience the awesome cultures that already exist within the Bay.

Ethnically maybe. But in terms of diversity of opinions and tolerance of those opinions it's actually much worse that other places in the country I have been.

Hey! If you have a moment: I’m a Christian and a gun owner who is not a fan of the Democratic Party. I live in SF and was born in the East Bay. Would you mind sharing some concrete examples of what you mean by CA being more intolerant than other places? I keep hearing about this but have never really experienced it myself.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#143

Post by bordercases »

jonathanyc wrote: post #142
bcheung wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethnically maybe. But in terms of diversity of opinions and tolerance of those opinions it's actually much worse that other places in the country I have been.

Hey! If you have a moment: I’m a Christian and a gun owner who is not a fan of the Democratic Party. I live in SF and was born in the East Bay. Would you mind sharing some concrete examples of what you mean by CA being more intolerant than other places? I keep hearing about this but have never really experienced it myself.

Are you openly any of these things? Do you espouse your Christianity or commitment to proactive self-defense publicly or professionally? What sort of company do you work for and do you self-select for a certain kind of person in your friendships?

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#144

Post by pb7 »

zamfi wrote: post #126
pb7 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NIMBYs oppose new construction because it keeps their property values high. They don't care about property values ballooning because they pay property taxes on the assessed values from when they bought, which is often decades ago, due to Prop 13. Prop 13 in general keeps things stagnant. For another example, there is no incentive to renovate/tear down/rebuild bigger because now you will pay significantly higher prope…

> NIMBYs oppose new construction because it keeps their property values high No, they just don’t want their neighborhoods to change (read: poor people, more traffic). I don’t think most of them are frankly thinking about their property values because it’s just not super relevant, thanks to prop 13. > For another example, there is no incentive to renovate/tear down/rebuild bigger because now you will pay significantly…

I don't think it's that simple.

Prop 13 shields NIMBYs from negative externalities of their desire for their neighborhoods not to change. Housing is in short supply which inflates property values, but they don't have to worry about that because they don't want to sell and property taxes continue to remain low due to Prop 13. They can either pass down their property to their children (taxes remain unchanged) or they sell and cash out on their uber expensive property and move out of state sometime later in life. As I alluded in other comments, I suspect it is more often the former rather than the latter since it doesn't make sense to sell.

The incentive to build is low because most existing property owners want to continue living somewhere in the Bay Area and if they move, their taxes reset. Building more units on the same property is a non-starter for that reason. Yes, zoning is also a factor, and goes hand-in-hand with the same agenda that Prop 13 came out of. It's multiple cuts from the same cloth.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#145

Post by ak217 »

alisonkisk wrote: post #119
Finnucane wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, not opposed to building explody chemical plants near residential areas. But I suppose the Oracle folks moving in have enough money to avoid that.

The name "Silicon Valley" refers to the fact that the whole region is perforated with Superfund sites. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund

That's not what the name refers to.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#146

Post by chrismcb »

dannyincolor wrote: post #114
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah having a house 3x the size is not great for you or the environment, given that people don’t use most of their houses ;-)

I think they said “the environment”. Whether that’s important to you is - as always - completely up to you in this country. I don’t understand the animosity between different states; we can all go wherever we fit best and that’s a great thing. Nothing wrong with wanting a big house, but also nothing wrong or coercive with mentioning it has environmental impacts

What they actually said was "for you or the environment" without knowing anything about the op, it is hard to say that a lawyer house was bad for him. Maybe he had a family of four living in a small two bedroom. As far as the environment, almost everything we do is bad for the environment. We should try to minimize or impact, but just because something is "bad for the environment"didn't mean we should stop.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#147

Post by dannyincolor »

jonathanyc wrote: post #142
bcheung wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethnically maybe. But in terms of diversity of opinions and tolerance of those opinions it's actually much worse that other places in the country I have been.

Hey! If you have a moment: I’m a Christian and a gun owner who is not a fan of the Democratic Party. I live in SF and was born in the East Bay. Would you mind sharing some concrete examples of what you mean by CA being more intolerant than other places? I keep hearing about this but have never really experienced it myself.

Also a gun owner in CA. Came from a state with open carry/no license needed.

I found CA’s laws to be quite reasonable; I was told all variety of stories about guns being taken from my home when I told people I was moving out. Weird stuff.

I think CA is highly demonized and I don’t really get it, even as someone originally from a very conservative (and also evangelical Christian) background/area.

I actually live in a very ethnically diverse area that’s about 50/50 red and blue, and right near the ocean in SoCal. Love the diversity in this state!

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#148

Post by ProfessorLayton »

bordercases wrote: post #100
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting that the Bay Area is impressively diverse already, especially when considering how remarkably not-diverse cities were not that long ago. Cities like San Leandro went from 99.3% white in the 60s to having no racial majority today. I'd argue that one should step out of their tech bubble and experience the awesome cultures that already exist within the Bay.

It's diversity of the uninteresting sort. Ethnic diversity doesn't imply ideological diversity.

The Bay Area is home to a lot of immigrants from all over the world, as well as first generation American citizens whom were raised by their immigrant parents.

Is the implication here that they all have the same ideologies?

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#149

Post by kasperni »

S_A_P wrote: post #46

I had a pretty popular take last week on Elon Musk leaving. The same station is now pushing this narrative. I think they are click baiting us all. HP is not SV. Oracle isnt SV. They arent major players. Maybe there is a larger trend that may come to fruition, but I dont think that will happen. Also, Austin Tx is over crowded already. There is a housing shortage there, we are doomed to see another SF real estate short…

> They arent major players.

Not true. Both HP and Oracle are in the top 10 (measured by revenue) of publicly traded companies in California.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#150

Post by dannyincolor »

Agathos wrote: post #113
whimsicalism wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right-wing people will just have vague criticisms about high taxes. The obvious low hanging bad-policy fruit in California is Prop 13 though.

...which was dreamed up and promoted by such right-wing people, back when they had influence in California.

As were most laws that are now criticized. We actually have a huge amount of Conservatives in CA. It’s far from the leftist whatever-the-heck you probably hear.

Make sure you can afford the few % more you’ll pay in taxes and you’ll be just fine! It was negligible compared to my Midwest home state’s taxes; I was genuinely surprised by that after hearing so much negativity about the place and it’s laws.

Come visit sometime, there’s a place for everyone here and housing will snap back after our pandemic precautions phase out.

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