Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

sfchronicle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 388 posts

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#251

Post by ckdarby »

baby wrote: post #117
SeanAnderson wrote: post #8

I live in SF and spend a fair amount of time thinking about its poor 5-year economic outlook. It's not great, but I am curious how it compares to other metros? If I were to move from SF, wanted to live in a metro area, and was uncomfortable living in a very red state - where should I consider? Where is thriving? I have a good amount of friends in Portland, but Portland is adjacent SF in terms of poor economic recover…

I don’t think you received great answers besides New York. I myself am trying to move from SF to New York. The reality is that in the US New York is the only city that seems livable if you are not a car. Chicago is the only one I can think of that’s dense and has life as a pedestrian, but the winter there is intense. It’s too bad because real estate is cheap there.

Coming from a Canadian, you're in for a shock if you think New York doesn't have intense winters as well.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#252

Post by zbrozek »

dumbotron wrote: post #232
theironhammer wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you should have a look at this book. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-kleinknec... Some Red States are an absolute mess. Some of their stats resemble third world countries. Their education systems are shoddy. Their drinking water systems are dangerous to health. Taxes are shameful: low taxes for the wealthy but high sales taxes which hurt the poor the most. Just for starters.

> Some of their stats resemble third world countries. Have you walked through the TL? Comparing California and Texas can be interesting because the states are both dominated by a single party, so you see how both ideologies can go wrong. With Texas being like a developing country, I'm reminded of the winter power outage. They love free markets. It's not worth it to harden the electric grid for an event that rare that…

I live in the SFBA and have far worse uptime and far higher prices than Texas. The smugness from Californians wrt/grid does not make any sense to me. I would trade for Texas electrical grid performance in less than a heartbeat.

There was a five hour long outage on Monday while the weather was perfectly lovely. And more than a week cumulative outage in March when the weather was merely a little wet.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#253

Post by wildrhythms »

ckdarby wrote: post #251
baby wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you received great answers besides New York. I myself am trying to move from SF to New York. The reality is that in the US New York is the only city that seems livable if you are not a car. Chicago is the only one I can think of that’s dense and has life as a pedestrian, but the winter there is intense. It’s too bad because real estate is cheap there.

Coming from a Canadian, you're in for a shock if you think New York doesn't have intense winters as well.

I live here and the winters are not that bad. I lived in the midwest and west previously and they were 10x worse due to needing to potentially drive somewhere in it (and the supermarkets being wiped out in the days leading up to inclemate weather). Here in NYC you just put your boots and coat on and go on your way. The subways still run when it's snowing. The coldest day of the year only dipped below 0°F once in the past 15 years.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#254

Post by prepend »

slg wrote: post #115
bityard wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal politics, IMO, is not a good reason to avoid living in certain areas. I'm a liberal-leaning moderate but many of my favorite people (friends and family) are conservative, and many of my hobbies tend to be populated mainly by the conservative demographic. You'll always find people here and there who won't give you the time of day if you're not on Team Blue or Team Red, but my take on it is, if I can't make fr…

>Personal politics, IMO, is not a good reason to avoid living in certain areas. I'm a liberal-leaning moderate but many of my favorite people (friends and family) are conservative, and many of my hobbies tend to be populated mainly by the conservative demographic. This is a comment that originates in privilege. The concern for many people is not simply that they would have to be friends with conservative people. The…

> …hostile to them. This is true for a variety of targeted groups including LGBT+ people, ethnic minorities, or even just women

I suppose that’s a personal design and a trade off that you and others need to make.

I live in a “red state” and am described by several of the groups you mention and don’t feel the government nor community is hostile to me. I think it’s hard to understand beforehand what is hostile and how much hostility is worth peace of mind, prosperity, etc. That being said, I think it’s possible that everywhere has some unpleasant aspects and I wish that it wasn’t a “pick your poison” situation of having to choose between $5k/month rent and piles of human poo and not having to travel out of state for an abortion.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#255

Post by wildrhythms »

baby wrote: post #208
mattcaldwell wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero need for a car in most of DC, NOVA, and MD inside the beltway.

What’s nova and md? No need for a car != agreeable to live as a pedestrian. For example, I don’t need a car in SF but I wouldn’t compare it to a real and agreeable walkable city like we have in europe or asia. It’s mostly large streets designed for cars, residential areas, with shops only allowed to exist in limited commercial streets.

NOVA = Northern Virginia MD = Maryland

Both considered commuter hubs for DC. And I think they're alluding to being able to utilize the DC metro 'inside the beltway' (I-495) hence the distinction there, which is true to an extent, but I wouldn't live in NOVA or MD without a car personally. There is Amtrak service to areas outside of the beltway, but my experience with Amtrak has been extremely poor. I know many people in DC and they all own a car because the metro, while great for getting in and out of DC, is somewhat limited when it comes to going anywhere else.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#256

Post by wildrhythms »

georgeecollins wrote: post #140
wootland wrote: post #12

> “I strongly believe the office experience should be at the same level as luxury residential and hospitality,” Shvo previously told The Chronicle. “In the last two years, we’ve made our homes into our offices, now it’s time to make our offices feel like our homes.” Private bathrooms for every employee? No commute? The office can never "feel like my home", my home doesn't have my co-workers in it. It's an environment…

I think I will go into the office if it is nice enough. A few years before the pandemic I started working for an old school company with offices including doors, windows, nice furniture and privacy. Now we mix in office and remote work but I don't mind going to the office because I can be more focused there. When I look back over past jobs, the question I wish I had asked more in advance is where will I sit here? I a…

Ironically, my employer, which is starting to demand RTO, is taking away many office amenities and even forcing people to alternate days and share desks. The higherups are making the offices worse and thinking people want to come back to that. Their heads are so far up their own asses it's amazing.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#257

Post by nytesky »

tayo42 wrote: post #218
baby wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you received great answers besides New York. I myself am trying to move from SF to New York. The reality is that in the US New York is the only city that seems livable if you are not a car. Chicago is the only one I can think of that’s dense and has life as a pedestrian, but the winter there is intense. It’s too bad because real estate is cheap there.

Never thought of it buts it's funny in away that the cities with the shittiest winters are the best walkable cities. Really so cal, texas, South east, and west should be walkable but their car centric nightmares filled with traffic

The key to being a walkable city is to developed as a city BEFORE cars. Then they had dense grids because most people walked or took wagons at best.

Cities didn’t develop in southern hot climates until really the advent of air conditioning, which aligns roughly with the rise of cars.

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#258

Post by MrMan »

ckdarby wrote: post #251
baby wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you received great answers besides New York. I myself am trying to move from SF to New York. The reality is that in the US New York is the only city that seems livable if you are not a car. Chicago is the only one I can think of that’s dense and has life as a pedestrian, but the winter there is intense. It’s too bad because real estate is cheap there.

Coming from a Canadian, you're in for a shock if you think New York doesn't have intense winters as well.

[dead]

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#259

Post by MrMan »

jntvjnvutnuvt wrote: post #39
SeanAnderson wrote: post #8

I live in SF and spend a fair amount of time thinking about its poor 5-year economic outlook. It's not great, but I am curious how it compares to other metros? If I were to move from SF, wanted to live in a metro area, and was uncomfortable living in a very red state - where should I consider? Where is thriving? I have a good amount of friends in Portland, but Portland is adjacent SF in terms of poor economic recover…

Miami is booming but I do fear the Californian migrants there will just turn it into another San Francisco in due time.

[dead]

Re: Downtown SF has 18.4M square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy

#260

Post by ovao »

refurb wrote: post #238
fundad wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's pretty plain to see which states are using the law to suppress the rights of many people. Also most suburbs even in blue states are conservative enough, no need to go further MAGA.

Which states? I mean, if you asked me, California’s gun control laws suppress the rights of many people, but I’m guessing you don’t agree? My point is, you have your own political views, but at the same time live in a country with a lot of differing views. You should feel free to live wherever you want but at the same time realize you’ll never find a place that 100% agrees with all your views.

Oregon and Washington — both blue states — are examples of other states that have begun to lean more heavily into restricting gun rights (whether you agree or disagree with the motivation & justification).

So, agreed, it’s accurate to say that there are examples of different states imposing legislation that restricts some sets of freedoms depending on the state’s political leaning.

Post reply on HN