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$700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

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101–110 of 147 posts

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#101
post #99
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or more closely the sleeping pod scenes in Tokyo in Wim Wenders Until the End of the World (1991) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfFWBWKwQT8 Just the trailer - it's a 5 hour film and hard to find the specific scene on youtube

> Or more closely the sleeping pod scenes in Tokyo in Wim Wenders Until the End of the World (1991) Can you give a more detailed description? Was just a run-of-the-mill Japanese capsule hotel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel )? Those were already common in 1991 ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/glenhsparky/4820691940 ), and would have been certainly exotically sci-fi to an early-90s American audience. > Ju…

Wenders filmed scenes in Japanese capsule pod hotels of the time ... it's relative to be sure but IMHO these are closer to the rentable pods depicted in the article than the scenes from the Jodorowsky movie.

The motivation here was admittedly to respond to one arthouse film drop with another.

I'm kind of old and while not in the film and TV business I've been tangential enough to work as an extra, tech runner, location support etc for various productions - notably in Berlin for Wings of Desire and in Australia (where I live) for some of the central Australian location work for Until the End of the World.

( Australian band in Wings of Desire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPf6SWcENWo

)

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article to me is about the cost of a box to sleep in SF. The person they interviewed was just one of the renters. There are all sorts of people living in that place. Most I would wager are the people who cannot afford anything better. Why do you think minimum wage workers should not be allowed to live in SF? If everyone is writing code, who would make the food? Who would deliver the packages? Who would clean the…

The article is about one renter in one building that offers some rather unusual accommodations that aren't typical for SF. It's not about SF housing issues in general. That's what you decided to talk about.

Have you seen this entire thread? The housing situation in SF in general is what everyone else is talking about. Look to me you are of the few trying to keep it specifically about the experience of just this one individual in the article. Why is that I wonder?

And this is from the article to which I quote:

>I need quite a jump, really, in all honesty, in order to be able to afford the traditional apartment here.

So yes, it is not the typical housing in SF, because it is born out of the dysfunctional "typical" ones and many people have no choice but to take it. I criticize the system that let the situation get to this point and the people who are so apathetic and disconnected they saw no problem with this "atypical" condition even when they acknowledge that it is not typical.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#103
I wonder why we hear about this type of space more often than micro-apartments or micro-studios.

I think the reality of the number of homeless people, as well as the popularity of options like dorms or pods, especially in areas like California, demonstrates that the requirements for living space size that are intended to keep up people's living standards, are not working out.

I wish that truly micro-studios with balconies were popular thing in big cities. If I could have my own bathroom, small fridge, microwave, bunk bed with desk underneath, and just enough room to play a slightly restricted VR table tennis, along with a mini balcony. I would rather live in a city.

Literally like 12x16 feet could be adequate. It would be better than just a bunk for private space. And you could still have some nice shared facilities.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#104
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than a step, this oversteps the mark by quite a bit. A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. I can't imagine it not screwing up anyone's mental health when just looking at a picture of it is giving me an anxiety attack.

> A human being shouldn't have to live in a space that small. The moral instinct that opposes renting out beds like these, but has no reaction to people sleeping on the street (because no one gets paid) is fascinating!

That's making a pretty big assumption about the poster and their views.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#105
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or more closely the sleeping pod scenes in Tokyo in Wim Wenders Until the End of the World (1991) Can you give a more detailed description? Was just a run-of-the-mill Japanese capsule hotel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel )? Those were already common in 1991 ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/glenhsparky/4820691940 ), and would have been certainly exotically sci-fi to an early-90s American audience. > Ju…

Wenders filmed scenes in Japanese capsule pod hotels of the time ... it's relative to be sure but IMHO these are closer to the rentable pods depicted in the article than the scenes from the Jodorowsky movie. The motivation here was admittedly to respond to one arthouse film drop with another. I'm kind of old and while not in the film and TV business I've been tangential enough to work as an extra, tech runner, locati…

Wow! Two of my favorite films. Thanks for your work on them!

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#106
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also parking for vans. A van is an awesome way to live if you can get parking. If you make the rent like 1000 a month for the space, it will keep the riff raff out. Put up a workspace and a some showers. If something like that happened it would start a movement.

Like this? https://www.kift.com

Warning : website links to NFT advert. Shame the actual information about this "community" is buried under this crap.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#107
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The correlation is very accurate. Lobsters were once considered so low-quality that they had to be force-fed to prisoners. Anyone complaining about "eating bugs" on principle is being foolish. If you don't like bugs for the taste, that's one thing (I've tried crickets before; they're unremarkable). But if anyone thinks that eating bugs is inherently any worse than eating, say, pigs, or octopuses, then that's simply i…

It's not accurate. Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera, not crustaceans. Nomenclature isn't typically determined by the quality of nutrition, nor the economic class to which an animal is fed. But this is interesting, nonetheless.

Are you upset by people who don't refer to tomatoes as berries? Because, scientifically, they are.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wenders filmed scenes in Japanese capsule pod hotels of the time ... it's relative to be sure but IMHO these are closer to the rentable pods depicted in the article than the scenes from the Jodorowsky movie. The motivation here was admittedly to respond to one arthouse film drop with another. I'm kind of old and while not in the film and TV business I've been tangential enough to work as an extra, tech runner, locati…

Wow! Two of my favorite films. Thanks for your work on them!

Bit player in a cast of thousands .. but of course I'll take all the credit! (Not! :-) ).

Aussies get about, a classmate of mine from the time had a bit part in a Nicole Kidman film and ended up giving black hole lectures at the Royal Institution of Great Britain along with being twice in the running for the Lucasian Chair.

That sort of things does wonders for your Erdős-Bacon number!

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.gauntlett

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is about one renter in one building that offers some rather unusual accommodations that aren't typical for SF. It's not about SF housing issues in general. That's what you decided to talk about.

Have you seen this entire thread? The housing situation in SF in general is what everyone else is talking about. Look to me you are of the few trying to keep it specifically about the experience of just this one individual in the article. Why is that I wonder? And this is from the article to which I quote: >I need quite a jump, really, in all honesty, in order to be able to afford the traditional apartment here. So y…

The journalist only talked to one person. We don’t know anything about anyone else who lives in that building or what other choices they had. This person had the choice to go home and chose not to, because they liked the AI scene in SF I guess? None of us know what their true situation is since they’re a stranger.

What I’m doing here is refusing to speculate. Yes, other people go off-topic and speculate all the time, but that doesn’t mean it’s useful.

It’s not particularly useful to speculate about other strangers who write comments on Hacker News, either. Are they apathetic or disconnected? Maybe, maybe not? I don’t know them.

Re: $700 a Month for a Bed-Sized “Pod” in Downtown SF? Techies Are Renting Them

#110
post #44

The piece seems pretty exaggerated to generate clicks. "Hacker houses" have been a thing in Silicon Valley forever. You share a large house with a bunch of like-minded people and get a tiny space of your own to sleep in. For someone in their early-mid 20s, what's the harm? It's the perfect way to build a community and have a blast.

But as the article points out- some of the people are techies trying to network and find success in SF's tech scene, and others are people struggling to get by working at Carls Jr...
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