It's only a "game changer" because SF is now too crowded and expensive, so startups are moving to Oakland because it's still close by and a little cheaper.
Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
21–30 of 60 posts
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Oakland? That seems about right, considering it's a 2 bedroom, a comparable spot in SF would be closer to $6 or $7k. Out of curiosity do you know the folks living their now? I'm always curious to hear who these people that are making enough money to justify a $4k rent payment. The Bay Area never ceases to amaze me. The rent prices are so crazy yet the pay increase is negligible.
16th St BART is in San Francisco (in the mission). As crazy as rents are, they're not yet $6-7k for a 2BR in the city (unless you're talking super luxury).
Sorry, I meant 19th st in Oakland.
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#23Oakland is incredibly close to San Francisco. If you want all the benefits of being in Silicon Valley's startup network with only a fraction of the cost, then Oakland is your spot. The only downside is that many businesses already realize this and have begun driving up renting costs.
> have begun driving up renting costs The two bedroom I rented near the 19th St BART in Oakland was $1,700 in 2009 and is now on the market for over $4,000 a month.
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Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please do not try to understand this through such a narrow lens. San Francisco has human feces because it is one of the only cities in the USA which has not completely criminalized homelesness, because there are a lot of services there, and because once people decide that San Francisco is home, they really, really, really do not want to leave. First of all, there are plenty of human feces in Oakland, but again, let's…
I'm glad you acknowledge the problem, but I think you're understanding it through a narrow lens yourself: there are many cities worldwide with the the same levels of homeslessness as San Francisco (or higher), none are as filthy. Hell even in the US Portland has methheads everywhere: they don't shit on the street. SF has a unique problem. Your claims about for profit prisons may be true, but they don't change the fac…
SF has the same number of homeless people, as a percentage of the population, as NYC: https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-p... (page 15)
SF: 7,000 / 840,000 = 0.8% NY: 64,000 / 8,400,000 = 0.8%
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#25[deleted]
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#26According to Wikipedia, "Oakland has the fifth largest cluster of 'elite zip codes' ranked by the number of households with the highest combination of income and education". That's a good sign. On the other hand, Oakland is also persistently near the top of the list of most dangerous cities in the US. One recent report put it at #2 [1]. That's generally not a good sign. Is there much interaction between the high inco…
Oakland is also persistently near the top of the list of most dangerous cities in the US.
This comes up every time Oakland appears on HN. Oakland is a large city, and there are dangerous portions, and most of the violent crime happens there. The downtown area, where I've worked for 13 years, is relatively safe. I saw more crime in Berkeley in my 13 years working there.
Many people in the suburbs in the outer Bay Area are actually afraid to come to downtown Oakland. I only found out about this because many of the people that I work with told me, years after my company moved from Berkeley to Oakland. They also said that none of their fears came true and they were surprised.
Oakland has a rep. A bad one. It's a pretty safe place, but as always, the situation is complex and you can't distill it down to a sound bite.
Btw, I've walked to work (2 miles each way) through city streets for 13 years. Never had a problem, nor have I seen any problems. In my relatively few visits to SF, though, I saw a homeless person almost beaten to death near Golden Gate park. I've seen other stuff there, too. SF feels much more dangerous to me. But, maybe that's just my fear of the unknown, eh?
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#27I don't live in the US, but it's weird: downtown San Francisco people tend to look down on Oakland, but every time I've been, San Francisco is unique in having human feces on the streets. In Oakland: there's a bunch of parks, a hacker space called the sudo room, a bunch of JS related companies included npm Inc are headquartered there and the last JSFest was there.
This exact topic just came up in a conversation I had today about some friends moving to SF from Seattle. I told them they better check out the Human Wasteland map [1] when choosing where they want to live. Depending on their desired poop contact level, they may want to choose neighborhoods selectively.
The good news, it appears most of the human filth concentrates into a relatively isolated part of the city.
The bad news, this appears to actually be something you have to care about.
(I would never call any of the big East Coast cities "nice and clean", but at least worrying about wading through human feces is not something anywhere near the top of my list)
(also for the record, I found L.A. far more filthy on average than SF, just less poop everywhere)
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#28My personal experience is trying to run a food related startup in Oakland. It didn't go so hot, but then again I think we tried to do too much.
We tried to make the food, deliver the food, and provide the technology to order the food. (a menu that changes day to day - different menu items based on what was in season, etc) In 2010.
It may seem that you can be the 'local boy makes good' when in Oakland, rather than SF. You can garner a lot of support from various groups by bringing business to Oakland as well. Just realize that as long as you are tech focused most of your customer base will be in SF.
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad you acknowledge the problem, but I think you're understanding it through a narrow lens yourself: there are many cities worldwide with the the same levels of homeslessness as San Francisco (or higher), none are as filthy. Hell even in the US Portland has methheads everywhere: they don't shit on the street. SF has a unique problem. Your claims about for profit prisons may be true, but they don't change the fac…
SF has the same number of homeless people, as a percentage of the population, as NYC: https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-p... (page 15) SF: 7,000 / 840,000 = 0.8% NY: 64,000 / 8,400,000 = 0.8%
Yet NYC doesn't have the perception of human poop plastered all over every available surface in the same way SF does.
Re: Why Oakland's a Tech Start-up Game Changer
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I like to think that the tech companies coming to Oakland also share a sentiment of contributing to social causes bigger than themselves. I'm pretty skeptical. It's telling, too, that there was no mention of the big companies with their names on towers.
I interviewed with one of them, and they picked a fight with me about advertising because I felt my previous employer had taken the absolute lowest possible road. I continually tried to acquiesce, even noting that they had a paid option, and they basically said that they hate their paid customers, who they lose money on (why not charge us more?!?), and that they only ever did a paid option because they were forced to…
Fuck Pandora. They use to have a mission. Nowadays they've even given up on the vaunted Music Genome project in order to play more "hits" and shove in more advertising.