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Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

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Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#101

Post by nabaraz »

gmarx wrote: post #87
seiji wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a given, isn't it? They are nowhere even worth that much today. Private company valuations aren't based on rationality, they are based on emotion. Uber's current backwards valuation is capturing all speculation about future robot fairies that'll save them in the 5-year future (which always seems to be 5 years out, doesn't it?). For some reason, the funding geniuses behind Uber seem to assume no other company o…

I was with you until the thing about four companies that could wipe out Uber. Which companies and how?

Lyft, Sidecar, Haxi?

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#102

Post by Kalium »

anigbrowl wrote: post #36

If Uber really wants to earn goodwill in Oakland (which is worth thinking about because the local anarchists are probably planning their protests already), it would be worth renovating the exterior of the building too. A lot of buildings in downtown Oakland have beautiful art deco facades that were covered up with ugly concrete facings in the 1950s in a misguided attempt to look more modern. Bringing out some of Oakl…

Honestly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort for them. They're already attracting a lot of hate for being a VC-fueled company that undercut an established business and employing mostly white dudes. What value can they expect to gain from showering money on a community already hellbent on hating them?

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#103

Post by Kalium »

beedogs wrote: post #56
DigitalSea wrote: post #12

The gentrification of Oakland is now well and truly under-way after the great job gentrification did in San Francisco displacing thousands of people from their homes.

The truth clearly hurts some people, as evidenced by the color of your comment. Ask anyone who isn't in tech in San Fran how easy it is to make ends meet in that city. Then ask them what their commute's like.

I know a guy in Oakland who complained about all the techies moving in.

Then he said he's had three raises in two years.

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#104

Post by falsestprophet »

noer wrote: post #73
jedberg wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No no they aren't a taxi company. They are a marketplace that matches people selling space in their car with people who need space in a car. Until they get their self driving cars, and then the are a transportation and logistics company. But they definitely aren't a taxi company

They're a company you can contact to dispatch a car to take you where you want to go that charges you by distance traveled. If that's not a taxi, I don't know what is.

A taxi is a vehicle for hire that you can lawfully hail on the street.

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#105

Post by plorkyeran »

sneak wrote: post #58
rdl wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new part of the Oakland Bay Bridge has a bike lane, but only out to Treasure Island; there's no bike lane from Treasure Island to SF.

That has to be by design.

They're two separate bridges built decades apart. They put a bike lane on the new eastern span despite it not being very useful at the moment so that whenever a new western span is built it won't run into the exact same issue (and there's some ideas being thrown around for adding a bike lane to the current bridge, but they're all hideously expensive).

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#106

Post by mahyarm »

anarchy8 wrote: post #6
primitivesuave wrote: post #2

Oakland is already an attractive new location for tech companies. It is my sincerest hope that the policy-makers in Oakland see what happened in SF with housing, and are proactive in controlling rent to avoid displacing low-income people and most importantly, the people who contribute to the city's culture.

Rent control is what led to the mess in SF. I sincerely hope that Oakland works to adopt sane housing policies.

Oakland has rent control, with rates of %1.5-%3/yr. If it's a condo, house or 4-plex or under, normal rent control does not apply. Even then, the max is %10/yr, with a max of %30/5yrs.

So if you have a $800/month tenant, it will take over 15 years to get their rent up to the current market rate of ~$2200/yr.

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#107

Post by gkoberger »

joelrunyon wrote: post #63
gkoberger wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has low overhead for a $50bn company. They've already won vs taxis. Now they're going for courier services, buses, food delivery and even cleaning services. They aren't part of the sharing economy, they're trying to be the sharing economy.

Where have you seen the cleaning services?

Rumor, but: https://twitter.com/om/status/444681883083735040

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#108

Post by muzmath »

aeling wrote: post #90
pmorici wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems overly optimistic to think that anyone from the midwest would be dumb enough to think that $80k was a livable salary for that area even in Oakland.

As a Midwestern coder, I could definitely see peers making that mistake - 80k seems like a lot when you're used to rent in the low hundreds. That said, where are you getting 80k? I didn't see it in either the GP link or the original story, and would expect Uber to be hiring at higher salaries than that given other comments in this thread re: the cash/stock split.

Low hundreds? Not even in the middle of no where in the midwest will the low hundreds get you a half-decent place.

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#109

Post by mjb394 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #3
primitivesuave wrote: post #2

Oakland is already an attractive new location for tech companies. It is my sincerest hope that the policy-makers in Oakland see what happened in SF with housing, and are proactive in controlling rent to avoid displacing low-income people and most importantly, the people who contribute to the city's culture.

Because tech workers clearly fail to "contribute to the city's culture."

I don't know anyone who works 60 hours a week and also participates in the kind of community that Oakland has. People actually know each other there! They talk to their neighbors and strangers on the street, and it brightens everyone's day to have that little touch of human connection. They go to parties and talk about things other than their jobs. They paint and draw and play music and plan events and fundraisers that are good for the community. I know techies who aspire to that kind of life, but thinking like you want to do something and actually doing it are very different things.

Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

#110

Post by [deleted] »

djrogers wrote: post #94
ChuckFrank wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No difference from just around the corner of the Twitter building. This isn't a homeless man crapping problem, it's an insufficient bathroom infrastructure problem, and yes most mid to large size American cities have it. Which is exacerbated by laxative type drugs. 'Hello Alcohol, Hello Heroin, I'm talking to you two.'

While this line of thought may make you feel better about living in SF, it's just not true. Having been and lived in a number of mid-to-large sized American cities, I can honestly state that SF is by far the most urine and feces covered. If you want to see someone defecate in public, SF would be by far the #1 place to visit. You're unlikely to see that behavior tolerated in NY, Chicago, KC, Vancouver, Seattle, Portla…

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