I live right in the middle of this and have been been collecting photos of posters and other relics - which I always promptly send to my friend now working at Google (elsewhere). The neighbourhood is definitely changing. A key fact is that the protests stem from the anarchist / squatter scene that is based literally next block.
'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
21–30 of 184 posts
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#22I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
Slightly Off Topic: I thought Germany has some form of protection by law so rent and property market don't get to hike the prices to whatever they want. So while the world 's property market is on fire by QE, Berlin hasn't moved a needle at all. So why has rent risen so much?
It has risen for newer rentals. If I remember correctly, you can increase the rent max 3% per year for an ongoing contract and 10% in a new rental contract.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#23I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
Not only Brexit escapees but from all over the periphery - it felt like half of Portugal, Italy and Greece was in Amsterdam. Same here in Berlin.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#24I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
Slightly Off Topic: I thought Germany has some form of protection by law so rent and property market don't get to hike the prices to whatever they want. So while the world 's property market is on fire by QE, Berlin hasn't moved a needle at all. So why has rent risen so much?
City has failed to provide enough housing for incoming people. There is for example an old unused airport (Tempelhof) standing empy at prime location.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#25I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
>Mark my words, Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years. It might happen- but it still wont have an airport.
Nice overview of the cost involved of trying to build the Berlin Airport: https://www.flughafen-berlin-kosten.de/
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#26I always find it amusing that American companies, be it Amazon or Google, are surprised that people don't want them here. They seem to really believe people love them, whereas in fact people use them because they have to, and put up with problems caused by them also because they have to.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#27I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
It does have two international airports:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Tegel_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Sch%C3%B6nefeld_Airport
Although they are planned to be closed when the third one opens(this one doesn't have a lack of issues though):
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#28I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
> Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years. Things that need to happen before this : 1. Salaries need to grow faster. Rent is really high for the new comers specialists. 2. Companies need to increase the salary gap between good and bad workers. Right now you are not able to negotiate more than 10% on top of the "average" salary. 3. Germany needs to fix the privileges of employees having options / sha…
> Salaries need to grow faster
Berlin software engineer salaries are seriously worse then any where in america. I’ve seen desktop IT support in the US MidWest pay more than developers in Berlin.
Hard to convince me to move internationally and write code. I can just move home, write zero code, and spend all day telling people to try, “turning it off and on again”. Cashing identical value checks.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#29I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
> it lacks an international airport
Berlin has an international airport.
Re: 'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant
#30I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airpor…
Slightly Off Topic: I thought Germany has some form of protection by law so rent and property market don't get to hike the prices to whatever they want. So while the world 's property market is on fire by QE, Berlin hasn't moved a needle at all. So why has rent risen so much?
It's mainly because the rents in Berlin had been comparatively extremely low in average. What happened in the last 5-10 years is more or less an adjustment to other cities in Germany e.g. Hamburg or Munich. But it is a big problem, the typical young IT worker can afford it, but the wages of "normal" workers didn't rise much, so gentrification happened like crazy in all central districts.