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Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

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Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#31

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

michaelochurch wrote: post #17

Yes, but the anger at the Google buses and the people who ride them is misplaced. These people really don't want to be paying $3000 per month for housing, and they have no power. In fact, many would be happy to live in low-COL regions (instead of cramming into SF) if it weren't for the career-limiting effects (at least at Google, you have to work in MTV if you want a decent shot at getting a real project; there are g…

Any company with $250k++ execs working 11:00-3:00 is not going to be around very long. Among the execs in those ranks I've known, if you're a corporate exec making $500k+, the company owns you. When the CEO calls at 2:00 AM Sunday and says, "We've got a problem is Shenzhen", you're on a plane a 6:00 AM, too bad if your daughter's senior recital is 2:00 PM that day.

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#32

Post by thwarted »

zach wrote: post #24

Honestly, I'm surprised Jason Fried and DHH haven't picked up on this news trend to point out how bizarre it is that these companies still bus people around at 40 MPH instead of their communication at the speed of light. Isn't this just another argument for the innovative promise of remote work? That both the old centralized model of the company town, and the hub-and-spoke suburban campus model, impose all kinds of c…

It seems that it is currently more efficient to bus people around, using (abusing, some might say) the infrastructure that already exists than to battle municipalities and telcos to provide/get/allow-you-to-install higher speed network connectivity.

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#33

Post by [deleted] »

michaelochurch wrote: post #17

Yes, but the anger at the Google buses and the people who ride them is misplaced. These people really don't want to be paying $3000 per month for housing, and they have no power. In fact, many would be happy to live in low-COL regions (instead of cramming into SF) if it weren't for the career-limiting effects (at least at Google, you have to work in MTV if you want a decent shot at getting a real project; there are g…

[deleted]

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#34

Post by diminoten »

noamsml wrote: post #9

"I met a guy who lives at 24th and Valencia [Street]. He says the Wi-Fi signal on the buses is so powerful that when the Google bus pulls up in front of his house, it uses all the broadband and his Wi-Fi signal crashes." That's not really how WiFi works. Chances are his router is on the same frequency as the buses and he can fix this by changing to a different frequency. Even more likely (since one SSID shouldn't mak…

I dunno, I find that little anecdote pretty hilarious.

Gives a new meaning to "noise complaint".

Actually, what constitutes "noise" in the context of noise volume laws? Devices have to accept interference as per FCC regulation, but isn't "overpowering" a specific WiFi frequency fundamentally the same thing as blaring music?

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#35

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

"Are Job Creators and Tax Paying Workers Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit", fixed that for you.

The idiocy of this article is disturbing:

"Twitter got this tax break to stay in San Francisco that they blackmailed out of the mayor" (They "blackmailed" him? Really?)

"young men coming in, and they’re transient. They’re not committed to the place" (which is why they bought a house in a dump neighborhood to fix up and keep for the rest of their lives. Jesus give them time, they're not going to settle down, get married, and have kids right after college.)

It seems no journalist is willing to see this from the other point of view. Which is blaming San Francisco's politics. 1 of 4 things is happening here:

● Politics have bought out journalism to such a degree that a serious conversation criticizing San Fran cannot take place.

● Journalists today really are that one sided.

● The media is trying to fuel a class war, they just got done fueling a race war with the Trayvon Martin trial.

● Somebody has a serious hatred for Google in particular because all of this anger is directed towards them.

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#36

Post by rwhitman »

On the flip side its kind of amazing that such a beautiful city with a mild climate and massive protected harbor has maintained being so affordable for so long prior to today. Its kind of a fluke that some really awful urban planning disasters happened to blight the city enough in the 50's to open a window for activists and artists to affordably settle down there in the 60's and 70's. Otherwise it would probably never have been a counter culture mecca to begin with

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#38

Post by BashiBazouk »

raldi wrote: post #12

> And it feels most like a mining town, in that it’s disproportionately young men coming in, and they’re transient. They’re not committed to the place, and they’re displacing a lot of people who are. They're transient because screw-the-newcomer policies like Prop 13 and rent control make it unaffordable for many of them to settle down here. And it's disproportionately young men because these same policies, in conjunc…

That quote is hilarious. So San Francisco is returning to it's roots? When the city was built, it was a mining town (well mining support town) and it was disproportionately young men coming in...

Are we sure this isn't how it's supposed to be?

Re: Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit

#39

Post by wmf »

michaelochurch wrote: post #17

Yes, but the anger at the Google buses and the people who ride them is misplaced. These people really don't want to be paying $3000 per month for housing, and they have no power. In fact, many would be happy to live in low-COL regions (instead of cramming into SF) if it weren't for the career-limiting effects (at least at Google, you have to work in MTV if you want a decent shot at getting a real project; there are g…

many would be happy to live in low-COL regions (instead of cramming into SF)

Isn't Mountain View (or pretty much anywhere else in the valley) cheaper than SF? If these people have no time outside of work to appreciate SF and can barely afford the rent, why are they living there?

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