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Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

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Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#421

Post by kelnos »

lostlogin wrote: post #273
sidlls wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the shift to remote work is temporary. There will almost certainly be a relatively large crash in commercial real estate, but it will recover, probably within a year or maybe two.

> but it will recover, probably within a year or maybe two. Doesn’t this require the pandemic to be gone? I hope it is, but that’s one hell of a condition.

If the pandemic isn't under control within a year or two, I think a commercial real estate collapse will be just one thing in a long list of problems.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#422

Post by bergstromm466 »

throwaway9980 wrote: post #217
FreakyT wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That actually seems like a really good idea — I’d love to see more housing in the “downtown core” areas of SF, which are like 95% office space.

Especially good if the converted office space also provides a good work from home environment. Everyone is working from home and those that can are scrambling to expand their houses to suit a new lifestyle.

> Especially good if the converted office space also provides a good work from home environment.

Or... you know... just give homeless people housing?

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#423

Post by wastedhours »

mattmanser wrote: post #408
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article linked by the comment I replied to stated this: > Smith is one of hundreds of residents placed at Terminus House in Harlow by councils in and around London, often many miles from everything and everybody they once knew. I'm not familiar with the specifics of UK subsidized housing, but it sure sounds like the residents were placed in this building by government.

Yeah, you're not and totally misunderstanding how that works. Councils used to be the biggest house builders in the UK. Then the neoliberals decided that was silly and the free-market could sort it. So they banned councils from building houses in the 80s. House builds plummeted from 300k per year to 30k per year. Plus they forced the council to get rid of their affordable housing by letting people buy their council h…

I think you're arguing at cross-purposes. Terminus House is social housing (no-one's arguing that it's not, and that it's not bad), what they're describing in SF is different as it's commercial, and certainly at least medium-grade private housing.

Whether or not the free market has caused the use of private companies to provide project style social housing on the fringes of cities (short answer: of course it has) is somewhat irrelevant compared with converting city-centre commercial property into private accommodation.

>> sounds like the residents were placed in this building by government

> council didn't 'choose' to put people there

Again, your response isn't to the point being made really - no-ones really arguing against your point. Just because they didn't have any real alternative doesn't invalidate the point that they did it.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#424

Post by brodie »

FreakyT wrote: post #172
kristopolous wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other week I was on real estate sites and I saw a bunch of "apartments" in SOMA that just looked like offices with some hastily slapped on anemities, as if there was some "wink wink nudge nudge" going on and they had to call the place an "apartment" for some city ordinance but everyone knew it was an office. However, I realized it was exactly the opposite. These people were taking their office spaces and desperat…

That actually seems like a really good idea — I’d love to see more housing in the “downtown core” areas of SF, which are like 95% office space.

I wouldn’t mind living in FiDi if it were in a brand new loft/studio apartment at an affordable price.

All my SF life I’ve tried to stay in the real residential neighborhoods, the ones tourists don’t know exist. Would be nice to change it up without being rent gouged.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#425

Post by adrianN »

bergstromm466 wrote: post #422
throwaway9980 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially good if the converted office space also provides a good work from home environment. Everyone is working from home and those that can are scrambling to expand their houses to suit a new lifestyle.

> Especially good if the converted office space also provides a good work from home environment. Or... you know... just give homeless people housing?

Is there data supporting the conclusion that lack of housing is what causes homelessness? I always thought that it was more of a failure of the social safety net.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#426

Post by michaelt »

mattmanser wrote: post #408
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article linked by the comment I replied to stated this: > Smith is one of hundreds of residents placed at Terminus House in Harlow by councils in and around London, often many miles from everything and everybody they once knew. I'm not familiar with the specifics of UK subsidized housing, but it sure sounds like the residents were placed in this building by government.

Yeah, you're not and totally misunderstanding how that works. Councils used to be the biggest house builders in the UK. Then the neoliberals decided that was silly and the free-market could sort it. So they banned councils from building houses in the 80s. House builds plummeted from 300k per year to 30k per year. Plus they forced the council to get rid of their affordable housing by letting people buy their council h…

What hn_throwaway_99 means is: If the policy was "Homeless people rent a house of their choice and the state pays the rent" or "homeless people get cash to spend as they see fit" it wouldn't matter if there were low minimum standards and shitty houses on the market, as they would be rejected by everyone looking for housing - including homeless people.

In contrast if the policy is "Government pays the rent on the cheapest houses on the market, for homeless people" or "government has a fixed budget and must house as many homeless people as possible" then the legal minimum standard is crucial, because that's what you'll likely be giving to homeless people.

For councils to build houses and build them to a reasonable standard would, as you say, be another option.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#427

Post by kelnos »

dannyw wrote: post #148
pdx6 wrote: post #143

For those that think this is the end of San Francisco, take a deep breath. The empty office space and worries about expiring leases only applies to companies that can't work remote. SF has a huge service industry, swaths of culture, and some pretty nice weather. A bunch of chair warmers and button pushers moved to Tahoe or Mazzula, so what? It is nice to have a huge house and some land, but city living is are a trade…

I don’t think everyone who lives in San Fran wants do life in San Fran. They’re here because that’s where the jobs are.

This is either ignorant or disingenuous. There are plenty of us who live in SF and want to continue living here, and it has nothing to do with jobs.

I do welcome the departure of people who don't actually like the city and have been "forced" to live here due to their job. I feel like the city will be a lot healthier from a community standpoint with a higher percentage of people who want to live here.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#428

Post by kelnos »

throwmea122 wrote: post #373
rsync wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don’t think everyone who lives in San Fran wants do life in San Fran. They’re here because that’s where the jobs are." I live in San Francisco and I want to do life here. I moved here very specifically to set down roots and raise my family in the SFBA. I have the option to live anywhere in the world and I believe that the confluence of the west marin national seashore and the city center of San Francisco is unique…

Sure some people live in SF because they want to be here. Others live (in my case lived) there because of a job. I don't care for SF the city, but I do like the greater bay area. Having said that, your driving time estimates are incredible optimistic. Squaw is not 3 hours from SF, not even with no traffic (this scenario doesn't really exist) and good weather. Getting anywhere in the bay area also takes significantly…

> Squaw is not 3 hours from SF, not even with no traffic (this scenario doesn't really exist) and good weather.

I'm sure this is mainly due to the pandemic, but I just drove back from there last month (slightly farther than Squaw, actually), and it took 3 hours and a single-digit number of minutes. Hell, the travel time Google is showing from Squaw right now is 3 hours and 9 minutes.

I do agree that's atypical. But... so what? "Correct" the parent's statement to "4 hours" and the argument is just as valid. Seems like you're nitpicking and missing the forest for the trees.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#429

Post by kelnos »

asiachick wrote: post #362
Swizec wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. Both of those cities are larger than SF. Less walkable due to lower density, though. If it weren’t for SF’s high concentration of my industry (tech), I’d likely move to NYC, London, or Paris.

I find Tokyo far more walkable than SF. I don't like the public transportation in SF. It's dirty, gross, and slow and have to walk over homeless people and smell piss everywhere and even without transportation most areas in Tokyo are super walkable with access to almost everything you could need just a few minutes walk away. I'd say Paris and London (and most > 1m people cities in Europe and many in Asia) are also mo…

> I find Tokyo far more walkable than SF.

Agreed, and I think the parent was saying that LA and Fremont are less walkable than SF, not that Tokyo is.

Re: Nearly 12M Square Feet of Vacant Office Space in S.F

#430

Post by dang »

flurben wrote: post #224
dang wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't be rude in comments here, and please don't pile on. digitaltrees' reply gives vmception a nice invitation to expand, which would benefit all of us. Swipes like the one in your comment unfortunately have the opposite effect on conversation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

My bad, I didn't realize this was one of those types of places.

Hard to know exactly what you mean, but you might be misreading our intent here. The intention is to optimize the site for curiosity: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... We've learned a lot about how to do that over the years. Swipes lead to flames, flames tend to spread, and that whole approach to internet discussion is definitely not good for curiosity.
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