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Ok, sign me up for the new Google Domed City with integrated weather, parks, transportation (self-driving cars), housing, office space, entertainment, and local governance. Would like one here here in Ft. Worth, it is snowing a lot today.
https://beta.googledomedcity.com not resolving, darn.
When is the Beta launching near me.
Couple of feature requests: don't forget to include greywater recycling guys. And voting.
There is no need to write "Not the sexiest title for a blog post, I know." when there are equally valid constructions that eschew the sexual.
Google currently doesn't have space. MTV offices are packed, there's little space left to seat new employees, and no parking (pretty much have to rely on valet service) Google has only 3 options: 1. find existing buildings nearby, but this increases sprawl even more 2. move to another city or only open space in other cities 3. build new buildings on land holdings you already have #1 and #2 have the downsides of makin…
Option 4. Remote work. That would solve for packed offices, packed parking lots, overpriced real estate, long commutes, and more.
The language used right at the beginning is uncalled for and off-putting. Please consider your audience. There is no need to write "Not the sexiest title for a blog post, I know." when there are equally valid constructions that eschew the sexual.
Also - I have to ask (genuinely intrigued) - who is this language supposed to be offending, and why?
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Interestingly, a long commute is one of the most highly correlated factors with regards to people's happiness: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/06/perils-commu... You may be happier living at work than you realize, (yes, I joke, but not as much as you'd think).
So you're saying if Google really wants happy employees they should open more offices in downtown SF? :)
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Honest question, how does prop 13 increase the cost of living?
Prop 13 limits property tax to the value of the house when you bought it unlike most places where you pay property tax on the current value. So what happens in other locations is that demand for locations starts going up, housing prices go up, taxes go up and people who can't pay those taxes get displaced. Developers buy those houses, raze them in favor of apartment complexes and eventually you get density. If people…
It's interesting that Google's office plan is garnering a lot of negative feedback. When Apple announced a plan to make one giant office building to house its entire corporate workforce, the general consensus was positive. Even Cupertino's politicians praised its ambition and assumed wealth it will bring to the city. Has anyone been in Cupertino recently? It feels like almost every single office building in that city…
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I work for Google in Mountain View, and I'd prefer to work in a filthy basement in Kansas. The commute would be better, and the cost of living lower...
Move to Mountain View? For the 5 years I was at Google, I never lived more than 2 miles away, my commute was 15 minutes by bicycle, and for half that, rent was only about $1400/month (it started rising rapidly in the last few years). But wait, it's not SF? Well, neither is Kansas, and as far as urban life & young people go, Mountain View is a lot better than Kansas.
Interesting how you refer to that as "only". That's like 40% of the average American salary. But if you work at Google and you indicate $1400 with "only" I cannot help but assume Google employees are far above the average national income.
I think I should point out that this is traditionally a sign of a peak of a company, sometimes called the Edifice Complex.
Interestingly for me, they are getting bigger and bigger. The space ship complex for Apple (and this proposed Google setup) are both quite large. So harder to lease out as a unit to the next company that comes along.
Still, if you have the extra cash laying about companies like IBM have proven that investing in real estate is a good hedge against the future. They have several really beautiful campuses.