Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect Art Deco is already popular with Uber's leadership for other reasons :)
What are those reasons?
Ayn Rand liked it, her book covers, etc. Uber is known for liking Rand.
Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
81–90 of 128 posts
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the renters (like me) will complain that the city (well, the permitting process they approve) is only promoting units for the financially relatively better off and is not subsidizing enough low rent units. So they scuttle low income housing to spite middle income housing.
Why should a city subsidize housing? That seems like something the market should drive primarily. For that same reason, I'm skeptical about whether zoning and permiting are a good thing in general.
Zoning and permitting are a good thing. It means a city can have long term planning and allocate resources and budget things accordingly. Mishmosh cities have existed and do currently exist in emerging economies, they tend to be chaotic and crime ridden messes.
That said, I think zoning needs to be updated to reflect more modern economies. Mixed use, company housing (it's had a stained past, but still it can work, if governed properly), and the permitting should be less political and very much so more pragmatic. I rather detest the politization that has overtaken infrastructure building when it involves private investment.
With regard to subsidized housing, I think we need it to allow the poor to afford a place to live. Now, I don't think anyone has a "right" to live in a particular place, but you also should want to facilitate people of all sorts of income levels to live in a given municipality.
I'm not claiming diversity of vibrancy or any other pseudo reason people like to list, as they are based on feel good emotions. In addition, there are plenty of places that are very monocultural and are very vibrant (Tokyo) but at the same time we should try to include a diversity of strata and allow for people to move into the mainstream stratum, as most seek to achieve, in the fist place.
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#83Oakland 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.
Why was this downvoted?
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#84Listen. Pandora is two blocks away, so I can say it: this is a bad move for Uber.
* Oakland isn't cool anymore. We were here before it was cool. And we are barely cool.
* Attrition is terrible. Coworkers either get shot or are poached by Clorox. I heard we lost a Glass developer to the dock worker's union.
* Mass transit at that particular location is astounding: the free green bus, the ferry, BART, an AC transit hub. What I'm saying is that it's too ironic for Uber to be there.
* The best milkshakes are at True Burger, the best banh mi is in Chinatown, and the best parking is at YMCA. Does any of that make sense? No, of course not.
Avoid Oakland at all costs. The real hot spot? Hayward.
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#85I saw teo people shot not far from here, the windows of Obama's campaign HQ smashed in with hammers down the street, and a homeless man crap on the steps of city hall in broad daylight. Welcome to Oakland Uber.
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.'
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#86Earlier 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.'
This might be a nice way to comfort yourself about living not only in CA but in either SF or Oakland, but it's not real life. I've worked in the downtowns of multiple major metropolitan areas, and have never seen anyone defecate in public, nor have I witnessed a robbery. I was once pressed to buy crack in the Crossroads District of KCMO, but that's pretty much it. I used to walk from Crossroads to Crown Center for lu…
I've never witnessed a robbery, in either SF (where I currently work) or Oakland (where I have lived for a while). Obviously that doesn't mean it doesn't occur - but neither does your anecdote mean that Oakland and SF are necessarily worse than where you've been working. They may be, but that's a question of looking at actual numbers.
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is assuming they won't grow much past $50bn right?
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?
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#88I saw teo people shot not far from here, the windows of Obama's campaign HQ smashed in with hammers down the street, and a homeless man crap on the steps of city hall in broad daylight. Welcome to Oakland Uber.
As a non-American that has spent time in both SF and Oakland, but has no allegiances to either, SF's much dirtier.
I'm originally from Chicago and have lived in many American cities including NYC in the 1990s. Can confirm, SF is bizarrely filthy especially given how much money is available and its reputation
Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#89This is in addition to their new giant HQ in SF? Uber has an awful lot of overhead for a taxi company. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/uber-new-hq/
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Re: Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland
#90Looks like the VC's are spearheading the move to Oakland. Chamath Palihapitaya from Social + Capital is planning a developers village apartment complex in Oakland with the goal of luring more Midwest coders to the West coast. http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/chamath-palihapitaya-on-ins...
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.