6 ms·

This is awesome for Seattle engineers. Even if you don't work at Facebook it should give a nice compensation bump for all good engineers in the area.

by mikebo 16y ago

potatolicious 16y ago
I'm glad they're staying downtown - I wish more tech companies here had the balls to do the same, instead of setting up campuses out in the boonies and forcing everyone to drive and live in disconnected suburbs (MS, Google, looking right at you guys).
- frognibble 16y ago
  In addition to the Kirkland office in the boonies, Google has an engineering office in Fremont to serve the city folk.
- codexon 16y ago
  Kirkland isn't a small town and I think most people prefer to live 30 minutes away from the city to avoid being stuck in traffic for an hour.
  - potatolicious 16y ago
    > "I think most people prefer to live 30 minutes away from the city" I doubt this. A lot of my peers who work at MS loved living in the city, but had to move out to the suburbs (that they don't really like) to save on commute. Which is the point - if MS was downtown it would be reasonably commutable by just about everyone (including suburbanites in Bellevue). The reverse (putting the office in the 'burbs) makes commuting slightly simpler for suburbanites at the cost of making it nigh impossible for urban dwellers. Personally, having grown up in a sleepy suburb not at all unlike Kirkland, I'd loathe to go back - and I know a lot of my younger peers feel the same. This is on top of all of the requisite issues with suburban lifestyles (e.g., over-reliance on cars, health concerns due to driving everywhere, sprawl, walkability in general, social homogeneity, etc). I currently live 20 minutes away from work by bus (plus side: I get to walk home on a good day, try doing that in the suburbs), and luckily my employer is reasonably close to downtown. That's less commute than most suburban office parks demand, and all of it is "free time" (i.e., I can be doing other things than watching the road).
    - codexon 16y ago
      Well I doubt you. I know people at MS as well, and most of them prefer to live outside the city where they pay a sane amount for a nice house instead of a cramped apartment, and lower crime rates. My experience is that it is only the young 20 somethings that want a vibrant nightlife that prefer the city. Putting the company downtown will effectively force everyone to go through the I-90 or 520 bridge which suffer from massive traffic or live in the city. City life is not for everyone. And about the exercising, there's much less to be done downtown unless you like doing everything indoors. Walking around the street isn't very entertaining unless you are shopping or eating at restaurants. You could take the time you save from not having to commute to seattle and use it to exercise. And didn't they tell you they have trails and soccer fields at the Redmond campus?
      - potatolicious 16y ago
        > "Putting the company downtown will effectively force everyone to go through the I-90 or 520 bridge" Which has plenty of capacity for transit, especially the mass, rapid sort that cities on the east side are so busy trying to prevent from being built. Yeah, screw efficiency and the environment, as long as the smelly poor people can't get to our neighborhood! It's clearly a much better solution to have everyone trying to cram down a freeway, a single occupant to each 1-ton vehicle. Side note: it's a bit disheartening that 2 passengers qualify for the car pool lane around here. You see a nice house, I see rows of identical houses with equally identical people in it. I see stagnation and loss of perspective, as everything the least bit unseemly and incongruous with your hard-earned socioeconomic status is blissfully hidden. You see a cramped apartment, I see living in a neighborhood with history and soul, with something more than more rows of cookie cutter houses. Where people living in highly developed places don't pretend to be living on a "ranch", "glade", or "estate". Where there is so much life teeming around you that walking home is a treat, not a chore. Putting it that way, no wonder the same money buys a big house in the burbs... I mean, there's gotta be something to justify all that you lose by leaving the city. It's all perspective I am merely telling you that not as many tech workers enjoy the suburban thing as you seem to think. This goes far beyond hard-partying young types. I've met many a middle-aged or even elderly folk who like livin in the city for the same reasons. Hell, I know some people with children that greatly prefer living in the city.

This is awesome for Seattle engineers. Even if you don't work at Facebook it should give a nice compensation bump for all good engineers in the area.

by mikebo 16y ago

This is awesome for Seattle engineers. Even if you don't work at Facebook it should give a nice compensation bump for all good engineers in the area.

potatolicious 16y ago

I'm glad they're staying downtown - I wish more tech companies here had the balls to do the same, instead of setting up campuses out in the boonies and forcing everyone to drive and live in disconnected suburbs (MS, Google, looking right at you guys).

frognibble 16y ago
In addition to the Kirkland office in the boonies, Google has an engineering office in Fremont to serve the city folk.
codexon 16y ago
Kirkland isn't a small town and I think most people prefer to live 30 minutes away from the city to avoid being stuck in traffic for an hour.
- potatolicious 16y ago
  > "I think most people prefer to live 30 minutes away from the city" I doubt this. A lot of my peers who work at MS loved living in the city, but had to move out to the suburbs (that they don't really like) to save on commute. Which is the point - if MS was downtown it would be reasonably commutable by just about everyone (including suburbanites in Bellevue). The reverse (putting the office in the 'burbs) makes commuting slightly simpler for suburbanites at the cost of making it nigh impossible for urban dwellers. Personally, having grown up in a sleepy suburb not at all unlike Kirkland, I'd loathe to go back - and I know a lot of my younger peers feel the same. This is on top of all of the requisite issues with suburban lifestyles (e.g., over-reliance on cars, health concerns due to driving everywhere, sprawl, walkability in general, social homogeneity, etc). I currently live 20 minutes away from work by bus (plus side: I get to walk home on a good day, try doing that in the suburbs), and luckily my employer is reasonably close to downtown. That's less commute than most suburban office parks demand, and all of it is "free time" (i.e., I can be doing other things than watching the road).
  - codexon 16y ago
    Well I doubt you. I know people at MS as well, and most of them prefer to live outside the city where they pay a sane amount for a nice house instead of a cramped apartment, and lower crime rates. My experience is that it is only the young 20 somethings that want a vibrant nightlife that prefer the city. Putting the company downtown will effectively force everyone to go through the I-90 or 520 bridge which suffer from massive traffic or live in the city. City life is not for everyone. And about the exercising, there's much less to be done downtown unless you like doing everything indoors. Walking around the street isn't very entertaining unless you are shopping or eating at restaurants. You could take the time you save from not having to commute to seattle and use it to exercise. And didn't they tell you they have trails and soccer fields at the Redmond campus?
    - potatolicious 16y ago
      > "Putting the company downtown will effectively force everyone to go through the I-90 or 520 bridge" Which has plenty of capacity for transit, especially the mass, rapid sort that cities on the east side are so busy trying to prevent from being built. Yeah, screw efficiency and the environment, as long as the smelly poor people can't get to our neighborhood! It's clearly a much better solution to have everyone trying to cram down a freeway, a single occupant to each 1-ton vehicle. Side note: it's a bit disheartening that 2 passengers qualify for the car pool lane around here. You see a nice house, I see rows of identical houses with equally identical people in it. I see stagnation and loss of perspective, as everything the least bit unseemly and incongruous with your hard-earned socioeconomic status is blissfully hidden. You see a cramped apartment, I see living in a neighborhood with history and soul, with something more than more rows of cookie cutter houses. Where people living in highly developed places don't pretend to be living on a "ranch", "glade", or "estate". Where there is so much life teeming around you that walking home is a treat, not a chore. Putting it that way, no wonder the same money buys a big house in the burbs... I mean, there's gotta be something to justify all that you lose by leaving the city. It's all perspective I am merely telling you that not as many tech workers enjoy the suburban thing as you seem to think. This goes far beyond hard-partying young types. I've met many a middle-aged or even elderly folk who like livin in the city for the same reasons. Hell, I know some people with children that greatly prefer living in the city.