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Why does everyone have to squeeze into San Francisco and the peninsula? Can't you tech workers gentrify West Oakland at least? Guess a few street thugs are a

Why does everyone have to squeeze into San Francisco and the peninsula? Can't you tech workers gentrify West Oakland at least? Guess a few street thugs are a force more powerful than million dollar home prices. I bet those guys are really proud of the chaos they create that forces all of you to avoid their neighborhoods.

nailer 9y ago
npm and uber are in Oakland. Edit per comment below: uber Oakland office was going to 3000 people, but yeah, now it's been reduced to a few hundred: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/20/uber-scales-back-initial-oakland-expansion-plans/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/20/uber-scales-back-initi...
- 0xB31B1B 9y ago
  Uber is in SF, Palo Alto and Seattle, oak office is very small and hasn't opened yet.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - nailer 9y ago
    Looks like they reduced it. Thanks for heads up, have edited accordingly.
  - mcguire 9y ago
    So housing prices aren't that big a deal?
    - closeparen 9y ago
      More like BART is painful but tolerable.
Naritai 9y ago
Did you miss the part where BART is packed every commute hour? There are huge numbers of people in Oakland and the rest of the east bay. But the most efficient transportation system is one that doesn't have huge rush hour stresses, i.e. ones where people live close to where they work. So if the offices are getting built in SF, then so must be the housing.
- CodeCube 9y ago
  so then build the offices in oakland ;)
  - Nav_Panel 9y ago
    This is actually what happened in parts of Westchester and Connecticut. All the executive staff were commuting from their suburban homes to their various headquarters in NYC, then they realized they could just move their office instead.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      It was also the case that if you wind the clock back not all that many years, relatively few of the people working for, say, IBM (especially at the executive level) actually wanted to live in Manhattan. Obviously the Bay Area as a whole has a problem with housing prices. (It has for a very long time but it's become extreme relatively recently.) But one of the big issues with housing prices in "prime" cities is that professionals weren't clamoring to live in them until quite recently. Look at Boston/Cambridge as well. Teradyne was probably the only significant tech company with a major office in Boston until the dot-com/bomb and it later moved out. All the growth in Kendall Square and Seaport is recent. It's no wonder urban housing and transit hasn't kept up.
    - Naritai 9y ago
      If you look at small-to-mid sized law (or other professional) firms in the Bay area, you see a lot that have 2 offices: One in FiDi, one in Walnut Creek (or somewhere similar). Guess where the partners are all spending any day that doesn't require a client meeting? :)
xr4ti 9y ago
Yes. Thugs. Drugs. Drive by shootings. The east bay is a burning trash heap with no redeeming value. Please do not move here.
- scarmig 9y ago
  Yes. On the way to work I got mugged three times, before having acid thrown in my face. Oakland is a burning hellhole, stay the fuck away if you value your life and property.
- Animats 9y ago
  When I moved to Menlo Park in 1987, there was automatic weapons fire from Whiskey Gulch every weekend. It was all liquor stores and bars, hence the name. The fried chicken outlet there had full transparent bulletproofing, heavier than some banks. East Palo Alto was Murder City, USA. Tiny Whiskey Gulch, about three city blocks, had the highest murder rate per square mile in the US. I thought I was moving into a declining area, so I rented a house, instead of buying. That was fixed by leveling the entire area, removing a freeway offramp, and replacing the liquor stores and poor people with a Four Seasons hotel and a large office building housing a law firm and medical offices. The final solution to the underclass was thus implemented. When Facebook moved to Menlo Park, house prices went through the roof.
  - clock_tower 9y ago
    > The final solution to the underclass was thus implemented. If "final solution" refers to relocating people, what term will you use if they're deliberately killed?
pj_mukh 9y ago
Oakland...takes a harder line against gentrification than most other parts of the Bay [1]. [1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/07/oakland-blaze-looks-suspiciously-like-previous-east-bay-fires/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/07/oakland-blaze-looks-su...
- kevinburke 9y ago
  The fires are unfortunate but Oakland has approved a lot more market rate housing than SF or surrounding cities have, in part because rents have been appreciating more quickly than in SF. Oakland also wants to do more for housing.
sliverstorm 9y ago
Yeah, it seems like despite all the market distortions, the most fundamental issue is the notion that San Francisco can fit everyone who wants to live there.

nailer 9y ago

npm and uber are in Oakland. Edit per comment below: uber Oakland office was going to 3000 people, but yeah, now it's been reduced to a few hundred: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/20/uber-scales-back-initial-oakland-expansion-plans/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/20/uber-scales-back-initi...

0xB31B1B 9y ago
Uber is in SF, Palo Alto and Seattle, oak office is very small and hasn't opened yet.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- nailer 9y ago
  Looks like they reduced it. Thanks for heads up, have edited accordingly.
- mcguire 9y ago
  So housing prices aren't that big a deal?
  - closeparen 9y ago
    More like BART is painful but tolerable.

Naritai 9y ago

Did you miss the part where BART is packed every commute hour? There are huge numbers of people in Oakland and the rest of the east bay. But the most efficient transportation system is one that doesn't have huge rush hour stresses, i.e. ones where people live close to where they work. So if the offices are getting built in SF, then so must be the housing.

CodeCube 9y ago
so then build the offices in oakland ;)
- Nav_Panel 9y ago
  This is actually what happened in parts of Westchester and Connecticut. All the executive staff were commuting from their suburban homes to their various headquarters in NYC, then they realized they could just move their office instead.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    It was also the case that if you wind the clock back not all that many years, relatively few of the people working for, say, IBM (especially at the executive level) actually wanted to live in Manhattan. Obviously the Bay Area as a whole has a problem with housing prices. (It has for a very long time but it's become extreme relatively recently.) But one of the big issues with housing prices in "prime" cities is that professionals weren't clamoring to live in them until quite recently. Look at Boston/Cambridge as well. Teradyne was probably the only significant tech company with a major office in Boston until the dot-com/bomb and it later moved out. All the growth in Kendall Square and Seaport is recent. It's no wonder urban housing and transit hasn't kept up.
  - Naritai 9y ago
    If you look at small-to-mid sized law (or other professional) firms in the Bay area, you see a lot that have 2 offices: One in FiDi, one in Walnut Creek (or somewhere similar). Guess where the partners are all spending any day that doesn't require a client meeting? :)

xr4ti 9y ago

Yes. Thugs. Drugs. Drive by shootings. The east bay is a burning trash heap with no redeeming value. Please do not move here.

scarmig 9y ago
Yes. On the way to work I got mugged three times, before having acid thrown in my face. Oakland is a burning hellhole, stay the fuck away if you value your life and property.
Animats 9y ago
When I moved to Menlo Park in 1987, there was automatic weapons fire from Whiskey Gulch every weekend. It was all liquor stores and bars, hence the name. The fried chicken outlet there had full transparent bulletproofing, heavier than some banks. East Palo Alto was Murder City, USA. Tiny Whiskey Gulch, about three city blocks, had the highest murder rate per square mile in the US. I thought I was moving into a declining area, so I rented a house, instead of buying. That was fixed by leveling the entire area, removing a freeway offramp, and replacing the liquor stores and poor people with a Four Seasons hotel and a large office building housing a law firm and medical offices. The final solution to the underclass was thus implemented. When Facebook moved to Menlo Park, house prices went through the roof.
- clock_tower 9y ago
  > The final solution to the underclass was thus implemented. If "final solution" refers to relocating people, what term will you use if they're deliberately killed?

pj_mukh 9y ago

Oakland...takes a harder line against gentrification than most other parts of the Bay [1]. [1] http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/07/oakland-blaze-looks-suspiciously-like-previous-east-bay-fires/ http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/07/oakland-blaze-looks-su...

kevinburke 9y ago
The fires are unfortunate but Oakland has approved a lot more market rate housing than SF or surrounding cities have, in part because rents have been appreciating more quickly than in SF. Oakland also wants to do more for housing.

sliverstorm 9y ago

Yeah, it seems like despite all the market distortions, the most fundamental issue is the notion that San Francisco can fit everyone who wants to live there.