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Even if you take that stance, it’s hard to square it with the fact that Silicon Valley needs more than VCs and startup founders to function.

by mprev 9y ago

mjfl 9y ago
That is economically illiterate. If it got to the point where there was not enough people to fill necessary jobs around the city the wages would rise to attract more people. Right now the opposite is happening: there are too many people.
- d--b 9y ago
  Too many people? Are you serious? San Francisco + Silicon valley has 3 million people. That's less than half of New York City. The amount of money the region makes is more than enough to support that population over that area...
  - nbtdev 9y ago
    There are 7 million in the 9- county Bay Area, and having lived there for ten years, that is the stat that matters. http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/ http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/ Cost of living on the peninsula has already pushed many people to the east and south and even then you don't get much of a break. Land use restrictions mean there is very little new land on which to build and having to jump through eleventy different legal hurdles to do so means that when built, it's already more expensive than many of those in need can afford. I moved away after being there ten years as a software developer because the cost of living, level of congestion and crowding was obnoxious, and I have no intention of returning. But then, I had that option.
    - azernik 9y ago
      New York City (the city proper, not including the suburbs) has that many people in a fraction of the area.
  - ratboy666 9y ago
    Yes... too many people. If a software eng or ceo wanted to eat out, someone has to prepare the food. The person, in turn, has to live there. So, if 86,000 is "poor" (defined as the minimum needed to live in the area), the person doing the food preparation has to be paid at least that. The "burger flipper" has to be paid that. If people moved out, quickly the "burger flipper WOULD be paid that". But that, in turn, would attract "burger flippers" who simply compare the money. Resulting in high unemployment, and the need for food banks again. Its the concentration of rich people that is the problem.
    - closeparen 9y ago
      Your claim is incredibly easy to verify: are there restaurants in New York and Paris? Apparently so. There are too many people to maintain our suburban character, sure.
  - seattle_spring 9y ago
    The Bay Area has 7 million people. I'm not sure why you cherry picked a subset of the region to claim a low population, but it strikes me as intentionally misleading.
    - d--b 9y ago
      I got the number from there: https://jointventure.org/news-and-media/news-releases/1260-silicon-valley-population-hits-3-million https://jointventure.org/news-and-media/news-releases/1260-s... It's the top result from googling "silicon valley population" Still 7 million people is not a lot density-wise, I'm just saying you just can't blame high prices on people density only... At least you can blame it on "not enough housing". Which sounds weird to me, cause cheap housing is very quick to build.
      - closeparen 9y ago
        Large-scale housing production is prohibited in the Bay Area as a matter of public policy. Reasons include honoring the “rights” of neighbors to be spared from unwanted changes in their neighborhoods, general anti-capitalist beliefs that markets are the wrong way to allocate housing or that private capital is the wrong way to build it, rejection of the idea that supply and demand apply to hosuing, and the simple observation that when new housing is built, it tends to be expensive.

Even if you take that stance, it’s hard to square it with the fact that Silicon Valley needs more than VCs and startup founders to function.

by mprev 9y ago

Even if you take that stance, it’s hard to square it with the fact that Silicon Valley needs more than VCs and startup founders to function.

mjfl 9y ago

That is economically illiterate. If it got to the point where there was not enough people to fill necessary jobs around the city the wages would rise to attract more people. Right now the opposite is happening: there are too many people.

d--b 9y ago
Too many people? Are you serious? San Francisco + Silicon valley has 3 million people. That's less than half of New York City. The amount of money the region makes is more than enough to support that population over that area...
- nbtdev 9y ago
  There are 7 million in the 9- county Bay Area, and having lived there for ten years, that is the stat that matters. http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/ http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/ Cost of living on the peninsula has already pushed many people to the east and south and even then you don't get much of a break. Land use restrictions mean there is very little new land on which to build and having to jump through eleventy different legal hurdles to do so means that when built, it's already more expensive than many of those in need can afford. I moved away after being there ten years as a software developer because the cost of living, level of congestion and crowding was obnoxious, and I have no intention of returning. But then, I had that option.
  - azernik 9y ago
    New York City (the city proper, not including the suburbs) has that many people in a fraction of the area.
- ratboy666 9y ago
  Yes... too many people. If a software eng or ceo wanted to eat out, someone has to prepare the food. The person, in turn, has to live there. So, if 86,000 is "poor" (defined as the minimum needed to live in the area), the person doing the food preparation has to be paid at least that. The "burger flipper" has to be paid that. If people moved out, quickly the "burger flipper WOULD be paid that". But that, in turn, would attract "burger flippers" who simply compare the money. Resulting in high unemployment, and the need for food banks again. Its the concentration of rich people that is the problem.
  - closeparen 9y ago
    Your claim is incredibly easy to verify: are there restaurants in New York and Paris? Apparently so. There are too many people to maintain our suburban character, sure.
- seattle_spring 9y ago
  The Bay Area has 7 million people. I'm not sure why you cherry picked a subset of the region to claim a low population, but it strikes me as intentionally misleading.
  - d--b 9y ago
    I got the number from there: https://jointventure.org/news-and-media/news-releases/1260-silicon-valley-population-hits-3-million https://jointventure.org/news-and-media/news-releases/1260-s... It's the top result from googling "silicon valley population" Still 7 million people is not a lot density-wise, I'm just saying you just can't blame high prices on people density only... At least you can blame it on "not enough housing". Which sounds weird to me, cause cheap housing is very quick to build.
    - closeparen 9y ago
      Large-scale housing production is prohibited in the Bay Area as a matter of public policy. Reasons include honoring the “rights” of neighbors to be spared from unwanted changes in their neighborhoods, general anti-capitalist beliefs that markets are the wrong way to allocate housing or that private capital is the wrong way to build it, rejection of the idea that supply and demand apply to hosuing, and the simple observation that when new housing is built, it tends to be expensive.