5 ms·

Why can’t San Francisco’s tech culture solve the city’s social problems?

24 points by sethbannon 9y ago

jkw 9y ago
paywall
- Jzush 9y ago
  Yeah, I think the paywall answers the titles question honestly.
sremani 9y ago
Why can't New York's Investment bank culture solve the city's social problems?
- swampthinker 9y ago
  Valley is the new Wall Street. Time is a flat circle.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
FullMtlAlcoholc 9y ago
A better question would be why can't San Francisco's political class and housing authority solve the issue.
- mrarjen 9y ago
  Some fancy EU type regulations would help quite a bit I think. Too bad, helping people is not in the interest of earning money.
- vorotato 9y ago
  Their profits depend on not solving it. Of course if people decide they don't want to live there anymore because it's one drug den then perhaps tunes will change.
Johnny555 9y ago
Why can’t San Francisco’s tech culture solve the city’s social problems? Because social problems are not technology problems?
avs733 9y ago
Because the tech culture thinks it can solve the social problem?
erie 9y ago
Techies have created the culture that has the: motto there is an app for that, yet they hate any blame for the social ills they have created.
gwbas1c 9y ago
Because engineering does not solve political problems
asabjorn 9y ago
It is not for the lack of money spent. San Francisco spent $300 million on housing homeless people in 2017. That’s $40k per homeless person in the city. I think benioffs solution of spending by relocating homeless and vulnerable families outside the city is quite promising. Instead of the $500k per unit in SF it is conceivable to build more than 10 times more for the same prize elsewhere. In one years city budget for homeless housing we could conceivably build housing for all if we are willing to follow benioffs solution, making necessary housing less of a lottery.
- c22 9y ago
  And then what? Do you bus them back to the city to panhandle on weekends or are they just supposed to stay in their new cheap and isolated housing twiddling their thumbs? Will you bring them snacks?
  - asabjorn 9y ago
    Similar to the Utah model you provide social services that help rehabilitate. We can also structure it similarly to theirs. The goal is to free people from the cycle of homelessness. As you can see in the article there is very little that would not improve upon the current situation.
    - c22 9y ago
      This Utah model[0][1][2][3]? I'm all for getting the homeless into homes, and for the chronically homeless perhaps sending them somewhere cheap and giving them a lifetime of social services is the answer. But the majority of homeless are not chronically so, these people need economic opportunities, and the places with the cheapest housing are also the places with the fewest economic opportunities. If we want to prevent this class of homeless from slipping into the former group then finding ways to provide them housing in booming cities is preferable. [0] https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-a-model-for-solving-chronic-homelessness.html https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-... [1] http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homelessness-expert-says-operation-rio-grande-is-a-disaster-at-annual-utah-summit/ http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homel... [2] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-story.html http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-s... [3] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solved-homeles_b_9380860.html# https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solv...
dragonwriter 9y ago
The article doesn't really quite get to this, though it hints at it in parts, but largely because San Francisco’s tech culture is a symptom of, and largely oriented toward reinforcing, the economic conditions underlying the social problems.
arnon 9y ago
As always, people think their sphere of influence is larger than it actually is. Even for tech. Social problems are not caused by tech, so tech might not be able to solve them. Head out into the poorer parts of SF and the surrounding area, and see how very little is shared in common with SF other than geography.
- keiferski 9y ago
  Social problems aren’t caused by tech? You don’t think that the massive increases in cost-of-living in San Francisco have nothing to do with the tech industry’s presence?
  - asabjorn 9y ago
    Lack of housing supply is the major contributor to our high cost of living, not tech, and this started before tech was a thing in San Francisco. Without our excessive ways to hamper new housing tech would have provided good grounds to fund new housing similar to what we see in Austin Texas.
  - natecavanaugh 9y ago
    There definitely are social issues caused by tech, but the fact that tech is raising prices isn't necessarily the responsibility of one single person or business. But even with having tech as the scapegoat doesn't mean that tech will have the answers (it probably guarantees that the answer isn't in tech at all). But there are many social issues, in and out of the Valley, where issues are amplified by tech, but not necessarily the ideal way of solving them (for instance, the fact that so many people online engage in trollish behavior, it's a symptom of people and not necessarily one that tech can cure, but tech does definitely amplify it). Housing had so many different factors that influence it, you can look at everything from governmental policy, cultural changes, land mass and infrastructure to support commuting, and overall consumer preference. SF's housing issues, while not 100% preceding the rise of tech, definitely were a problem already that tech has amplified. If a city isn't prepared for economic success, it's going to have a really tough time adjusting to economic pressures (even the success of it's neighbors). However with San Francisco, it's hard to pass it off as being unprepared, but, TBH, while a generally forward thinking community, there is a lot of NIMBY-itis and a pro-conservationist movement that doesn't always desire to compromise. Not having lived there for any great length of time, I'm conjecturing based on what I read, so take my opinion with a large grain of salt :)
paulus_magnus2 9y ago
“There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

24 points by sethbannon 9y ago

jkw 9y ago

paywall

Jzush 9y ago
Yeah, I think the paywall answers the titles question honestly.

sremani 9y ago

Why can't New York's Investment bank culture solve the city's social problems?

swampthinker 9y ago
Valley is the new Wall Street. Time is a flat circle.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

FullMtlAlcoholc 9y ago

A better question would be why can't San Francisco's political class and housing authority solve the issue.

mrarjen 9y ago
Some fancy EU type regulations would help quite a bit I think. Too bad, helping people is not in the interest of earning money.
vorotato 9y ago
Their profits depend on not solving it. Of course if people decide they don't want to live there anymore because it's one drug den then perhaps tunes will change.

Johnny555 9y ago

Why can’t San Francisco’s tech culture solve the city’s social problems? Because social problems are not technology problems?

avs733 9y ago

Because the tech culture thinks it can solve the social problem?

erie 9y ago

Techies have created the culture that has the: motto there is an app for that, yet they hate any blame for the social ills they have created.

gwbas1c 9y ago

Because engineering does not solve political problems

asabjorn 9y ago

It is not for the lack of money spent. San Francisco spent $300 million on housing homeless people in 2017. That’s $40k per homeless person in the city. I think benioffs solution of spending by relocating homeless and vulnerable families outside the city is quite promising. Instead of the $500k per unit in SF it is conceivable to build more than 10 times more for the same prize elsewhere. In one years city budget for homeless housing we could conceivably build housing for all if we are willing to follow benioffs solution, making necessary housing less of a lottery.

c22 9y ago
And then what? Do you bus them back to the city to panhandle on weekends or are they just supposed to stay in their new cheap and isolated housing twiddling their thumbs? Will you bring them snacks?
- asabjorn 9y ago
  Similar to the Utah model you provide social services that help rehabilitate. We can also structure it similarly to theirs. The goal is to free people from the cycle of homelessness. As you can see in the article there is very little that would not improve upon the current situation.
  - c22 9y ago
    This Utah model[0][1][2][3]? I'm all for getting the homeless into homes, and for the chronically homeless perhaps sending them somewhere cheap and giving them a lifetime of social services is the answer. But the majority of homeless are not chronically so, these people need economic opportunities, and the places with the cheapest housing are also the places with the fewest economic opportunities. If we want to prevent this class of homeless from slipping into the former group then finding ways to provide them housing in booming cities is preferable. [0] https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-a-model-for-solving-chronic-homelessness.html https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-... [1] http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homelessness-expert-says-operation-rio-grande-is-a-disaster-at-annual-utah-summit/ http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homel... [2] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-story.html http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-shelters-20170707-s... [3] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solved-homeles_b_9380860.html# https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solv...

dragonwriter 9y ago

The article doesn't really quite get to this, though it hints at it in parts, but largely because San Francisco’s tech culture is a symptom of, and largely oriented toward reinforcing, the economic conditions underlying the social problems.

arnon 9y ago

As always, people think their sphere of influence is larger than it actually is. Even for tech. Social problems are not caused by tech, so tech might not be able to solve them. Head out into the poorer parts of SF and the surrounding area, and see how very little is shared in common with SF other than geography.

keiferski 9y ago
Social problems aren’t caused by tech? You don’t think that the massive increases in cost-of-living in San Francisco have nothing to do with the tech industry’s presence?
- asabjorn 9y ago
  Lack of housing supply is the major contributor to our high cost of living, not tech, and this started before tech was a thing in San Francisco. Without our excessive ways to hamper new housing tech would have provided good grounds to fund new housing similar to what we see in Austin Texas.
- natecavanaugh 9y ago
  There definitely are social issues caused by tech, but the fact that tech is raising prices isn't necessarily the responsibility of one single person or business. But even with having tech as the scapegoat doesn't mean that tech will have the answers (it probably guarantees that the answer isn't in tech at all). But there are many social issues, in and out of the Valley, where issues are amplified by tech, but not necessarily the ideal way of solving them (for instance, the fact that so many people online engage in trollish behavior, it's a symptom of people and not necessarily one that tech can cure, but tech does definitely amplify it). Housing had so many different factors that influence it, you can look at everything from governmental policy, cultural changes, land mass and infrastructure to support commuting, and overall consumer preference. SF's housing issues, while not 100% preceding the rise of tech, definitely were a problem already that tech has amplified. If a city isn't prepared for economic success, it's going to have a really tough time adjusting to economic pressures (even the success of it's neighbors). However with San Francisco, it's hard to pass it off as being unprepared, but, TBH, while a generally forward thinking community, there is a lot of NIMBY-itis and a pro-conservationist movement that doesn't always desire to compromise. Not having lived there for any great length of time, I'm conjecturing based on what I read, so take my opinion with a large grain of salt :)

paulus_magnus2 9y ago

“There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets the credit.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson