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Apple put its big new headquarters in Cupertino, which doesn't have any housing available for all the people working there. Therefore, the majority will be forc
by apsec112 9y ago
Apple put its big new headquarters in Cupertino, which doesn't have any housing available for all the people working there. Therefore, the majority will be forced to drive long distances to work, in dirty, CO2-heavy automobiles. Apple could have used its financial leverage - a third of Cupertino's tax revenue - to force the city to stop blocking all new housing construction, reducing commute distances. Alternatively, it could have placed its headquarters somewhere else - somewhere with either more housing, or enough density to support public transit, or a city council that isn't obsessed with enriching homeowners by making a housing shortage as bad as possible (or all three). Apple chose not to do either of those things, so all of those CO2 emissions are its responsibility.
- dominotw 9y agoForce how?
- apsec112 9y agoSimply tell the city, you need to permit enough housing for all of the people working in this huge new office complex, or Apple will leave Cupertino. Apple is such a large company that they pay a major chunk of Cupertino's tax revenues, so they would have a lot of negotiating leverage.
- rgovostes 9y agoHave you been to Cupertino? I wouldn't want to live there. And if I worked there, I wouldn't want to live within 1 mile of my office. Even if there were housing, many people would prefer to live elsewhere. Apple also cannot threaten to leave the city every time they want something. How dystopian it would be to have a multibillion dollar company extorting City Hall like that.
- saagarjha 9y ago> Have you been to Cupertino? I wouldn't want to live there. Hey now, what's wrong with Cupertino :(
- bronson 9y agoApple threaten to leave their new spaceship? A comically obvious bluff?
- dominotw 9y agoI guess in this case we are fine big corporations telling city govt what to do.
- joshio 9y agoCome on, what kind of utopia are you living in? Apple's core business is not environment protection, it's development of technology and applications for that tech. That they're using the vehicle that is Apple to push for green energy is remarkable, putting pressure on the other giants. But this kind of expectation, that they should move away from the Mecka of tech devs. in order to push the envelope further would only lessen the net impact on their environmental work..
- ghfbjdhhv 9y agoIt would help if they just moved near a Caltrain station. See: what Google is doing in SJ.
- joshio 9y agoI'm not sure how frequent these stations are but from the overview of the size of the new Apple campus, it's not too easy finding a lot large enough to just drop it down where it's convenient. Not accounting for zoning laws etc.
- rgovostes 9y agoThere are or were offices at Sunnyvale Caltrain station. They also have shuttles that regularly service Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Diridon stations; the ride should only be 10-15 minutes. However, I do not think Caltrain has the capacity for tens of thousands of new commuters.
- apsec112 9y agoThere's nothing "remarkable" about a company, especially a Bay Area-based consumer electronics company, saying they like green energy. Everyone says they like green energy, even the oil companies (https://www.total.com/en/commitment/environmental-issues-challenges/climate-change/renewable-energies https://www.total.com/en/commitment/environmental-issues-cha...). What would be "remarkable" is if they made significant changes to how they do business to, at least, avoid making the problem worse, and they are not doing that.
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- batmansmk 9y agoApple has free shuttles to pick people up. There are 4 large apartment buildings recently constructed near the new office. Most people don't work in Cupertino. Lastly, many people can telecommute if they want to. Apple is not perfect, but the energy Tim puts in making this stuff happens is beyond marketing desire.
- justonepost 9y agoShuttles are just more congestion. Need sky trains.
- greglindahl 9y agoCaltrain has been encouraging shuttles for decades; you're saying that they're wrong? OK, let's cut Caltrain ridership by about 1/3 by ending shuttles, that'll improve things.
- justonepost 9y agoCaltrain is sloooowwww, need high speed high density public transit that doesn’t add to rush hour congestion. Each stop should have a massive high rise with grocery, entertainment, etc.
- greglindahl 9y agoThat is the plan for Caltrain, yes. Ending shuttles is not the way to get there. Electrification of Caltrain and relaxing zoning restrictions near Caltrain stations, plus keeping shuttles, is the way to get there.
- chrischen 9y agoYou’ve just described Tokyo. Was that intentional?
- bobwaycott 9y agoSky trains are just more congestion. Need teleporters.
- rgovostes 9y agoApple has an entire department dedicated to incentivizing employees to use environmentally-friendly alternative commute methods: shuttles from the surrounding cities, shuttles within campus, bikes on campus, rental cars to lessen the need to own one, subsidies for public transportation, and for those who still drive, plentiful EV charging spots.
- GuiA 9y agoWhat you are saying is correct, with a few nuances: - as other commenters have pointed out, many employees who live more than a short drive from the office use shuttles. Not as good as public transit civically, but comparable ecologically. - the vast majority of Apple’s 140k or so employees work in Apple Stores. Your post remains correct, but it is a fairly small number of employees who are operating in the dysfunctional urban quagmire that is the Bay Area.
- tomtimtall 9y agoWell they also chose not to put the headquarters in a pot third world country, so let’s blame them for world hunger.
- apsec112 9y agoBuilding a huge amount of new office space in Cupertino is not just "not helping", it's actively making the problem worse.
- rgovostes 9y agoThe site was originally an HP campus, so the office space was already there; they replaced 80% of the former parking lots and office buildings with green space—increasing CO2 absorption. The new building also allows them to consolidate employees from many of the 100+ other properties they lease within Cupertino and Sunnyvale. This further reduces the need for intercampus transportation. Hopefully these newly unused office buildings can be converted into residential space (edit: but Apple does not own them, so it's not their choice).
- askafriend 9y agoYou come off as severely misinformed in this whole thread. I would urge you to read the article and do some research on the questions you ask before asking them. The answers are not what you think they are in light of any actual context.
- justonepost 9y agoHear hear! They could have used their money to create sky trains to extremely high density housing (high rises). Google and Facebook could do this as well. Win win for all. The fact that they don’t shows they really do not care.
- saagarjha 9y agoWhere exactly would they build this extremely high density housing and sky trains?