13 ms·

'Google go home': the Berlin neighbourhood fighting off a tech giant

143 points by seu 8y ago

dgellow 8y ago
The article makes it sound really bigger than it is. From what I experienced the opposition is quite small, signs anti-google are only visible in a few specific locations in one neighborhood, and in general only a few people are vocal against it (mostly anarchists or anti capitalists activists). I would expect some level of opposition from a fringe of the population in any city where Google or other tech giants want to open offices.
- mpweiher 8y ago
  "Google campus will only have 6-10 employees" Kreuzberg is...special.
  - mightyranger57 8y ago
    Why would they build a whole campus just for 10 employees?
    - sneak 8y ago
      Because lots of Google employees travel for a significant amount of their time and many visit Berlin often.
      - mightyranger57 8y ago
        But to me, campus sounds like something that can host at least 500 to 1000 people. So Google should communicate properly that they are building a private co-working space, not a real campus
    - blocked_again 8y ago
      The article mentions that place would be a hub for entrepreneurs, providing workspace for startup founders as well as networking and educational events.
    - kayoone 8y ago
      It is basically what The Factory is already with its two Locations in Berlin. A place to cowork, for meetups, networking and some startup offices. https://factoryberlin.com/ https://factoryberlin.com/
- sien 8y ago
  Perhaps it's a victory for the publicist of the people against it. It would be very interesting to see if there were many, or even any more people than in that photo at the protest. When I was at Uni I went to some protests that had ~30 people at them. Then the photo and even a bit of clever TV footage made it seem like those few people were at the centre of a much larger protest.
- tnolet 8y ago
  Correct. The weekly Friday night protests are pretty small. A recurring thing in Berlin seems that the very vocal squatters/antifa's drown out the moderate majority. I do symphatize, although weirdly the left in Berlin is so conservative and anti-change that sometimes they are hard to support.
arximboldi 8y ago
I live in the neighbourhood, very close to where the "campus" is being built. I understand that Google has a lot of symbolic value in the protests, but I don't think that it actually will have such an impact. Paul-linke-ufer is already full of startups and relatively affluent american hipsters flood the caffes in the hood. That is also ok, I guess, (like UFO361 says hahaha), people in the end can live wherever they want. But what is not ok is the cartel-like tactics that Berliner landlords use to rise rents. In Germany people tend to not own flats, but this means many buildings are owned by big companies with lots of pressure power when they want to do mass rent increases. They do really shady things like playing with the WBS (social housing) rules against the renters, like with these renters in Maybachufer: https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1086567.falsches-spiel-am-maybachufer.html https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1086567.falsches-sp... The rents went up 17% last year in and this rate is increasing every year. This is really worrying and I hope the city becomes serious about it.
- sneak 8y ago
  Paul-Lincke-Ufer was my first flat in Berlin, in 2008. A bedroom then went for €400/mo, and that was considered high then. Now I imagine it is 3-4x that.
  - biztos 8y ago
    I had a tiny studio with coal heating on Maybachufer in 1996 for under 200 DM (!) per month, "warm" (i.e. with the coal it was about 200). But even back then: a single company owned the building, and kicked everyone out so they could renovate and get their gentrification bonus. To help motivate the older residents they started the exceptionally noisy renovation work at 6am every day.
- INTPenis 8y ago
  I don't think the majority is protesting specifically against the campus building. But rather against Google as a tax evading company and global brand of personal data gathering. In that sense they're in the same category as your landlords. Economic crime favoring the rich. But what do I know, I'm not even in Germany. You should go to the protest and ask them.
obelix_ 8y ago
ces allemands sont fous
- baud147258 8y ago
  The right way to say that would be : "Ils sont fous ces Goths"
blackbrokkoli 8y ago
It kinda seems like the protestors build their arguments around the fact that they don't like Google, not vice versa. Also it's amusing how the article struggles with "Umspannwerk"
mhomde 8y ago
I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airport, but cheap rent, international vibe and fun hipster values seems like the perfect void for tech to move into now that rents and prices in the usual "big cities" have gone through the roof. I can also imagine cities like Amsterdam and Berlin getting some Brexit escapees. Mark my words, Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years.
- drinchev 8y ago
  > Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years. Things that need to happen before this : 1. Salaries need to grow faster. Rent is really high for the new comers specialists. 2. Companies need to increase the salary gap between good and bad workers. Right now you are not able to negotiate more than 10% on top of the "average" salary. 3. Germany needs to fix the privileges of employees having options / shares of the company. With the current legislation / founders attitude is quite boring and useless.
  - mhomde 8y ago
    Yeah I guess that's what stemming the tide :) Also a lot of German companies seem to require that you speak German. I know awesome programmers/designers living in Berlin but if they work for Berlin companies they seem to earn a pittance of what they'd would in for instance Stockholm. But if more tech companies, like Soundcloud, imports themselves into Berlin and Germany, employees and all, that will change. Can it be because venture capital hasn't come to Berlin/Germany in a big way yet? Typically German companies seems more aimed at the German market rather than an international one, which maybe doesn't fuel a bubble as quickly.
    - drinchev 8y ago
      Typical Berlin startups as of 2018 usually look for importing developers from other countries with relocation help. This, IMHO, is already the beginning of the salary increase, which is inevitable. Unfortunately the progressive taxation [1] is quite complicated and makes it impossible to increase your life-style with just a salary bump. I guess that's one of the reasons Berlin is still considered as temporary place to work, before you find "something better". 1 : http://www.drinchev.com/blog/germany-freelancing-and-taxes/ http://www.drinchev.com/blog/germany-freelancing-and-taxes/
haywirez 8y ago
I live right in the middle of this and have been been collecting photos of posters and other relics - which I always promptly send to my friend now working at Google (elsewhere). The neighbourhood is definitely changing. A key fact is that the protests stem from the anarchist / squatter scene that is based literally next block.
dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
I always find it amusing that American companies, be it Amazon or Google, are surprised that people don't want them here. They seem to really believe people love them, whereas in fact people use them because they have to, and put up with problems caused by them also because they have to.
- dgellow 8y ago
  I don't think that anyone is surprised here. The quote is: > I think Google were surprised that they came up against opposition,” says Stefan Klein, a local activist with the GloReiche neighbourhood group at one of their twice-weekly open sessions. So, one activist thinks that Google is surprised (which sounds quite naive IMHO). Then later in the article: > A Google spokesman in Berlin says that the company has spoken to residents about their concerns and is incorporating their feedback into its plans. “We live in Berlin ourselves, we understand the concerns of neighbours about gentrification and know how Kreuzberg has been developing in recent years.”
  - icebraining 8y ago
    I'm not saying Google was surprised, but a spokesperson would have to be pretty poor at their job if they admitted they were caught off-guard.
- erikb 8y ago
  People who work in Tech usually love Google though. They produce usable software, pay well, offer real career opportunities. The only thing Techies don't like about Google is their very american way of doing work. Although the pay might be _much_ worse, the working conditions in pure German software dev companies is usually better.
  - kayoone 8y ago
    I am not expecting Google to pay significantly more than market rate salaries in Berlin, why would they ?
tnolet 8y ago
I live in this neighbourhood and my office is on the same street, one block from the new campus. The area is nice and lively, so I get people want an office there (hell, I did the same!). But Google has the means to positively impact the less hip, more strugling parts of Berlin. I bet people would welcome them with open arms in Marzhan or Wedding.
- biztos 8y ago
  Yes, but would the people Google wants to hire want to work in Marzahn or Wedding?
  - erikb 8y ago
    If Google is there, they would. And if not Berlin is one of the few cities on this planet where people actually live in the city center and drive outside for work.
  - tnolet 8y ago
    People already do for things like university and other companies around the airports. It would be an experiment for Google of course, but they have the means and it could change public opinion massively.
  - collyw 8y ago
    IBM has a train station outside of the city in Scotland, why couldn't Google do that?
  - alexgmcm 8y ago
    I worked in Charité in Wedding - it was fine, the only pain was I was living in Schlachtensee so I had a huge commute every day.
- itsmenotyou 8y ago
  This is true, but Google isn't a philanthropic organization. They want to profit from the reflective "hipness" that comes from being based in Kreuzberg, even if by being there they accelerate the destruction of that same hipness.
sparrc 8y ago
Obviously they can oppose all they want, but the fact of the matter is that most people are going to love the jobs and opportunities it will bring. Whether that is high-paying jobs in engineering or management, middle-paying in hospitality, construction, renovation, or lower-paying in cleaning/janitorial. At least it's my perspective that these sorts of neighbourhood changes are impossible to prevent. Does anyone know of any examples otherwise?
- sykh 8y ago
  Kreuzberg is different. It’s a traditionally leftist district. Every May Day there are clashes with police. At least when I lived there. It may eventually change but the people there are not as money focused. They are more culture focused in the sense of wanting local business over large corporations. Most people there are not going to love the accompanying jobs. Some jobs aren’t worth the cost. Some are.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jpatokal 8y ago
One important thing that's not at all clear from the article: this is not a campus for Google employees a la Googleplex, but a capital-C Campus run by Google for Entrepreneurs, meaning basically a coworking space/startup incubator that happens to be run by Google. So even if it's built, the people working there won't be Googlers, but random startup people in Berlin. https://www.googleforentrepreneurs.com/campuses/ https://www.googleforentrepreneurs.com/campuses/
- marssaxman 8y ago
  Thanks! That was really not clear in the article, and after their list of existing Google campuses, I wondered what had happened to Zurich and Sydney...
dbuder 8y ago
Google just doesn't act like it used to, I'm glad people have woken up to the fact that it is just another faceless corporation, more faceless than most really.
tonyjstark 8y ago
As a Berliner, I find it hard to understand the resistance. On the one hand everybody cries out here about the rising rent and the stagnating wages and on the other hand there is this opposition against bigger companies (e. g. Google or big media companies at the Spree). Gentrification will happen anyway because of investors buying off apartments, houses or complete blocks. Berlin has one of the highest tax on purchasing housing space in Germany which is really bad for people buying apartments but doesn't matter for investors that buy as a business since they can get them partially back with their tax returns (not possible if you use the space yourself instead of renting it out). Big companies would give the market some incentive to raise the wages, which I know is at first bad for small startups but also attracts so much talent that it will balance out at some point (I hope). I guess this is part of the Berlin culture, being innovative and free minded but also being completely against any change. Only 10 waking minutes away from the future Google campus there is this big fight about reworking the riverside of the Landwehrkanal which should make it accessible for Wheelchairs and baby strollers as well as bikes but people are protesting, living in one of the best appartments with still cheap rent because of their old contracts. Before that there was this even bigger fight about a small part of the old Tempelhof airport area. The city planned to build houses and office space there. I can't imagine any other city (with a housing crisis) where people would oppose to this. The fear was that a nature reservation area would suffer which according to plan would have been not be the case. Probably it's a matter of view points, there are the new economy workers like myself waiting for companies to settle in Berlin (not so many there because of the cities history) and then there is the other side with people in really low paying jobs that fear exclusion, totally valid. I don't have numbers but I could imagine that Berlin as quite a bit discrepancy between low and high income households with quite many on the lower end because it has so few big industries. Cheap Berlin only exists in some parts and mainly myths. Friends of mine pay the same rent in Munich for comparable apartments while going out can be cheaper in Berlin but only if you know where to go, the beer price is mostly the same, food depends. The wages are much lower in Berlin, for developers it's at junior entry at around 10.000€ per year less.
platzhirsch 8y ago
As a Berliner I find this hideous. There are so many high end work spaces in Berlin which push the rents anyway. This is mostly invisible to the angry mob but with Google they have a fall guy. This is completely distracting from the underlying structural problems.
kerng 8y ago
https://fuckoffgoogle.de/ https://fuckoffgoogle.de/ There is now a website even.
- illuminati1911 8y ago
  "“Google campus” in Kreuzberg will inevitably cause rents to increase more, pushing out long-time residents and businesses." Maybe somebody could tell these retarded leftists that if instead of spray painting walls and breaking windows, they started studying science & math they could get a job and be able to pay for those rents. "San Francisco – where google operates 10 bus lines to bring its employees to work – became the most expensive city in the world, with rents tripling(? source) over a few years." Google is definitely not alone responsible for SF prices skyrocketing. Also Google has offices all around the world. Even in relatively affordable places.

143 points by seu 8y ago

The article makes it sound really bigger than it is. From what I experienced the opposition is quite small, signs anti-google are only visible in a few specific locations in one neighborhood, and in general only a few people are vocal against it (mostly anarchists or anti capitalists activists). I would expect some level of opposition from a fringe of the population in any city where Google or other tech giants want to open offices.

mpweiher 8y ago
"Google campus will only have 6-10 employees" Kreuzberg is...special.
- mightyranger57 8y ago
  Why would they build a whole campus just for 10 employees?
  - sneak 8y ago
    Because lots of Google employees travel for a significant amount of their time and many visit Berlin often.
    - mightyranger57 8y ago
      But to me, campus sounds like something that can host at least 500 to 1000 people. So Google should communicate properly that they are building a private co-working space, not a real campus
  - blocked_again 8y ago
    The article mentions that place would be a hub for entrepreneurs, providing workspace for startup founders as well as networking and educational events.
  - kayoone 8y ago
    It is basically what The Factory is already with its two Locations in Berlin. A place to cowork, for meetups, networking and some startup offices. https://factoryberlin.com/ https://factoryberlin.com/
sien 8y ago
Perhaps it's a victory for the publicist of the people against it. It would be very interesting to see if there were many, or even any more people than in that photo at the protest. When I was at Uni I went to some protests that had ~30 people at them. Then the photo and even a bit of clever TV footage made it seem like those few people were at the centre of a much larger protest.
tnolet 8y ago
Correct. The weekly Friday night protests are pretty small. A recurring thing in Berlin seems that the very vocal squatters/antifa's drown out the moderate majority. I do symphatize, although weirdly the left in Berlin is so conservative and anti-change that sometimes they are hard to support.

arximboldi 8y ago

I live in the neighbourhood, very close to where the "campus" is being built. I understand that Google has a lot of symbolic value in the protests, but I don't think that it actually will have such an impact. Paul-linke-ufer is already full of startups and relatively affluent american hipsters flood the caffes in the hood. That is also ok, I guess, (like UFO361 says hahaha), people in the end can live wherever they want. But what is not ok is the cartel-like tactics that Berliner landlords use to rise rents. In Germany people tend to not own flats, but this means many buildings are owned by big companies with lots of pressure power when they want to do mass rent increases. They do really shady things like playing with the WBS (social housing) rules against the renters, like with these renters in Maybachufer: https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1086567.falsches-spiel-am-maybachufer.html https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1086567.falsches-sp... The rents went up 17% last year in and this rate is increasing every year. This is really worrying and I hope the city becomes serious about it.

sneak 8y ago
Paul-Lincke-Ufer was my first flat in Berlin, in 2008. A bedroom then went for €400/mo, and that was considered high then. Now I imagine it is 3-4x that.
- biztos 8y ago
  I had a tiny studio with coal heating on Maybachufer in 1996 for under 200 DM (!) per month, "warm" (i.e. with the coal it was about 200). But even back then: a single company owned the building, and kicked everyone out so they could renovate and get their gentrification bonus. To help motivate the older residents they started the exceptionally noisy renovation work at 6am every day.
INTPenis 8y ago
I don't think the majority is protesting specifically against the campus building. But rather against Google as a tax evading company and global brand of personal data gathering. In that sense they're in the same category as your landlords. Economic crime favoring the rich. But what do I know, I'm not even in Germany. You should go to the protest and ask them.

obelix_ 8y ago

ces allemands sont fous

baud147258 8y ago
The right way to say that would be : "Ils sont fous ces Goths"

blackbrokkoli 8y ago

It kinda seems like the protestors build their arguments around the fact that they don't like Google, not vice versa. Also it's amusing how the article struggles with "Umspannwerk"

mhomde 8y ago

I think Berlins "Poor but happy" times are fast coming to an end. Rents have been rising quickly the last few years and tech companies and startups becoming more prevalent. Heck, Neukölln went from being a cheap alternative to being as trendy and expensive as Kreuzberg. Berlin kinda, from what I understand, enjoyed it's special culture much because it wasn't an industrial city and lacked an large international airport, but cheap rent, international vibe and fun hipster values seems like the perfect void for tech to move into now that rents and prices in the usual "big cities" have gone through the roof. I can also imagine cities like Amsterdam and Berlin getting some Brexit escapees. Mark my words, Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years.

drinchev 8y ago
> Berlin will be Europe's Silicon Valley within a few years. Things that need to happen before this : 1. Salaries need to grow faster. Rent is really high for the new comers specialists. 2. Companies need to increase the salary gap between good and bad workers. Right now you are not able to negotiate more than 10% on top of the "average" salary. 3. Germany needs to fix the privileges of employees having options / shares of the company. With the current legislation / founders attitude is quite boring and useless.
- mhomde 8y ago
  Yeah I guess that's what stemming the tide :) Also a lot of German companies seem to require that you speak German. I know awesome programmers/designers living in Berlin but if they work for Berlin companies they seem to earn a pittance of what they'd would in for instance Stockholm. But if more tech companies, like Soundcloud, imports themselves into Berlin and Germany, employees and all, that will change. Can it be because venture capital hasn't come to Berlin/Germany in a big way yet? Typically German companies seems more aimed at the German market rather than an international one, which maybe doesn't fuel a bubble as quickly.
  - drinchev 8y ago
    Typical Berlin startups as of 2018 usually look for importing developers from other countries with relocation help. This, IMHO, is already the beginning of the salary increase, which is inevitable. Unfortunately the progressive taxation [1] is quite complicated and makes it impossible to increase your life-style with just a salary bump. I guess that's one of the reasons Berlin is still considered as temporary place to work, before you find "something better". 1 : http://www.drinchev.com/blog/germany-freelancing-and-taxes/ http://www.drinchev.com/blog/germany-freelancing-and-taxes/

haywirez 8y ago

I live right in the middle of this and have been been collecting photos of posters and other relics - which I always promptly send to my friend now working at Google (elsewhere). The neighbourhood is definitely changing. A key fact is that the protests stem from the anarchist / squatter scene that is based literally next block.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago

I always find it amusing that American companies, be it Amazon or Google, are surprised that people don't want them here. They seem to really believe people love them, whereas in fact people use them because they have to, and put up with problems caused by them also because they have to.

dgellow 8y ago
I don't think that anyone is surprised here. The quote is: > I think Google were surprised that they came up against opposition,” says Stefan Klein, a local activist with the GloReiche neighbourhood group at one of their twice-weekly open sessions. So, one activist thinks that Google is surprised (which sounds quite naive IMHO). Then later in the article: > A Google spokesman in Berlin says that the company has spoken to residents about their concerns and is incorporating their feedback into its plans. “We live in Berlin ourselves, we understand the concerns of neighbours about gentrification and know how Kreuzberg has been developing in recent years.”
- icebraining 8y ago
  I'm not saying Google was surprised, but a spokesperson would have to be pretty poor at their job if they admitted they were caught off-guard.
erikb 8y ago
People who work in Tech usually love Google though. They produce usable software, pay well, offer real career opportunities. The only thing Techies don't like about Google is their very american way of doing work. Although the pay might be _much_ worse, the working conditions in pure German software dev companies is usually better.
- kayoone 8y ago
  I am not expecting Google to pay significantly more than market rate salaries in Berlin, why would they ?

tnolet 8y ago

I live in this neighbourhood and my office is on the same street, one block from the new campus. The area is nice and lively, so I get people want an office there (hell, I did the same!). But Google has the means to positively impact the less hip, more strugling parts of Berlin. I bet people would welcome them with open arms in Marzhan or Wedding.

biztos 8y ago
Yes, but would the people Google wants to hire want to work in Marzahn or Wedding?
- erikb 8y ago
  If Google is there, they would. And if not Berlin is one of the few cities on this planet where people actually live in the city center and drive outside for work.
- tnolet 8y ago
  People already do for things like university and other companies around the airports. It would be an experiment for Google of course, but they have the means and it could change public opinion massively.
- collyw 8y ago
  IBM has a train station outside of the city in Scotland, why couldn't Google do that?
- alexgmcm 8y ago
  I worked in Charité in Wedding - it was fine, the only pain was I was living in Schlachtensee so I had a huge commute every day.
itsmenotyou 8y ago
This is true, but Google isn't a philanthropic organization. They want to profit from the reflective "hipness" that comes from being based in Kreuzberg, even if by being there they accelerate the destruction of that same hipness.

sparrc 8y ago

Obviously they can oppose all they want, but the fact of the matter is that most people are going to love the jobs and opportunities it will bring. Whether that is high-paying jobs in engineering or management, middle-paying in hospitality, construction, renovation, or lower-paying in cleaning/janitorial. At least it's my perspective that these sorts of neighbourhood changes are impossible to prevent. Does anyone know of any examples otherwise?

sykh 8y ago
Kreuzberg is different. It’s a traditionally leftist district. Every May Day there are clashes with police. At least when I lived there. It may eventually change but the people there are not as money focused. They are more culture focused in the sense of wanting local business over large corporations. Most people there are not going to love the accompanying jobs. Some jobs aren’t worth the cost. Some are.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jpatokal 8y ago

One important thing that's not at all clear from the article: this is not a campus for Google employees a la Googleplex, but a capital-C Campus run by Google for Entrepreneurs, meaning basically a coworking space/startup incubator that happens to be run by Google. So even if it's built, the people working there won't be Googlers, but random startup people in Berlin. https://www.googleforentrepreneurs.com/campuses/ https://www.googleforentrepreneurs.com/campuses/

marssaxman 8y ago
Thanks! That was really not clear in the article, and after their list of existing Google campuses, I wondered what had happened to Zurich and Sydney...

dbuder 8y ago

Google just doesn't act like it used to, I'm glad people have woken up to the fact that it is just another faceless corporation, more faceless than most really.

tonyjstark 8y ago

As a Berliner, I find it hard to understand the resistance. On the one hand everybody cries out here about the rising rent and the stagnating wages and on the other hand there is this opposition against bigger companies (e. g. Google or big media companies at the Spree). Gentrification will happen anyway because of investors buying off apartments, houses or complete blocks. Berlin has one of the highest tax on purchasing housing space in Germany which is really bad for people buying apartments but doesn't matter for investors that buy as a business since they can get them partially back with their tax returns (not possible if you use the space yourself instead of renting it out). Big companies would give the market some incentive to raise the wages, which I know is at first bad for small startups but also attracts so much talent that it will balance out at some point (I hope). I guess this is part of the Berlin culture, being innovative and free minded but also being completely against any change. Only 10 waking minutes away from the future Google campus there is this big fight about reworking the riverside of the Landwehrkanal which should make it accessible for Wheelchairs and baby strollers as well as bikes but people are protesting, living in one of the best appartments with still cheap rent because of their old contracts. Before that there was this even bigger fight about a small part of the old Tempelhof airport area. The city planned to build houses and office space there. I can't imagine any other city (with a housing crisis) where people would oppose to this. The fear was that a nature reservation area would suffer which according to plan would have been not be the case. Probably it's a matter of view points, there are the new economy workers like myself waiting for companies to settle in Berlin (not so many there because of the cities history) and then there is the other side with people in really low paying jobs that fear exclusion, totally valid. I don't have numbers but I could imagine that Berlin as quite a bit discrepancy between low and high income households with quite many on the lower end because it has so few big industries. Cheap Berlin only exists in some parts and mainly myths. Friends of mine pay the same rent in Munich for comparable apartments while going out can be cheaper in Berlin but only if you know where to go, the beer price is mostly the same, food depends. The wages are much lower in Berlin, for developers it's at junior entry at around 10.000€ per year less.

platzhirsch 8y ago

As a Berliner I find this hideous. There are so many high end work spaces in Berlin which push the rents anyway. This is mostly invisible to the angry mob but with Google they have a fall guy. This is completely distracting from the underlying structural problems.

kerng 8y ago

https://fuckoffgoogle.de/ https://fuckoffgoogle.de/ There is now a website even.

illuminati1911 8y ago
"“Google campus” in Kreuzberg will inevitably cause rents to increase more, pushing out long-time residents and businesses." Maybe somebody could tell these retarded leftists that if instead of spray painting walls and breaking windows, they started studying science & math they could get a job and be able to pay for those rents. "San Francisco – where google operates 10 bus lines to bring its employees to work – became the most expensive city in the world, with rents tripling(? source) over a few years." Google is definitely not alone responsible for SF prices skyrocketing. Also Google has offices all around the world. Even in relatively affordable places.