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But where would they go? Homelessness was a problem long before the tech industry sort of took over SF. The magnitude of the problem would require a massive pol

But where would they go? Homelessness was a problem long before the tech industry sort of took over SF. The magnitude of the problem would require a massive political effort and innovation that is near impossible. I'm more surprised by the fact that the tech industry chose SF of all the places in California.

ulfw 8y ago
The tech industry chose the (South) Bay because it was dirty cheap. A bunch of orchards and ugly factories, so they could build up their (silicon) factories etc. there.
- Domenic_S 8y ago
  I’m surprised by how many people don’t know this history. SJ used to be a very affordable place, it was orchards and farmland.
  - tropo 8y ago
    There is no better place to grow apricots. This is a tragedy: people can go anywhere, but you can't do that with plants.
- amacbride 8y ago
  The proximity of Stanford and Berkeley didn't hurt.
pm90 8y ago
SF wasn’t chosen by the tech industry. South Bay was. Most big Tech firms’ HQs are outside the city itself, precisely because of lower real estate costs. The move to SF has been much more recent and mainly fueled by the desire of younger workers to live/work in more densely populated areas. And then most startups started basing out of SF proper to be closer to these workers (and appear “cool”) so now you have all the big startup successes based in the city proper.
Cogito 8y ago
There are lots of reasons why Silicon Valley became what it is today, but it seems that by far it is because William Shockley [0] was born there - "Shockley is the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley." Shockley was working at Bell Labs over in New Jersey on solid state electronics, and was jointly awarded the Noble Prize for the discovery of the transistor effect. When he moved back home, angry at how the invention of the transistor had been handled at Bell Labs, he took a number of researchers with him. Together they were one of the first startups in Stanford's new "Stanford Industrial Park", and the first to use silicon. Some of those researchers later started Fairchild Semiconductor, from which came many companies like Intel and AMD. If you haven't heard of it yet, Stephen Fry has an excellent (if too brief!) podcast that goes through this and the history of other big advances in technology in great detail, called Stephen Fry's Great Leap Years. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley [1] http://www.stephenfry.com/greatleapyears/ http://www.stephenfry.com/greatleapyears/

ulfw 8y ago

The tech industry chose the (South) Bay because it was dirty cheap. A bunch of orchards and ugly factories, so they could build up their (silicon) factories etc. there.

Domenic_S 8y ago
I’m surprised by how many people don’t know this history. SJ used to be a very affordable place, it was orchards and farmland.
- tropo 8y ago
  There is no better place to grow apricots. This is a tragedy: people can go anywhere, but you can't do that with plants.
amacbride 8y ago
The proximity of Stanford and Berkeley didn't hurt.

pm90 8y ago

SF wasn’t chosen by the tech industry. South Bay was. Most big Tech firms’ HQs are outside the city itself, precisely because of lower real estate costs. The move to SF has been much more recent and mainly fueled by the desire of younger workers to live/work in more densely populated areas. And then most startups started basing out of SF proper to be closer to these workers (and appear “cool”) so now you have all the big startup successes based in the city proper.

Cogito 8y ago

There are lots of reasons why Silicon Valley became what it is today, but it seems that by far it is because William Shockley [0] was born there - "Shockley is the man who brought silicon to Silicon Valley." Shockley was working at Bell Labs over in New Jersey on solid state electronics, and was jointly awarded the Noble Prize for the discovery of the transistor effect. When he moved back home, angry at how the invention of the transistor had been handled at Bell Labs, he took a number of researchers with him. Together they were one of the first startups in Stanford's new "Stanford Industrial Park", and the first to use silicon. Some of those researchers later started Fairchild Semiconductor, from which came many companies like Intel and AMD. If you haven't heard of it yet, Stephen Fry has an excellent (if too brief!) podcast that goes through this and the history of other big advances in technology in great detail, called Stephen Fry's Great Leap Years. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley [1] http://www.stephenfry.com/greatleapyears/ http://www.stephenfry.com/greatleapyears/