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lol Way to absolve tech of any blame and blame those dirty poor homeless addicts. Clearly there's absolutely no reason for these people to exist! They just do!

prottog 4y ago
> Way to absolve tech of any blame The dirty poor homeless addicts aside, what exactly did tech do? Tech didn't come up with the truly brain-dead housing policy that makes it so difficult to build new housing, so that supply can catch up with demand. Tech isn't handing out drugs on the street. I'm not a tech worker in SF so I'm not taking anything personally. But I struggle to establish a causal relationship between tech and what's happening in SF. Usually, it's a good thing for a community when there's a local high-income cash cow.
- amrocha 4y ago
  You're right that it's nothing inherent to tech, it's about the money coming in and displacing the existing communities. It just so happens that that money came from tech. People are talking as if this is the city's problem, but it's our industry that caused the problem. We have to acknowledge that so we don't keep causing problems. And as the cash cow, our industry has the ability to influence policy to prevent these issues from happening.
pookha 4y ago
Market dictates that housing costs are going to be high in SF (there isn't enough land available). tech has nothing to do with it...
- amrocha 4y ago
  The "market" doesn't dictate that. Policy has kept housing expensive in SF by not building enough supply, by not regulating rents, but not building better public transit infrastructure. And it's the rich advocating against affordable housing. And they made their money through tech.
  - pookha 4y ago
    Part of the reason rents are high in SF is BECAUSE of rent control (regulating rents). You're just creating scarcity. Developers aren't going to want to take massive losses and haircuts (and neither would you) to build in rent-control areas. It drives up prices all around because there's less real-estate. They've studied this to death. It's a terrible idea https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181289 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181289
    - amrocha 4y ago
      Rent control regulation is great for tenants, which means it's great for keeping people housed. If that means being a landlord isn't lucrative enough, that's fine, the government can absorb that capacity and build social housing instead. There's no reason the private market should be allowed to monopolize rental housing.

prottog 4y ago

> Way to absolve tech of any blame The dirty poor homeless addicts aside, what exactly did tech do? Tech didn't come up with the truly brain-dead housing policy that makes it so difficult to build new housing, so that supply can catch up with demand. Tech isn't handing out drugs on the street. I'm not a tech worker in SF so I'm not taking anything personally. But I struggle to establish a causal relationship between tech and what's happening in SF. Usually, it's a good thing for a community when there's a local high-income cash cow.

amrocha 4y ago
You're right that it's nothing inherent to tech, it's about the money coming in and displacing the existing communities. It just so happens that that money came from tech. People are talking as if this is the city's problem, but it's our industry that caused the problem. We have to acknowledge that so we don't keep causing problems. And as the cash cow, our industry has the ability to influence policy to prevent these issues from happening.

pookha 4y ago

Market dictates that housing costs are going to be high in SF (there isn't enough land available). tech has nothing to do with it...

amrocha 4y ago
The "market" doesn't dictate that. Policy has kept housing expensive in SF by not building enough supply, by not regulating rents, but not building better public transit infrastructure. And it's the rich advocating against affordable housing. And they made their money through tech.
- pookha 4y ago
  Part of the reason rents are high in SF is BECAUSE of rent control (regulating rents). You're just creating scarcity. Developers aren't going to want to take massive losses and haircuts (and neither would you) to build in rent-control areas. It drives up prices all around because there's less real-estate. They've studied this to death. It's a terrible idea https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181289 https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20181289
  - amrocha 4y ago
    Rent control regulation is great for tenants, which means it's great for keeping people housed. If that means being a landlord isn't lucrative enough, that's fine, the government can absorb that capacity and build social housing instead. There's no reason the private market should be allowed to monopolize rental housing.