4 ms·

No one wants or needs downtown San Francisco's new $20M coworking trap

randycupertino 1y ago
Commercial real estate's newest offering to entire workers back to downtown offices. > We need you down here,” he said at The Cove’s grand opening last Tuesday, explaining that this $20 million investment was key to bringing workers back to the office and revitalizing the beleaguered downtown area. > “I want you to feel like you want to be down here every day of the week,” he added. “I can’t wait until people start complaining to me about traffic.”
- SamInTheShell 1y ago
  Seems the memo got lost. We don’t like dealing with traffic.
  - Sohcahtoa82 1y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke
rufus_foreman 1y ago
It's pretty amazing they were able to develop that at under the cost of a dozen toilets.
W-Stool 1y ago
I was going to say that the whole thing is more than a whiff of WeWork, but the article's author beat me to it.
postalrat 1y ago
What this "press and hold" captcha that doesn't seem to work?
- tanseydavid 1y ago
  Have you seen the short film "I am not a Robot" ? https://youtu.be/4VrLQXR7mKU?si=NSB7VEIoVyMSphxL https://youtu.be/4VrLQXR7mKU?si=NSB7VEIoVyMSphxL
skybrian 1y ago
This article seems more factual: https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/22/san-francisco-office-amenity-wars-the-cove/ https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/22/san-francisco-office-ameni... > Tenants are already lined up. Law firm Goodwin Proctor relocated from Three Embarcadero Center in January to take floors 31 and 32; other new tenants recently signed on for 70,000 square feet in the 38-story building, Lumpkin said. One of the main tenants is Amazon, which occupies nearly 40% of the property and requires most workers to be in the office five days a week. It seems like the sort of thing the big tech companies often do in their own buildings?
tibbar 1y ago
It seems like the author just really hates working in an office, and interprets office perks as traps to make you spend more time there. I too prefer working from home, but I also see that as a likely anomalous perk and can't be too upset about having to go to work in the morning.
- timewizard 1y ago
  > seems like the author just really hates working in an office I think satisfaction from working in an office is directly related to the pay given to those coming into the office. Her role would not have been a high paying one. I genuinely can't blame her for that; but, it does seem like it also made her bitter towards her co-workers specifically. > and interprets office perks as traps to make you spend more time there. Do they have any other actual purpose? > but I also see that as a likely anomalous perk It shouldn't be anomalous. The lockdowns incidentally showed that not _every_ single job needs to be held in the office by rote. It also showed that even if you do not all 5 days a week are necessary to get the benefits that come from working in a shared space. > and can't be too upset about having to go to work in the morning. If it's genuinely required for the job then sure. If we're doing it just because the manager just wants to do his favorite thing then I think we justifiably can take the position of being upset by this. If it has no impact on the bottom line then why are you hassling me for something you do not actually need?
  - tibbar 1y ago
    Yeah, the author clearly did not have a good time doing maintenance in one of these buildings, and came to resent her co-workers (and the odds are good that the author was not employed by the same firm as the programmers, increasing the sense of class divide). Interestingly, the author eventually expresses some empathy for the programmers, seeing them as over-worked startup employees, too. Reading between the lines, I think the narrative here is that all workers are oppressed by The Man and being in an office is part of that. It's a bit of a meme to tell slightly spoiled SF engineers that they're being oppressed, can't they see it? When, realistically, it's a pretty darn good time for a lot of the engineers...
  - 1y ago
cafard 1y ago
The Cove has been around for a while, or maybe was here a while back. I'm pretty sure I remember a Cove on K St. NW in Washington, DC, probably about the 1800 block.
- randycupertino 1y ago
  There's also a The Cove in the Biotech hub in SSF in Oyster Point but it has different branding/logo than this Cove - https://www.covessf.com/toc.cfm https://www.covessf.com/toc.cfm

Commercial real estate's newest offering to entire workers back to downtown offices. > We need you down here,” he said at The Cove’s grand opening last Tuesday, explaining that this $20 million investment was key to bringing workers back to the office and revitalizing the beleaguered downtown area. > “I want you to feel like you want to be down here every day of the week,” he added. “I can’t wait until people start complaining to me about traffic.”

SamInTheShell 1y ago
Seems the memo got lost. We don’t like dealing with traffic.
- Sohcahtoa82 1y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

rufus_foreman 1y ago

It's pretty amazing they were able to develop that at under the cost of a dozen toilets.

W-Stool 1y ago

I was going to say that the whole thing is more than a whiff of WeWork, but the article's author beat me to it.

postalrat 1y ago

What this "press and hold" captcha that doesn't seem to work?

tanseydavid 1y ago
Have you seen the short film "I am not a Robot" ? https://youtu.be/4VrLQXR7mKU?si=NSB7VEIoVyMSphxL https://youtu.be/4VrLQXR7mKU?si=NSB7VEIoVyMSphxL

skybrian 1y ago

This article seems more factual: https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/22/san-francisco-office-amenity-wars-the-cove/ https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/22/san-francisco-office-ameni... > Tenants are already lined up. Law firm Goodwin Proctor relocated from Three Embarcadero Center in January to take floors 31 and 32; other new tenants recently signed on for 70,000 square feet in the 38-story building, Lumpkin said. One of the main tenants is Amazon, which occupies nearly 40% of the property and requires most workers to be in the office five days a week. It seems like the sort of thing the big tech companies often do in their own buildings?

tibbar 1y ago

It seems like the author just really hates working in an office, and interprets office perks as traps to make you spend more time there. I too prefer working from home, but I also see that as a likely anomalous perk and can't be too upset about having to go to work in the morning.

timewizard 1y ago
> seems like the author just really hates working in an office I think satisfaction from working in an office is directly related to the pay given to those coming into the office. Her role would not have been a high paying one. I genuinely can't blame her for that; but, it does seem like it also made her bitter towards her co-workers specifically. > and interprets office perks as traps to make you spend more time there. Do they have any other actual purpose? > but I also see that as a likely anomalous perk It shouldn't be anomalous. The lockdowns incidentally showed that not _every_ single job needs to be held in the office by rote. It also showed that even if you do not all 5 days a week are necessary to get the benefits that come from working in a shared space. > and can't be too upset about having to go to work in the morning. If it's genuinely required for the job then sure. If we're doing it just because the manager just wants to do his favorite thing then I think we justifiably can take the position of being upset by this. If it has no impact on the bottom line then why are you hassling me for something you do not actually need?
- tibbar 1y ago
  Yeah, the author clearly did not have a good time doing maintenance in one of these buildings, and came to resent her co-workers (and the odds are good that the author was not employed by the same firm as the programmers, increasing the sense of class divide). Interestingly, the author eventually expresses some empathy for the programmers, seeing them as over-worked startup employees, too. Reading between the lines, I think the narrative here is that all workers are oppressed by The Man and being in an office is part of that. It's a bit of a meme to tell slightly spoiled SF engineers that they're being oppressed, can't they see it? When, realistically, it's a pretty darn good time for a lot of the engineers...
- 1y ago

cafard 1y ago

The Cove has been around for a while, or maybe was here a while back. I'm pretty sure I remember a Cove on K St. NW in Washington, DC, probably about the 1800 block.

randycupertino 1y ago
There's also a The Cove in the Biotech hub in SSF in Oyster Point but it has different branding/logo than this Cove - https://www.covessf.com/toc.cfm https://www.covessf.com/toc.cfm