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I think it has more to do with being displaced and less with disliking people with Macbooks at coffee houses. This is gentrification, but it's the middle class

by nilkn 13y ago

I think it has more to do with being displaced and less with disliking people with Macbooks at coffee houses. This is gentrification, but it's the middle class being pushed out this time, not the lower class. Nobody wants to leave their favorite spot because they can no longer afford the rent. You're right, though, that it's not new at all. This happens in most major urban cities.

Crito 13y ago
The trick is that the newcomers are always blamed for rising housing costs, nobody considers that their own community may be to blame for the housing shortage. It is unreasonable to expect your community to never grow in population or wealth. Also, I think you are underplaying the degree to which "disliking people with Macbooks at coffee houses" plays into it. There is a lot of wordage in that article dedicated to describing things other than rising rent that is bothering the "natives". One example: ""Your whole social world is tech," Garcia, 37, said as he finished a bagel sandwich at the Creamery, a cafe at Fourth and Townsend that's a hotbed of tech deal making. "The reality is that there are real people in San Francisco, but they're usually in neighborhoods like the Richmond or Sunset," he continued. "The wall between them and us, so to speak - not to get too postcolonial about it here - is pretty high."" Here the "native" has decided that "tech people" are somehow less "real" because they are unlike him. People like Garcia might try to dress up their issue with "tech people" as merely a matter of rent and economics, but what it really boils down to is bigotry.
- timr 13y ago
  Yes, exactly. A lot of the folks in this scene are just unlikable people. I'm "part of the problem", and even I don't like a lot of the startup people who I encounter on a daily basis in SOMA or the Mission. If I have to put it into words, there's been a tangible shift from "let's do something interesting together with this cool new thing" to "how can I get rich with this thing?", and that transition makes everyone else feel like a tool for your personal advancement.
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    If I have to put it into words, there's been a tangible shift from "let's do something interesting together with this cool new thing" to "how can I get rich with this thing?", and that transition makes everyone else feel like a tool for your personal advancement. Yes, exactly. You're hitting it right on the head in this thread.
  - Crito 13y ago
    Every group has their fair share of unlikeable individual. It is the act of a bigot to confuse those unlikeable individuals as representatives of their group.
    - timr 13y ago
      Like it or not, everyone is a representative for whatever scene they're in. We're all ambassadors, and in this case, we're ambassadors for an industry that is easy to characterize as heartless and imperious.
      - Crito 13y ago
        Are you comfortable expanding that concept to concepts other than "profession"?
- dnr 13y ago
  You read that backwards: Garcia is a tech person, and is being self-deprecating when he refers to them as less real people. Whether it's ironic self-deprecation, or sincere sadness and disappointment at the situation, I can't tell.

by nilkn 13y ago

Crito 13y ago

The trick is that the newcomers are always blamed for rising housing costs, nobody considers that their own community may be to blame for the housing shortage. It is unreasonable to expect your community to never grow in population or wealth. Also, I think you are underplaying the degree to which "disliking people with Macbooks at coffee houses" plays into it. There is a lot of wordage in that article dedicated to describing things other than rising rent that is bothering the "natives". One example: ""Your whole social world is tech," Garcia, 37, said as he finished a bagel sandwich at the Creamery, a cafe at Fourth and Townsend that's a hotbed of tech deal making. "The reality is that there are real people in San Francisco, but they're usually in neighborhoods like the Richmond or Sunset," he continued. "The wall between them and us, so to speak - not to get too postcolonial about it here - is pretty high."" Here the "native" has decided that "tech people" are somehow less "real" because they are unlike him. People like Garcia might try to dress up their issue with "tech people" as merely a matter of rent and economics, but what it really boils down to is bigotry.

timr 13y ago
Yes, exactly. A lot of the folks in this scene are just unlikable people. I'm "part of the problem", and even I don't like a lot of the startup people who I encounter on a daily basis in SOMA or the Mission. If I have to put it into words, there's been a tangible shift from "let's do something interesting together with this cool new thing" to "how can I get rich with this thing?", and that transition makes everyone else feel like a tool for your personal advancement.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  If I have to put it into words, there's been a tangible shift from "let's do something interesting together with this cool new thing" to "how can I get rich with this thing?", and that transition makes everyone else feel like a tool for your personal advancement. Yes, exactly. You're hitting it right on the head in this thread.
- Crito 13y ago
  Every group has their fair share of unlikeable individual. It is the act of a bigot to confuse those unlikeable individuals as representatives of their group.
  - timr 13y ago
    Like it or not, everyone is a representative for whatever scene they're in. We're all ambassadors, and in this case, we're ambassadors for an industry that is easy to characterize as heartless and imperious.
    - Crito 13y ago
      Are you comfortable expanding that concept to concepts other than "profession"?
dnr 13y ago
You read that backwards: Garcia is a tech person, and is being self-deprecating when he refers to them as less real people. Whether it's ironic self-deprecation, or sincere sadness and disappointment at the situation, I can't tell.