Thoughts?

Example: I go to a warriors game, all the tech people buying the expensive tickets. Crowd different from 5 years ago when it was middle classed regular fans

In your opinion, why is the fandom of the middle classed regular fans superior to the "tech people".

ALso how do you know they're techies? Perhaps they are rich from another industry.

Where's Yackson?

I think cities and their greater metropolitan areas are constantly changing, rising and falling and someone new to blame is arriving.  Whether it's a new demographic of immigrants, a new type of worker as cities move away from manufacturing and towards services, the only thing constant is change.  As Leonardo Dicaprios character in the Departed misattributes to Hawthorn, "The fortunes of families are always rising and falling in America."

The tech gentrification messes it up for people in SF because the landlords think that everyone works for google or facebook.

Well they think that a lot of people are employed in Tech and have higher salaries than most so they take advantage of that.

Doesn't really work that way Steve.  It really just comes down to "market price."  Not that complicated.  Someone, and as mentioned doesn't even matter who or what they do, but someone will pay a certain amount for a place.  If you owned the house, why would you charge less than what people are willing to pay?--do you believe people should just give away their hard-earned money just to be nice?

Dean I agree with you. They have the applicants that are willing to pay it.

Well no, you did not say the "same thing". You simply made it sound like every SF landlord is an insensitive jerk despite not knowing them.

Also you display signs of mental illness & social ineptitude.

No those are 100% real Warriors fans. They would totes be there if the Warriors weren't doing well, too. How dare you.

Yes

No

The question was invalid

I dropped my $5 toast so I went in and bought another one.

The question in question did not have a ? attached. Oops. Was it one of those cute toast houses?

Super cute. You pay a $3 cover charge to put your name down on the waiting list outside; so glad that stops those terrible line of people that wraps around the block!

I think it is interesting when people say losing culture, ruining the culture etc.  Tech IS the culture of San Francisco and the Bay Area at this moment in time. Just because you don't like it does not mean that it is not so or that it is not valid, interesting, exciting, etc.  I do not work in tech.  I wish the city was cheaper, but it's always changing.  I have lived here for twenty + years.  It has always been expensive for me.  I don't make a lot.  But there is interesting stuff happening in tech and not in tech.  We still have a good music scene, lots of galleries, good sports teams and leagues, creative people, etc.

Tech is not culture, tech is just simply tech. Beyond the whoopee "social media" scene, tech is just a means for delivery. There is not much of a humane aspect to the tech industry.

There is a defiant culture in the bay area.

@rollo I did not take it that way, but I suppose it makes sense that way.  

@steve tech shapes popular culture and lifestyle - always has.  It is more evident here than, say, in the mid-west or Hawaii.  At least that is my experience.  That is what I mean when I say tech culture.  It is a lifestyle that even those of us who do not work in tech have been affected by - for better or worse.

One time a tech person invited me over for drinks. I brought over a roasted chicken to share. It was a fun night.

T-Bone, tech shapes pop culture to an extent that most of it is in social media delivery primarily. It's only in the tech industry among other tech geeks that they're having a nerdgasm over a popular new coding script or other technology development. The people who don't work in the industry aren't as connected to it.

I have noticed an opposite trend at the Sharks games. When I started going to Sharks games about 21 years ago I would see some of the notable giants in the tech industry sitting in the expensive seats next to the glass and lots of suits at the games. Now it seems to be just regular folks forking out the big bucks. Also, a lot of companies, tech and not tech, buy up the expensive seats and suites at sporting events to entertain customers.

Wow. It's sad that so many people on here seem unfamiliar with the ways that gentrification, the tech industry (and Google buses), and greedy landlords/developers are hurting many people of color, working class people, people with disabilities, elderly people living on pensions and limited funds, young people who are just starting out but don't make a living wage, etc.

Gentrification has pushed out huge portions of the Black, Latino and/or Indigenous populations from San Francisco. I know lots of people whose families lived in SF for generations and worked hard to build communities in the city, but they were forced out by rising rent and cost of living prices. I know families who can't afford to live all together anymore because of it. Or who were doing ok before and are now struggling hard just to survive because it's so expensive to live in this economy.

Gentrification and greedy landlords/developers are causing people I know to go hungry. People have to choose to pay absurdly high rents and stay close to their jobs, or to move away and commute to work and spend most of their funds on the commute instead of rent. So there's no way to win.

The Mission has definitely lost most of its culture and traditional historical ties because Latino/Indigenous peoples can barely afford to live there anymore. Valencia Street used to be a bastion of our diverse cultures, but it's now almost entirely super expensive and gentrified boutiques that only wealthy people can afford to patronize. The community is being broken up because it's not like everyone can just relocate together to the same place.

Chris, it is sad to see the Mission being taken over by tech douche-dom.

"This October [2015], a rotting earthquake shack in San Francisco sold for $408,000. In nearby Palo Alto, a tiny 180-square-foot shack was listed one month later for sale at $1.98 million."

"San Francisco has long prided itself on having an image as a bastion of diversity and progressive politics. However, a burgeoning tech population is quickly eroding that dynamic. A study released earlier this year by the San Francisco Foundation found that the city's policies are rapidly ejecting blacks and Latinos to become a "lily white" island over the course of the next 25 years."

"A study by the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project suggests that San Francisco's black population currently stands at 6%, compared to 13% in 1970."

Quoted from this article - Blacks Are Disappearing From Space-Starved San Francisco:
breitbart.com/california…

Agreed, Steve. So many people I know are going hungry or going without in some other way, barely scraping by. Many have had to move far away from work, taking their families far away from their relatives and close friends and community. The tech industry, luxury apartment developers, etc don't care that they're hurting people by dislocating entire communities.

For people who are trying to understand the situation, the way that techies are gentrifying communities of color and poor/working class/middle class communities has a lot to do with the way they rent and the exclusive services they've implemented, like Google Bus.

Many techies would look for an affordable place in a poor/working class/middle class community, then offer to pay more rent or bigger downpayment than what average people could afford. It wasn't a lot of money for the techies, who had "scored" what are "cheaper" apartments for them, but no one else could compete. People who really needed those affordable apartments got shoved out. Landlords got greedy and started demanding that other people who don't earn nearly as much money pay what techies could afford, so most of the people who were already living in the community got shoved out, too.

Things like Google Bus, which uses the public bus stops but only serves Google employees, caused delays and other issues for public transit thereby inconveniencing everybody else in the community. The expensive boutiques that only the wealthy can afford pushed out smaller, well-established mom and pop businesses whose services were actually needed by poor/working class/middle class people and that sustained the culture of neighborhoods like the Mission.

The first time that technology was documented to be changing Bay Area culture was in Hitchcock's Vertigo, where in 1958 Barbara Bel Geddes mentions a product designed by "an engineer, down the Peninsula."
In the early 1960s, three engineers who lived in SF but worked in Palo Alto bankrolled an SF music club called "The Matrix," and lent money to the house band to buy instruments. This band was later known as the Jefferson Airplane.
So this poop has been going down for a long time.

"Since 1973, the Black population has dropped from 18 percent (not 14 percent) to 6 percent or less. The result: At least 100,000 African Americans have been pushed out of San Francisco."

"Many in the Black community do not understand why it is necessary in America's richest major City, one that is booming with development and tourism, to grab the last Black-owned cultural development in San Francisco. Gentrification, the denial of jobs and contracting opportunities, and just plain benign neglect contribute to the out-migration and destruction of San Francisco's once proud and thriving African American community - including Harlem of the West, then a major destination for tourists from around the world."

From here: sfbayview.com/2016/04/sa…

'At the hearing, Roberto Hernandez of Our Mission No Eviction, a San Francisco resident born and raised in the Mission District, said, "Children are getting to school late because of these tech buses that roll through the Mission. They're late, and they don't eat breakfast. So they're there with an empty stomach. They start in school late because they're getting to school late."'

From here - The Bleaching of San Francisco: Extreme Gentrification and Suburbanized Poverty in the Bay Area (2014 article): truth-out.org/news/item/…

"San Francisco rent has skyrocketed to obscene levels. Median rent in San Francisco is over $3,000 a month, with some neighborhoods in the $4,000-$5,000 range. Average rent is in the same range. Even rooms for $1,000 a month are virtually nonexistent. Rents in 2013 increased over 10 percent from the previous year, which is more than three times higher than the national average of 3 percent. This makes San Francisco perhaps the least affordable city for middle-class families in the country, with New York City following closely behind. It's so expensive that even San Francisco's minimum wage, which is the highest in the country at over $10 an hour, is barely enough to live. One would have to work five, six, or more minimum-wage jobs to make the city's rent. Moreover, San Francisco is one of the most unequal urban areas, and its income inequality is growing the fastest in the nation."

From here - The Bleaching of San Francisco: Extreme Gentrification and Suburbanized Poverty in the Bay Area (2014 article): truth-out.org/news/item/…

"The wave is so severe that nonprofits and organizations that help marginalized communities are struggling to finance their offices in San Francisco. Homeless Youth Alliance, which helped homeless youth for over a decade, closed last Christmas because it could not afford rent."

From here - The Bleaching of San Francisco: Extreme Gentrification and Suburbanized Poverty in the Bay Area (2014 article): truth-out.org/news/item/…

Non-profits and humanitarian-minded organizations are definitely part of the positive culture and services that are being pushed out by greedy landlords/developers who only want people with tech/big industry money in SF. So sad.

African-Americans came to the Bay Area during WW II, to work in shipyards. The Fillmore district had been depopulated because FDR had rounded up all of the Japanese-Americans and put them in concentration camps, leaving plenty of living space for these war workers. By rights, the Japanese-Americans should have reclaimed their homes after the war. But they did not work to displace the African-Americans.

I hate Tech.... I thought it was exciting when it first started and I was part of it but the Millennials ruined it with their entitlement issues.  CA or the Bay Area specifically should have a fee imposed on these Tech companies to alleviate the rent burden they've imposed on those around them.

Meow

Damn gentrification

What is a "Tech People"? Would I recognize one if I saw one??

Can't deny that gentrification is pushing the poorer communities further and further out. But what solution would you propose? Build a wall (figurative) to stop the affluent from moving in to SF? Stop the tech (or finance, or legal, or real estate) industry from expanding any further in the area and drive them out to expand in other states? Prohibit all landlords from charging market rates and charge rent at artificially depressed rates? Force developers to sell condos at state/county/city regulated prices?

The way I see it, for densely populated metropolitan areas, one solution would be high density housing paired with an expansive network of rapid mass transit with right of way.

Haha These complaints areTIMELESS. Too many people are so self-centered that they think when they grew up and/or moved somewhere things were great,  it was only the people who came 5-10 years later than them that ruined everything. Never do they stop and think that someone a little older thought the same thing about THEM at some point. I read some historical newspaper clippings in which people of San Francisco in the 1850's were complaining about all the darned new people moving in that were causing prices and rents to skyrocket and making SF unliveable! This crap has been going on since ancient times.  I always laugh when someone thinks it's this new thing that is only happening recently to them in their particular area.  Wake up

Umesh what do u think of this idea...
In Sweden (I think) the traffic violation amounts are based not only on the traffic violation but by that individuals income.  I heard it on the radio I think last year.  Seems this guy made a Tom of money so when his ticket for the traffic violation was assessed it was like some ridiculous figure.  I think they should do that here and it can be applied to so many things such as traffic violations but also on rent.  Show your income if you make more money this is how much more this will cost you.  But at least it will provide the ppl
a means to at least get more fair rent rates.  Don't you think?

Tech people..... you failed this city.

Somebody pointed out in the Mercury last week that just Phase 1 of BART to San Jose will cost $52,000 per projected rider.

"Gold Rush California Was Much More Expensive Than Today's Tech-Boom California"
"Back in 1849, a dozen eggs would cost you the equivalent of $90 in San Francisco. When the average wage for a laborer in New York might be one or two dollars a day, he was astounded to discover that individual San Francisco hotel rooms were rented to professional gamblers for upwards of $10,000 a month - the equivalent today of about $300,000.  Edward Gould Buffum, author of "Six Months in the Gold Mines" (1850), described having a breakfast of bread, cheese, butter, sardines and two bottles of beer with a friend and receiving a bill for $43 - the equivalent today of about $1,200.

There were reports of canteens charging a dollar for a slice of bread or two if it was buttered, the equivalent of $56. A dozen eggs might cost you $90 at today's prices; a pick axe would be the equivalent of $1,500; a pound of coffee $1,200 and a pair of boots as much as $3,000 when today you could get a decent pair for around $120.

"Every newcomer in San Francisco is overtaken with a sense of complete bewilderment," wrote Taylor. "The mind, however it may be prepared for an astonishing condition of affairs, cannot immediately push aside its old instincts of value and ideas of business, letting all past experiences go for naught and casting all its faculties... Never have I had so much difficulty in establishing, satisfactorily to my own senses, the reality of what I saw and heard." smithsonianmag.com/histo…

^Try keeping some perspective. In the grand scheme of things these complaints of today seem ridiculous. These complaints and worse have been going on since civilization started. So you can sit around and complain about this eternal bullshit until you are dead but it will continue on as it has continued FOR CENTURIES. Or perhaps you'll be the one with all the solutions. If so, have them lower the Warriors ticket prices as the OP suggested.

Speaking of only the rich driving, and the rest in mass-transit, let's consider Singapore instead of Russia. In Singapore, the tax on cars makes them prohibitively expensive and yet people get to their destination on time most of the time because mass transit is so efficient. 50~100 people in a subway train is much more environmentally sound, and faster than every 1~2 person driving a car and clogging up the roadways.

And Singapore is a useful analog to Bay Area transit needs... how?   Singapore has about 19 TIMES the population density of the Bay Area.

How is it not analogous?

Considering that the Mission boasts not one, but two BART stations, the Singapore solution would be to demolish the old housing stock and replace it with featureless tower blocks, with retail on the ground floor.

Well, my point is that mass transit can only make it better. Much better.

^Stack 'em and pack 'em Agenda 21

Look on the bright side, you can still get a tax payer funded sex change operation in the city right? lol  /sarc

^They will need to have the U.S.Marines guard all the check points in order to keep all the poor barbarian hordes out.

Singapore's military is a citizen militia like Switzerland's or Israel's. Generally officers in the military are managers in civilian life. Israel helped set them up and train them.

,

Do you really need me to tell you that mass transit doesn't mean "do away with road going vehicles"? You don't need a truck if you're going to a desk job or going out for dinner to a high density area.

And SUper Troll doesn't come back to even read the responses

---

More of you need to ride motorcycles. Traffic is getting worse and worse and yet I do my 38 mile commute in 45 flat

^ humblebrag

I travel 16mi in one hour #winning #tigerblood

^tech people

It helps to be friends with a tech person who lets you borrow their helicopter. Much faster to get around that way.

#HillaryIsIlluminati

Tech people also throw pretty good parties. Plus, there's usually tons of free t-shirts

On the real, one of the things I appreciate are the relaxed work dress codes. A lot more companies used to have people dress more formally a bunch of years ago. I often go to work dressed like I'm painting my house later or in yoga pants. I don't even do yoga.

Vote for Bernie !!  He will hit those rich bastards.

@Loli
^Yes!!!

Can a tech bro program me an navigation app that allows me to avoid the seeing  pain, struggle, and despair of homeless? newsweek.com/sf-entrepre…

What I don't get is the phrase, "tech bro." There's more than just bros. There are chicks and other kinds of people too. Can't we just call them techies or tech people? Tech citizens? Our friends in tech? The people who give me free shirts?

tech people are okay..... unless they're hipsters.

Ladies are Tech Bras

I don't watch Silicon Valley so I wouldn't know

Umesh T., it wasn't a humblebrag, it was just brag. I spend 1.5-2 hours a day commuting, but it's a blast. I basically exchange safety for speed. I get it's not for everyone, but it's literally the only thing that works right now short of commuting between 4:00-5:00 a,m. and late at night:)

There will always be nerds. We are indomitable.

Nerds are women cool and all, but my app needs to come from that bro entitlement mindset.

Where Jackson at?

A lot of the tech bros are on the spectrum...... so explains some of the social awkwardness and social unawareness.

azquotes.com/picture-quo…

Actually got a chance to see her speak in person and she did say that. Very interesting talk!

Uh huh. Say that to my face.

Only if you can maintain eye contact.

BOOM ;)

I said bros, not bras.

Are tech bros nerds with social skills?
My cousin was in a frat at Purdue -- the one with the lowest average GPA. After he tanked freshman year, his advisor suggested he switch from EECS to "Leadership Studies."
He did graduate, and works near DC.

40.media.tumblr.com/6c35…

Tech douches didn't try to catch, steph. 'Nuff said.