<story><title>One Year in San Francisco as a Software Engineer</title><url>https://evertpot.com/a-look-back-at-sf/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>komali2</author><text>&amp;gt;But when you go home after work, also be prepared to see the dystopia that your industry has created as a by-product.&lt;p&gt;Has this actually been concluded? That it is the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;#x27;s fault?&amp;quot; Because I feel like I could fence off any claims as such by asking, &amp;quot;well, why didn&amp;#x27;t the government do anything about it?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Based on my experience in multiple major metropolitan areas, the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;quot; here in SF seems to be the most engaged in &amp;quot;doing something about it&amp;quot; than anywhere else. Is it because the problem is bigger? Maybe they&amp;#x27;re just better at marketing than the companies in other cities? Fair questions. Maybe.&lt;p&gt;I remember reading in the local papers when I lived in Mountain View that Google was going to assign some # of a new housing project they wanted to be low income housing - at my understanding, to be a total loss to them. They were going to build bridges, footpaths, and parks to &amp;quot;offset&amp;quot; the burden of the increased number of residents in Mountain View. I have seen similar from other companies.&lt;p&gt;In Houston, BP nuked the gulf of mexico and then fought &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; over how &amp;quot;responsible&amp;quot; they are for it. Chevron donated some fossils to the Museum of Natural Science. I dunno, I just feel like people are being unduly critical of the tech industry in SF, as if some homeless people poop on the streets because rich engineers ride buses paid for by google. Why isn&amp;#x27;t there better public transit, so the buses aren&amp;#x27;t necessary? Why block the proliferation of scooters and bicycles, so people are far more motivated to take Lyft or Uber? Why aren&amp;#x27;t there more public, 24&amp;#x2F;7 restrooms? And why isn&amp;#x27;t the Oil industry taking more flack for turning Houston into a 75x75 mile square of choking freeways? Because poop is grosser? Grosser than runaway climate change? Poop happens in Houston, too.&lt;p&gt;I just feel like SF is a big giant target, the go-to punching bag, because Big Tech, and yet meanwhile Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Finance, Big Ag gets away with dramatically worse in cost and human suffering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>abalone</author><text>See the Prop C campaign (e.g. Marc Benioff) for more insight in this issue. SF tech didn’t invent homelessness but it has clearly exacerbated it, simply by generating a lot of demand for housing.&lt;p&gt;In a nutshell, the tech industry generally tries to point the finger at lack of supply and blame NIMBYS for obstructing housing construction. But this can be seen as a defensive strategy: it’s pretty clear that a sudden, massive surge of high income earners into a constrained area in the top of a peninsula with weak tenant protections will push a lot of poorer people out of their housing.&lt;p&gt;It’s not only the fault of the city not to build housing fast enough. We’ve even seen “strange” effects in other boomtowns (Seattle) where building doesn’t solve the problem.[1]&lt;p&gt;It’s not that strange if you &lt;i&gt;truly&lt;/i&gt; understand economics 101. It contains the concept of price inelasticity, which one might see under boomtown conditions (insatiable demand for a necessity, essentially). But to even engage in a real economics discussion kind of misses the point. Mostly the tech industry wants to deflect blame for the problem.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;knock-la.com&amp;#x2F;seattle-a-cautionary-tale-for-supply-side-housing-advocates-5b4ca5ed6d02&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;knock-la.com&amp;#x2F;seattle-a-cautionary-tale-for-supply-si...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>One Year in San Francisco as a Software Engineer</title><url>https://evertpot.com/a-look-back-at-sf/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>komali2</author><text>&amp;gt;But when you go home after work, also be prepared to see the dystopia that your industry has created as a by-product.&lt;p&gt;Has this actually been concluded? That it is the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;#x27;s fault?&amp;quot; Because I feel like I could fence off any claims as such by asking, &amp;quot;well, why didn&amp;#x27;t the government do anything about it?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Based on my experience in multiple major metropolitan areas, the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;quot; here in SF seems to be the most engaged in &amp;quot;doing something about it&amp;quot; than anywhere else. Is it because the problem is bigger? Maybe they&amp;#x27;re just better at marketing than the companies in other cities? Fair questions. Maybe.&lt;p&gt;I remember reading in the local papers when I lived in Mountain View that Google was going to assign some # of a new housing project they wanted to be low income housing - at my understanding, to be a total loss to them. They were going to build bridges, footpaths, and parks to &amp;quot;offset&amp;quot; the burden of the increased number of residents in Mountain View. I have seen similar from other companies.&lt;p&gt;In Houston, BP nuked the gulf of mexico and then fought &lt;i&gt;everyone&lt;/i&gt; over how &amp;quot;responsible&amp;quot; they are for it. Chevron donated some fossils to the Museum of Natural Science. I dunno, I just feel like people are being unduly critical of the tech industry in SF, as if some homeless people poop on the streets because rich engineers ride buses paid for by google. Why isn&amp;#x27;t there better public transit, so the buses aren&amp;#x27;t necessary? Why block the proliferation of scooters and bicycles, so people are far more motivated to take Lyft or Uber? Why aren&amp;#x27;t there more public, 24&amp;#x2F;7 restrooms? And why isn&amp;#x27;t the Oil industry taking more flack for turning Houston into a 75x75 mile square of choking freeways? Because poop is grosser? Grosser than runaway climate change? Poop happens in Houston, too.&lt;p&gt;I just feel like SF is a big giant target, the go-to punching bag, because Big Tech, and yet meanwhile Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Finance, Big Ag gets away with dramatically worse in cost and human suffering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Kalium</author><text>&amp;gt; Has this actually been concluded? That it is the &amp;quot;tech industry&amp;#x27;s fault?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;A lot of people believe it. The idea that this dystopia is the tech industry&amp;#x27;s sole fault has common currency, especially in young-and-progressive circles.&lt;p&gt;Among other things, it means not really having to come to terms with decades of policy failure. It also means not having to examine how local government seems to keep failing, such as with public transit or public restrooms.&lt;p&gt;Tech is an &lt;i&gt;excellent&lt;/i&gt; newcomer and outsider. This makes it collectively an ideal scapegoat. Which is not to say the tech industry is innocent! But it is to say the way blame is apportioned could be better aligned with reality.</text></comment>