Very real concerns indeed. San Francisco is the most puzzling and frustrating city to try to comprehend. It's equal parts optimistic futurism and steadfast abhorrence to change.
Walk down the streets, look inside City Hall - look at the extreme effort applied to make sure even the streetcars hail from the early 20th century, and that the sanctified Victorians are never touched, and you'd never guess this was a city looking to be at the forefront of massive economic and population growth.
Depending on where you are looking, rents in the city are up from 30% all the way to 130% since this time last year. And the city added a net total of a whopping 269 new housing units in 2011. Everyone has heard stories - entrepreneurs cashing out with Fuck You money, and can't buy a condo - because none are on sale, at any price. We've also heard the stories, of the hated dotcom yuppies going to view an apartment and bidding substantially above the already outrageous asking price. It's getting a little crazy out there.
All the while the city has placed firm caps on the amount of new commercial space that may be developed per year. Worse yet, the city has placed restrictions even on where residential and commercial development can happen - pretty much exclusively in SoMa, which accounts for 0.8 square miles of the total 49 square miles of land in SF.
Meanwhile the other 45 square miles (minus the Presidio and Golden Gate Park) are full of low-density housing that is completely barred from building upwards to accommodate the massive influx of population. The 3-story Victorian House is holy, and must not be sullied by... well, more people living there, rents be damned.
And what's with using Twitter to recolonize crack row? Of all the businesses you can try to import to bring more "desirable" traffic to the area, you had to pick the one that caters all meals internally and has every imaginable perk already in-house? This is supposed to bring new businesses to the area? Not to mention the area's massive homelessness and drug abuse problem is not due to lack of legitimate business traffic, but rather the presence of numerous humanitarian aid organizations, none of whom are going to be moving any time soon (nor should they, nor would it be politically feasible to force them to). The only thing this half-assed plan will ensure is Twitter employees scrambling to make sure they have secured parking at the new office.
Most of what you are saying sounds true to me, but not this: “no condos for sale, at any price.” There are units in my building on the market right now (for well under a million bucks).
There was a period right before the FB IPO (March-May 2012) where a lot of potential sellers were not listing or moving forward in the sales process at all, in the hopes that everything would change after the IPO.
I recently spent two weeks in the bay area and the first thing I noticed was "what's up with the massive numbers of homeless people here?" seriously driving through SoMa it seemed like everyone on the street was homeless.
Not to disparage your entirely valid argument, but:
> Everyone has heard stories - entrepreneurs cashing out with Fuck You money, and can't buy a condo - because none are on sale, at any price.
That's not what "Fuck You money" means.
"Fuck you money" is buying the entire block and tearing down all the other condos and then buying the real estate company and firing the realtor who showed it just for giggles.
It's an entirely different order of magnitude from "wealthy" or even "filthy rich".
It's the ability to say "fuck you" to literally anyone— with impunity.
Very few people in the tech community have reached this level. Indeed, very few _humans_ have, from any sector.
Having had this discussion with a number of my fellow San Franciscans, I'd say that "fuck you money" is the amount that grants you fiscal independence. Because at that point you can say "fuck you" to a boss without worrying.
The numbers I've heard people discuss are in the $3-10m range, on the theory that with that you can buy decent condo or house here, put the rest in the market, and live off your gains.
I don't know. I've always operated under the assumption that UHNWIs[1] are the people that have "Fuck You Money". The kind of money you are talking about is billionaire money.
Walk down the streets, look inside City Hall - look at the extreme effort applied to make sure even the streetcars hail from the early 20th century, and that the sanctified Victorians are never touched, and you'd never guess this was a city looking to be at the forefront of massive economic and population growth.
Depending on where you are looking, rents in the city are up from 30% all the way to 130% since this time last year. And the city added a net total of a whopping 269 new housing units in 2011. Everyone has heard stories - entrepreneurs cashing out with Fuck You money, and can't buy a condo - because none are on sale, at any price. We've also heard the stories, of the hated dotcom yuppies going to view an apartment and bidding substantially above the already outrageous asking price. It's getting a little crazy out there.
All the while the city has placed firm caps on the amount of new commercial space that may be developed per year. Worse yet, the city has placed restrictions even on where residential and commercial development can happen - pretty much exclusively in SoMa, which accounts for 0.8 square miles of the total 49 square miles of land in SF.
Meanwhile the other 45 square miles (minus the Presidio and Golden Gate Park) are full of low-density housing that is completely barred from building upwards to accommodate the massive influx of population. The 3-story Victorian House is holy, and must not be sullied by... well, more people living there, rents be damned.
And what's with using Twitter to recolonize crack row? Of all the businesses you can try to import to bring more "desirable" traffic to the area, you had to pick the one that caters all meals internally and has every imaginable perk already in-house? This is supposed to bring new businesses to the area? Not to mention the area's massive homelessness and drug abuse problem is not due to lack of legitimate business traffic, but rather the presence of numerous humanitarian aid organizations, none of whom are going to be moving any time soon (nor should they, nor would it be politically feasible to force them to). The only thing this half-assed plan will ensure is Twitter employees scrambling to make sure they have secured parking at the new office.