Google expanding to accomodate 30,000 new hires in the Bay Area (San Francisco: houses, tech job)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by citylove101

This will not happen and IMO should not happen. People in the same profession need to be physically near other folks in that profession for networking, bouncing ideas off of each other, chance meetings that lead to new things, etc.

I mean think about it: If there is any industry in the world where workers don't need to be sitting at desks next to each other it's the tech industry. Yet they all home in on Silicon Valley. There's a reason for that -- the critical mass is good for business, and the more, the merrier. It's why businesses of all sorts tend to cluster -- the music industry in LA or hedge funds in Greenwich CT are classic examples. To cut a record or invest some money you don't NEED to be near anyone else who does it. But birds of a feather flock together. Always have and always will.

I have no idea where or how G will expand, but I do agree that it's pretty speculative to say that all their additional real estate will house the maximum 30,000 workers it theoretically could.

Nobody says they can't cluster together. But there can be more than one cluster. It's the rational thing to do. Unless Google plans to build new freeways and house it's employees in studio apt. cubicles, like in Tokyo.

I guess what'll happen if they're setting up locations on the Peninsula is that the coastal communities there will suddenly experience a huge surge in rents and construction, and local moderate-income families and fixed-income retirees will get pushed out. South San Fran will go through a similar "boom", FWIW.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

All the dense pack being put in all over the place will be filled up instantly.

BTW - check out the behemoth going in at 8th and Harrison. O ... M ... G.

At least it's not another pinnacle. But still, in an area that has, relatively speaking, reasonable parking ... well, so much for that!

[alliance]

Some people complain about not building up in order to fill the demand, others complain that the building that is actually being done is too much. There is always something to complain about...
I love this. Seriously, I hope you guys never change.

[otterprods]

30,000 more people braggin' on their google jobs everywhere they go, just what the Bay Area needs!

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by alliance

Some people complain about not building up in order to fill the demand, others complain that the building that is actually being done is too much. There is always something to complain about...
I love this. Seriously, I hope you guys never change.

That's not what people are complaining about, generally. They're saying there's not enough infrastructure to handle a huge population increase. You can't keep piling people into a place that's already crowded, with already overloaded street and freeway systems. And with the drought, water could be an issue. Funny what people take for granted. Planned development is good. Uplanned, helter-skelter development in an area that's already stretched--not so good. If more public transport were in the plans, that could work. But it's not.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

That's not what people are complaining about, generally. They're saying there's not enough infrastructure to handle a huge population increase. You can't keep piling people into a place that's already crowded, with already overloaded street and freeway systems. And with the drought, water could be an issue. Funny what people take for granted. Planned development is good. Uplanned, helter-skelter development in an area that's already stretched--not so good. If more public transport were in the plans, that could work. But it's not.

While I don't agree that any further development of the Bay Area is good, even if "planned", thanks for a good post to point out what strangely seems to be not obvious to many.

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

While I don't agree that any further development of the Bay Area is good, even if "planned", thanks for a good post to point out what strangely seems to be not obvious to many.

What if they set up a new center around Livermore? Then that whole area of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasant Hill, even Tracy, could serve it. And it would be somewhat out of the way of the main traffic patterns. The problem with the idea of expanding inland, eastward, is that the younger demographic they're attracting generally prefers to live in SF or Bayside, somewhere. Still, a job's a job, right? A career's a career. If there was an influx of Google workers in those towns, businesses would sprout up to cater to them. Who knows, Dublin or Livermore might become happening places. lol

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

What if they set up a new center around Livermore? Then that whole area of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasant Hill, even Tracy, could serve it. And it would be somewhat out of the way of the main traffic patterns. The problem with the idea of expanding inland, eastward, is that the younger demographic they're attracting generally prefers to live in SF or Bayside, somewhere. Still, a job's a job, right? A career's a career. If there was an influx of Google workers in those towns, businesses would sprout up to cater to them. Who knows, Dublin or Livermore might become happening places. lol

Oh, it would be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick - but I'm an extreme realist. And reality is we have gone far far past the point where our societies on this planet need any kind of further technology, growth and development. Like about 5 billion people past sanity and sustainability.

So I can't be satisfied with any more solutions to accommodate more of what we don't need at all.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Oh, it would be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick - but I'm an extreme realist. And reality is we have gone far far past the point where our societies on this planet need any kind of further technology, growth and development. Like about 5 billion people past sanity and sustainability.

So I can't be satisfied with any more solutions to accommodate more of what we don't need at all.

Another thing that's alarming is how uneven the development is. I don't know about the Bay Area, but a friend in Seattle just told me that even as people are moving there for the tech jobs, there are a LOT of people he knows personally, former middle-managers and corporate types, who lost their jobs and their homes, and are struggling. They've moved in with relatives or are otherwise somehow eking out an existence working at Home Depot or wherever they can find any work. So all this tech development is leaving a lot of people severely sidelined. What are all those people supposed to do, get job training as tech engineers and programmers? Maybe so.

My friend also says that the Russian and Bulgarian communities in the greater Seattle area are growing like gangbusters, because Microsoft is vacuuming up talent worldwide. Anyone who speaks English and has tech skills has a foot in the door. He says Microsoft needs talent so badly that Russians are actually negotiating to work with them remotely, so they can live in Russia on Microsoft salaries, and some of them are getting hired on that basis!

Meanwhile, former corporate execs are homeless or bunking with relatives. Something is very wrong with this picture.

[alliance]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

That's not what people are complaining about, generally. They're saying there's not enough infrastructure to handle a huge population increase. You can't keep piling people into a place that's already crowded, with already overloaded street and freeway systems. And with the drought, water could be an issue. Funny what people take for granted. Planned development is good. Uplanned, helter-skelter development in an area that's already stretched--not so good. If more public transport were in the plans, that could work. But it's not.

Don't go bringing logic into this.