Newspaper article about growing backlash against SF tech companies (San Jose: health insurance, homes)

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

Doesn't Venice already have Snapchat, granted such a company wouldn't fill be with confidence they would stick around. But I think it might be part of a trend in the future if it does take off. Is Venice friendly to newcomers, Santa Monica, Marina Del Ray? Even if it meant higher rents?

Nobody in LA cares where you come from. I was in Santa Monica the other day and I met two transplants from Boston who live there and absolutely love it and say that everyone has been friendly to them. There's actually an emerging tech industry in Santa Monica/Venice as of late. Lots of techies moving into those areas or adjacent ones like Culver City, Westchester and Playa Del Rey.

[ambient]

The whole "tech people need to interact with their community" or "they're snobby when they sit in the coffee shops" stuff is nonsense to me, honestly. People have a right to choose who they interact with and how they interact, and they have a right to pursue their professions and make the money they wish to make. It's a personal choice.

The only real problem - and I think this really merits some addressing - is that they are so significantly displacing everyone else from the city who has lived there for a long time. I am fine with tech people being what they are and earning a lot of money, but I would not like to see the city become a place where you are effectively only allowed if your ride is a Bentley / Ferrarri / Tesla, etc. and you can flash your black Amex card. I would like to see the city retain some of its diversity - space for the rich tech people, but also the many others who have made it what it is. I wish I knew the solution...but I don't feel good just standing by and watching everyone else get evicted from the town.

[kttam186290]

I can tell you, for sure, that nothing like this would ever happen anywhere in L.A. :

One morning last week, protesters swarmed the corner of 24th and Valencia streets and for half an hour blocked a Google bus headed to Mountain View. That afternoon, another group of protesters marched down Market Street from Twitter headquarters to the Westfield San Francisco Centre to protest ...

That's just absolutely ridiculous!

... Facebook recently gave laptops to students at two Mission District public schools, Yelp announced $100,000 in grants to local nonprofits, Google helped fund free Wi-Fi in parks, and Zynga has offered mentorship to students at Balboa High. Volunteers from Kontagent served a holiday meal to homeless children and their families.

...and they're still ungrateful and resentful!

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by ambient

The whole "tech people need to interact with their community" or "they're snobby when they sit in the coffee shops" stuff is nonsense to me, honestly. People have a right to choose who they interact with and how they interact, and they have a right to pursue their professions and make the money they wish to make. It's a personal choice.

The only real problem - and I think this really merits some addressing - is that they are so significantly displacing everyone else from the city who has lived there for a long time. I am fine with tech people being what they are and earning a lot of money, but I would not like to see the city become a place where you are effectively only allowed if your ride is a Bentley / Ferrarri / Tesla, etc. and you can flash your black Amex card. I would like to see the city retain some of its diversity - space for the rich tech people, but also the many others who have made it what it is. I wish I knew the solution...but I don't feel good just standing by and watching everyone else get evicted from the town.

I completely agree with your first paragraph and I understand what you mean on the second one too.

I honestly believe these protestors are shooting themselves in the foot. Much of these people are the same ones voting against development projects. San Francisco has really no land to build anymore and that has been the case for awhile. If they don't want to allow developers to construct new projects or allow them to build high, then of course San Francisco's rent and real estate will continue to rise faster than the average city. They are quite selfish in many regards. They expect their lifestyle to remain the same forever, sorry but that isn't reality unless people stop having babies. Move to the midle of the country and buy 50 acres if you want to essentially never experience change. A large community is a living thing that always changes over time.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

Some of these authors really need to get a life. My friend works at the Google in San Francisco and they have a beautiful gourmet style buffet restaurant that is free with beautiful views of the Bay Bridge. So why would employees want to go pay $10 for an overpriced sandwich down the street when they can get a free Las Vegas quality buffet with arguably some of the best views in the city? The snippet about Facebook looking like a sea of cars, well, large companies need parking lots. Sorry, but you aren't going to get thousands of people in one building without a parking lot. Not to mention, opening a huge office building in the heart of any urban setting is the most expensive and probably one of the hardest to get city approval because of increased traffic.

Why move to the city, in the middle of the prime downtown real estate, if you (as in the collective corporation) don't plan to interact with it. That is the criticism of the "tech" presence in SF. Presumably, you could be anywhere, if the goal is to live/exist in a company created bubble.

[jade408]

To be honest, I am sick of this false notion that tech is a meritocracy, and anyone who works hard will be able to get ahead. After volunteering with a nonprofit working on setting up hackathons (for recruiting interns) at historically black college campuses, when potential employers said they didn't want to go because:
1. they weren't sure about the "quality" of the students
2. all of their best developers come from their alma mater
3. they haven't ever met anyone from any school outside of the typical top 10/20 CS programs.

Where the "best idea wins," as long as you happen to be friends with or socially connected to VCs or other influencers. It is pretty cliquey. And if you don't happen to have the right people in your network, it isn't very easy to break in. Even if you work hard.

[04kL4nD]

Life ain't fair jade408. Just work harder! Right?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Life ain't fair jade408. Just work harder! Right?

Work hard and have the right friends. You are SOL if you have the wrong ones.

Unfortunately they don't tell all those kids racking up student loan debt, college isn't for learning it is for networking. You can learn on your own time.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by jade408

Work hard and have the right friends. You are SOL if you have the wrong ones.

You're so wrong about that! Tech companies don't care who your friends are, just if you can satisfy the job skills needed.

This is more of the same pure, old fashioned class envy and resentment from the Oakland Left.

It just irritates the Leftists that most people aren't buying into it anymore....

[jade408]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

You're so wrong about that! Tech companies don't care who your friends are, just if you can satisfy the job skills needed.

This is more of the same pure, old fashioned class envy and resentment from the Oakland Left.

It just irritates the Leftists that most people aren't buying into it anymore....

You are 100% mistaken. Skills are hardly part of the picture. Especially if you are looking for funding to be an entrepreneur. It takes connections plain and simple. Or pattern matching.

Let’s Talk About Race: Pattern-Matching Is As Real In Tech Media as It Is In Silicon Valley | Betabeat
Do black tech entrepreneurs face institutional bias? - CNN.com

Ask all the female engineers not getting funding (cough cough read Women 2.0's blog for a few minutes). Or the ones like my friend who were getting the same amount of $ as new grads after 10+ years as a developer. Or the black ones and latino ones who are busy starting networking groups to start closing the gap.

Let's talk about reality for a minute. Blacks and latinos use smartphones at much higher rates than everyone else. Why aren't more people developing apps for these audiences? (I am not making any assumptions on what those apps might be). Why aren't more developers from these groups? Why aren't more products being marketed directly to these groups. Let's ask a more basic question, why aren't companies taking input from these groups as they make up the biggest audience for their products?

If all it took was "skill" we'd have way more Asian CEOs of tech companies (to stereotype). Last time I checked they were 97% white and male. And the same with the boards of those successful companies. Why don't you come back to me when the demographics of the senior leadership match the demographics of the rest of the employees.

** FYI: I work in tech marketing and have most of my career.

My own company is fairly diverse (ethnically) for a tech company, and the dev team is full of people who are friends and have been working together for several years across several companies. There is only one person who is an "outsider" in the dev team. He came from a competitor.

The Silicon Valley meritocracy is a myth. And I won't even call you out on your blanket stereotyping of Oakland residents.