Photos of San Francisco Before the Silicon Valley Bros Invaded

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/12/photos-san-francisco-janet-delaney-south-market

by pessimizer • 13 years ago

9 8 13 years ago

walshemj2• 13 years ago

Most of the nerds that work at Google where probably bullied at high school by the jocks so now your doing this now and labeling them "bro" with the label of the group that bullied them.

I though MJ was supposed to be a proper Union Mag and not a front for the hobbyists IWW (which is how one DGS I know described the IWW)

clin_• 13 years ago

This is the single worst comment I've read on HN.

walshemj2• 13 years ago

What the one about trust fund hippies labeling nerds with the name of the group that bullied them at school .

Or the snarky remark about the IWW comrade :-)

RyanZAG• 13 years ago

Got to admit, SF looks a whole lot better now than it did then. There's a reason rent is high now and low then: SF is now an incredible place that everyone wants to be.

Back then, clearly not so much. Looks like that convention center was an incredibly good idea.

k-mcgrady2• 13 years ago

I think it's easy to come down on either side of the argument around this (I have no stake in it as I don't live in the US). Things progress and move forward and if rents are high and you can't afford them you need to move. A small number of apartments with lots of people wanting them drives the price high.

On the other hand it does suck for people who have lived there their entire lives and now can't afford it anymore. It also seems quite unfair.

One thing I find strange is why tech companies set up in an area which is limited in growth opportunities because of it's location. It's not like SF can grow out in all directions. It seems like this is only going to get worse. It means that if you setup a company in SF you'll have to pay your employees more so they can afford to live there. You'll also have to raise their salaries more every year to combat growing rent prices. It seems in the interest of companies to start moving out of SF. Once they do engineers will hopefully follow. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem though. If you setup outside SF now talent will be difficult to get and until some companies start setting up outside SF talent will stay in SF.

bmelton2• 13 years ago

It means that if you setup a company in SF you'll have to pay your employees more so they can afford to live there.

According to the detractors, that's exactly the problem. The engineers at Google can afford to live, roughly, wherever they want, while the waiters, waitresses, security guards, janitors, etc., that have lived in San Francisco all their life are being "driven out" by those Google employees, which are the ones driving up rent prices for the rest.

Note, Google is a placeholder for 'tech company' in this scenario. Clearly, Google isn't the only high-paying company in the area.

k-mcgrady2• 13 years ago

True, it's also interesting to note that for the city to function "the waiters, waitresses, security guards, janitors, etc" are required. The tech employees aren't. We could end up in a situation where 'aspiring entrepreneurs' work those jobs while they try to get their startup off the ground (a bit like people trying to get into acting in Hollywood).

Photos of San Francisco Before the Silicon Valley Bros Invaded

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