
How the Internet Ruined San Francisco (1999) - triplesec
http://www.salon.com/1999/10/28/internet_2/
======
pikachu_is_cool
I grew up in the Silicon Valley. One of the riches places in the world. The
tech hub. Engineers. Soccer moms. Workaholic dads. The sound of leafblowers
24/7\. No parties, no night life. Work work work. Money money money. Get a
2400 on your SAT. Get straight A's and go to UC Berkeley, and if you don't go
there you're a failure. Go to the gym every day at 7AM. Eat healthy organic
fruits. Everything you could ever possibly want to do can be accomplished with
computers. Go to hackathons. Work until you die.

I feel like I was deprived of a childhood.

~~~
rdtsc
Sounds like the Trainspotting quote -- "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a
career. [...] Choose rotting away at the end of it all, [...] more than an
embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace
yourself. Choose your future. Choose life." I guess if Trainspotting took
place in the Valley it would have all the things you listed.

~~~
bane
I always liked this version of it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K-V8ZWyNMs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K-V8ZWyNMs)

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smoyer
I don't want to sound callous but ... market forces shape and reshape cities
all the time. When the facets of city-life in San Francisco that initially
drew people fade away, people will flock somewhere else and the rents will
stagnate or reverse. And if San Francisco is losing its allure as an artist's
hub, perhaps other places (such as downtown Detroit) are compensating?

I live in a reasonably affluent smaller city and the problem of affordable
housing for the "working poor" is about the same here ... but I still haven't
seen what I think is a viable solution (developers were compensated for
building low-income housing and maintaining low rent for 10 years, but now the
rent for those houses exceeds my monthly mortgage).

~~~
erikpukinskis
> I still haven't seen what I think is a viable solution

What about cooperative ownership? When an asset is communally owned, it
reduces the temptation for people to destroy it for a payout.

~~~
Naritai
My biggest concern about communal ownership (ignoring tragedy of the commons)
is that such an arrangement is simply undesirable for most people. There is
something fundamentally unappealing about buying into a communal arrangement,
and I can see why - I can easily think of a few past roommates to whom I'm
very glad I was not financially bound in a long-term arrangement.

For example, TICs are declining in numbers in SF, not increasing. If communal
ownership were a viable option, we should see the number of TICs increasing.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Yes, there are certainly a lot of unsolved problems in communal ownership. I'm
optimistic that solutions are out there.

>If communal ownership were a viable option, we should see the number of TICs
increasing.

I don't understand how that follows. All that indicates is that some
particular operating structures (the specific TICs in place in SF) are not
viable on one specific market (SF) in one particular moment in history.

I was just suggesting that in theory communal ownership could solve the
problem. How to actually get that to work, in practice, is a problem that
entrepreneurs have been working on for decades, and it will take many decades
more.

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tptacek
A better-written counterpoint, also Salon, also 1999:

[http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/](http://www.salon.com/1999/11/03/sf/)

~~~
triplesec
Thank you! It just seems with all this talk of the new boom that there's a bit
of plus ca change, plus que c'est le meme chose. Look forward to any other
historical articles out there too.

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stretchwithme
Living in a desirable place has always been popular. And its popularity
fluctuates. Those who rent rather than buy are most exposed to those
fluctuations. Those who buy are most likely to profit.

That's how it works. Nothing new about it and there's no way to change it,
except perhaps stopping the Federal Reserve from creating bubbles with cheap
money.

~~~
walshemj
Strikes me that a lot of renters want the advantages of property ownership but
none of the responsibilities.

~~~
fleshweasel
Maybe most of them couldn't dream of actually owning property.

~~~
walshemj
I can't afford property in central London either even a 1 bed flat is getting
on for $1,000,000.

~~~
stretchwithme
Sometimes its a lot cheaper to rent something than it is to rent the money to
own it.

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technotony
"Median rent for a two bedroom apartment is $2,000 per month." Oh how I yearn
for the good old days!

~~~
seivan
Not much different from Stockholm....

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tinbad
Am I the only one who gets a 403 Forbidden when clicking on the link?

~~~
eelsen
no

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hydralist
coming here to work for a startup has been awesome but i couldn't imagine
growing up around here or even settling down here. i am here for the
experience and then im outta here

