
Facebook Founder’s Favor Comes with Complications - augustocallejas
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/technology/mark-zuckerberg-housing.html
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734786710934
There's a weird disconnect in this article between the reality of what
Zuckerberg is trying to do and the agenda being pushed by the author.

You have this paragraph:

"The social network has been lobbying to build more housing in the region,
which Silicon Valley cities, worried about traffic and preferring a commercial
over residential tax base, have fought against. In East Palo Alto, Facebook
has invested $18.5 million into the Catalyst Housing Fund, an affordable
housing initiative; the company has set a goal to grow the fund to $75
million."

Followed by this paragraph:

"East Palo Alto’s residents have long felt disempowered against change brought
by tech leaders like Mr. Zuckerberg. A 2.6-square-mile town where one-third of
the school children are homeless, it has stood as a sign that Silicon Valley’s
wealth might not spread to those beyond its tech campuses."

If Silicon Valley’s wealth is not being spread to those beyond its tech
campuses it's not for a lack of trying.

~~~
laughinghan
Interesting, I didn't feel at all like there was a weird disconnect or agenda
being pushed. In fact, it felt to me like a pained attempt to paint a
contentious situation fairly and factually. It seems all too plausible to me
that both of the following might be factually true:

• Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are putting a lot of money into the local
community and feel like they are going above and beyond their obligations in
that regard

• various hardships that the local community has suffered and is suffering
over the recent years are directly and visibly linked to Facebook and Mark
Zuckerberg, and therefore they feel like Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have and
are continuing to harm them, not help them

The article seemed to be taking pains not to claim that any of the following
were true, or that their opposite was true:

• Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are wrong to feel that they are going above and
beyond; they should instead be contributing to the local community more and/or
differently

• the local community is wrong to feel that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are
doing more to help than to hurt them; in fact, they have no right or claim to
getting more from, or even what they currently get from, Facebook and Mark
Zuckerberg

It sounds like you think it's clear that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are
contributing plenty enough to the local community. I'd be interested in
learning why you think it's so clear that they needn't be doing more or
different things, in spite of the local community's reported continued
hardships.

~~~
734786710934
You missed the key fact here: Zuckerberg wants to do more for the community
but his initiatives are being blocked by the city. I say that there is a
disconnect because this is being presented by the author as a failure of
Zuckerberg's rather than of the city.

~~~
jacobolus
The bit you quoted has Zuckerberg’s initiative being blocked by other (richer)
nearby cities.

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seasonalgrit
The proper way to improve education in a community is to get involved with the
existing school systems -- the schools are already there. Be wary of
ideologues possessing way too much money combined with an impoverished sense
of ethics (e.g., Zuckerberg) who shun existing civic institutions and go off
to start their own for-profit/corporate 'schools' instead.

~~~
734786710934
>The proper way to improve education in a community is to get involved with
the existing school systems

That didn't work out too well when Zuckerberg tried it:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-newark-
schools-p...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-newark-schools-
partially-squandered-a-great-
prize/2015/10/20/ffff660c-7743-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html)

~~~
jacobolus
Having unaccountable billionaires with no knowledge of the field dump piles of
money down (along with dictating how it should be spent) in a splashy PR stunt
is a horrible way to improve public institutions.

Instead we should properly tax the billionaires, and then elect public
officials who value public education, so they can figure out how to improve
schools with the advice and help of all of the local stakeholders.

But a lot of the rich folks’ education initiatives (including Zuckerberg’s,
probably) turn out to be more about gaming the tax code and sometimes
immigration laws (with a bonus of good PR) than really helping the schools
out. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-
sheet/wp/2014/06/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-
sheet/wp/2014/06/04/why-hedge-funds-love-charter-schools/)

As an added bonus (more relevant to the Koch brothers than Zuckerberg
perhaps), charter schools help break teachers’ unions and destroy the public
education system, which has a big knock-on political benefit for Republicans
who want to undercut a major base of Democratic party support.

~~~
Decade
It would be nice if the public officials actually cared about education, and
weren’t using the position as a sinecure until a position with real power
opens up. [https://www.thebaycitybeacon.com/politics/who-are-all-
these-...](https://www.thebaycitybeacon.com/politics/who-are-all-these-
candidates/article_98246948-a319-11e7-a03f-772054b65534.html)

I do not blame people who care wanting to work around this system.

~~~
jopsen
> I do not blame people who care wanting to work around this system.

Agree.... But workarounds won't scale.

~~~
tea-flow
Why not?

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chrishacken
Facebook is more than welcome to come gentrify the city where I live. It would
be a welcomed change from the influx of decrepit homes that are abandoned
and/or poorly maintained.

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golemotron
Another example of The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics.

[https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-
eth...](https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-ethics/)

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valuearb
As a free-market libertarian there is nothing worse that crony capitalism. And
that's what happened here.

When the political leadership of my beloved former lunchtime basketball
grounds of East Palo Alto tries to claim they didn't take the RV Park for the
school, they immediately contradict themselves.

"She added that the flood-prone street would be rebuilt for the school, so the
R.V.s would have had to move in any case."

And you known Chan-Zuckerman was behind it. Eminent domain should never be
allowed to be used for one business, even a non-profit school, to take the
property of another. It should only be used for the highest public purposes,
and only with fair compensation.

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user2283
Am I the only one that noticed the alliteration in the headline? I wonder if
they could have made it all F-words

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adrianlmm
I feel like Facebook is like Trump, It doesn't matter what it does, media will
always attack it.

