
Why can’t San Francisco’s tech culture solve the city’s social problems? - sethbannon
https://www.ft.com/content/262e2b2c-d423-11e7-8c9a-d9c0a5c8d5c9
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sremani
Why can't New York's Investment bank culture solve the city's social problems?

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swampthinker
Valley is the new Wall Street. Time is a flat circle.

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Johnny555
_Why can’t San Francisco’s tech culture solve the city’s social problems?_

Because social problems are not technology problems?

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dragonwriter
The article doesn't really quite get to this, though it hints at it in parts,
but largely because San Francisco’s tech culture is a symptom of, and largely
oriented toward reinforcing, the economic conditions underlying the social
problems.

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arnon
As always, people think their sphere of influence is larger than it actually
is. Even for tech.

Social problems are not caused by tech, so tech might not be able to solve
them.

Head out into the poorer parts of SF and the surrounding area, and see how
very little is shared in common with SF other than geography.

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keiferski
Social problems aren’t caused by tech? You don’t think that the massive
increases in cost-of-living in San Francisco have nothing to do with the tech
industry’s presence?

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natecavanaugh
There definitely are social issues caused by tech, but the fact that tech is
raising prices isn't necessarily the responsibility of one single person or
business.

But even with having tech as the scapegoat doesn't mean that tech will have
the answers (it probably guarantees that the answer isn't in tech at all).

But there are many social issues, in and out of the Valley, where issues are
amplified by tech, but not necessarily the ideal way of solving them (for
instance, the fact that so many people online engage in trollish behavior,
it's a symptom of people and not necessarily one that tech can cure, but tech
does definitely amplify it).

Housing had so many different factors that influence it, you can look at
everything from governmental policy, cultural changes, land mass and
infrastructure to support commuting, and overall consumer preference.

SF's housing issues, while not 100% preceding the rise of tech, definitely
were a problem already that tech has amplified.

If a city isn't prepared for economic success, it's going to have a really
tough time adjusting to economic pressures (even the success of it's
neighbors). However with San Francisco, it's hard to pass it off as being
unprepared, but, TBH, while a generally forward thinking community, there is a
lot of NIMBY-itis and a pro-conservationist movement that doesn't always
desire to compromise. Not having lived there for any great length of time, I'm
conjecturing based on what I read, so take my opinion with a large grain of
salt :)

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avs733
Because the tech culture thinks it can solve the social problem?

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paulus_magnus2
“There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn't matter who gets
the credit.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

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asabjorn
It is not for the lack of money spent. San Francisco spent $300 million on
housing homeless people in 2017. That’s $40k per homeless person in the city.

I think benioffs solution of spending by relocating homeless and vulnerable
families outside the city is quite promising. Instead of the $500k per unit in
SF it is conceivable to build more than 10 times more for the same prize
elsewhere.

In one years city budget for homeless housing we could conceivably build
housing for all if we are willing to follow benioffs solution, making
necessary housing less of a lottery.

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c22
And then what? Do you bus them back to the city to panhandle on weekends or
are they just supposed to stay in their new cheap and isolated housing
twiddling their thumbs? Will you bring them snacks?

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asabjorn
Similar to the Utah model you provide social services that help rehabilitate.
We can also structure it similarly to theirs. The goal is to free people from
the cycle of homelessness. As you can see in the article there is very little
that would not improve upon the current situation.

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c22
This Utah model[0][1][2][3]?

I'm all for getting the homeless into homes, and for the chronically homeless
perhaps sending them somewhere cheap and giving them a lifetime of social
services is the answer. But the majority of homeless are not chronically so,
these people need economic opportunities, and the places with the cheapest
housing are also the places with the fewest economic opportunities. If we want
to prevent this class of homeless from slipping into the former group then
finding ways to provide them housing in booming cities is preferable.

[0] [https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-
still-...](https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865678779/Is-Utah-still-a-
model-for-solving-chronic-homelessness.html)

[1] [http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-
homel...](http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/10/12/leading-homelessness-
expert-says-operation-rio-grande-is-a-disaster-at-annual-utah-summit/)

[2] [http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-
shelters-20170707-s...](http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-
shelters-20170707-story.html)

[3] [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-
solv...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-corinth/think-utah-solved-
homeles_b_9380860.html#)

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AnimalMuppet
Utah is kind of at a sweet spot here, with housing that is not ridiculously
expensive, and yet with decent amounts of economic opportunity. Not Silicon
Valley levels of opportunity, but I'm not sure that most homeless should be
looking for Silicon Valley-type jobs as their first step.

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c22
Even with Keurig people in Silicon Valley sometimes need someone else to make
their coffee. There are good arguments for having a range of affordability in
housing so the people working these service jobs don't have to commute 4 hours
on a bus every day.

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FullMtlAlcoholc
A better question would be why can't San Francisco's political class and
housing authority solve the issue.

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vorotato
Their profits depend on not solving it. Of course if people decide they don't
want to live there anymore because it's one drug den then perhaps tunes will
change.

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gwbas1c
Because engineering does not solve political problems

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erie
Techies have created the culture that has the: motto there is an app for that,
yet they hate any blame for the social ills they have created.

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jkw
paywall

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Jzush
Yeah, I think the paywall answers the titles question honestly.

