You would be a stupid landlord indeed to accept $2500 for a desirable apartment when someone is offering to pay you $4k for it. This is why capitalism at its basest level is sort of psychotic, though. Which is a much larger issue and not really in the scope of a conversation about shouty fake-aggrieved bus guy.
1 Like
It seems that Google and other companies are already working on a plan to pay the city.
The Municipal Transportation Agency in July proposed a plan to have about 200 Muni stops throughout the city serve as shared stops with private employee buses.
The bus operators â private companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Genentech â would pay for permits to use the Muni stops, and would give data to the city to help them plan their use.
5 Likes
If only there was some way for the stupid capitalists to build more property to accommodate more people. It doesnât take a CEO of a large bank to realize that gaining $300 from two people is better than gaining $500 from one. While capitalism is not perfect, I donât think capitalism is what makes shitty box sized apartments in the middle of the city overpriced. If the problem was rich people owning huge tracts of land with McMansions, sure blame capitalism all day long⌠This looks more like a problem created by the government to me.
Plot twist, the supposed protesters where actually fake because google employed them to portray protesters, they seemed just too perfect to be real protesters, itâs just the thing a megacorp would imagine protesters to be.
2 Likes
AlasâŚI do.
1 Like
Verbing weirds language.
2 Likes
In the future nothing will be real
2 Likes
Itâs not a building problem in this specific case (though the issues underlying it certainly are), itâs that if I have one unit up for rent, is it wiser to take $2500 from someone nice or $4000 from a douchebag?
Wait. It doesnât matter if theyâre nice or douchebags. Money talks, etc.
If SF was as packed as Tokyo, I might buy that argument. If the guy across the street has 500 units going up for $2k a pop in 3 months, Iâd take whoever will sign the lease and can afford to pay a decent rate. While the acreage is worth a whole lot, construction just doesnât cost those kinds of rates.
I think smartrâs point is that the obvious solution is to build more housing. But city zoning laws tend to get in the way of this
Matthew Yglesias has been writing a lot about this, for instance here:
2 Likes
It had never occurred to me that the way to alleviate a housing crisis was to build more housing. And with all these vacant lots all over the city, thereâs PLENTY of room to do it!
Christ, people. Just because I didnât stroke your pet issue in the proper manner doesnât mean Iâm unaware of it.
My main point is simply that one shouldnât lump blame everything on capitalism in the same manner one shouldnât lump blame everything on the government unless you want to espouse ideology with no basis in reality.
Commercial construction costs are enormous. How much do you think building a 500 unit apartment complex costs in total, including the permits, surveys, etc? Youâre talking about a 100+ million dollar project there.
1 Like
I debated putting that bit about capitalism in specifically because of getting lost in a pointless side conversation like this. But youâd be a bad businessperson (and possibly a better human [please note the qualifier âpossiblyâ, pedants]) to take less money than was offered, if everything else in the competing proposals were equal.
No, man. You just snap your fingers and all the permits, construction, plumbing, and electrical are done on land that doesnât even exist. As opposed to trains, which take centuries to build.
1 Like
you need to loosen yer panties there a bit, chum.
I also remember the quake of '89, I was there. it was awful. north beach burned, bridge collapsed, people trapped in cars. shrug
I also saw over a period of two decades every single person in the âcreative classâ/working class that spent large portions, if not the majority of their lives interacting with and creating the very city that people cherish so fondly, get pushed out by landlord and corporate greed. like myself. watched longstanding pillars of the small business community get forced out (quasi-illegally) to make way for multinational corporations that wanted to âbe in that hip 'hoodâ. communities destroyed. culture bought and sold off as a cheap commodity and desirable feature to add to a rental listing inflated 200% from last year. I watched a city council and mayor do nothing to protect its citizens from the financial rape and pillage.
so⌠fuck me for having a small bit of fantasy schadenfreude at the concept of the SF peninsula droping off into the sea? Collapsing under itâs own weight?
I donât necessarily âwant to watch the world burnâ. Just the shitty people that ruin it.
4 Likes
Careful there decrying the avarice of greedy fuckheads, someone will try to drop a 500-unit condo on your head.
1 Like
Boingboing: I think that fact that the core of the storyâthe thing that got it on boingboing to begin withâis a hoax, deserves slightly more than un âupdate.â Youâre still showing a live link about an âangry google employee.â The story is interesting in itâs own right, but is not what you describe in your headline.
1 Like
I donât understand protesting the corporate buses - those are like a city service; the LAST thing SF needs is hundreds more cars trying to squeeze into the streets every rush hour. These companies concentrating vast numbers of their workers into buses means EVERYBODY comes out ahead. So the public canât use the buses, and the buses contribute to congestion, but the alternative (people driving) is even more off-limits to the public, and creates far worse congestion.
1 Like
What is with the problem with the Google shuttle using the bus stop? Is it in any way interfering with the use of the stop by people using municipal buses? As long as the shuttle driver knows to get out of the way when a bus is coming it should be alright. Iâd rather deal with one shuttle carrying 12 people on the road than 12 people driving 12 cars.
