Thursday, February 07, 2019

The tech economy boom at ground zero

It is a witness to the out-of-control cost of San Francisco living space that when you live close to a transit hub, offers like this flyer pop up in the snail mail. After all, you don't use all your residence 24 hours every day; you could perhaps squeeze a few dollars out of your overpriced property by renting use of it out as an informal office facility.

During the internet boom of 2000, we were astonished to realize that behind us the basement of the single room occupancy hotel had been fitted out with banks of computers and made into a sort of call center -- briefly, until whatever was being sold there crashed. That building then reverted to serving as minimal housing of last resort for low wage workers and other poor people, as it does to this day. I can only wonder for how long until it becomes worthwhile for some developer to gut and repurpose.

Tech wealth isn't going to go bust this time around. So its imperative had become to monetize and colonize our living rooms.

No, we're not going to do it, because we are fortunate not to have. But given what people pay to live here, I have no doubt that this company will find takers in the neighborhood.

No comments: