There is a story being told about us here in the tech industry in San Francisco — that we are entitled, or that we are oblivious. I don’t believe that’s true. Or I don’t believe that it has to be true.
I’m worried that if we do not have a civil discussion soon, the situation will become violent or contentious beyond recognition. We have already seen rocks smash windows. Now, there are unidentified protesters stalking and harassing individual Google employees at their homes.
The bus protests during the last several months are a symptom of San Francisco’s perennial housing shortage, which has become especially pronounced with 75,000 people moving here over the last decade. Supply just hasn’t kept up with the city’s growth; San Francisco has added an average of 1,500 units every year for the last two decades.
Service As A Part of Company Culture
Somehow, somewhere, between my grandfather’s generation here in Silicon Valley and mine, our prevailing rhetoric changed from one of “service” to one of “changing the world.” There is a big gap between the two. The word “service” is deferential and empathetic to those around us, and “changing the world” is individualistic and full of hubris. We have to remember that with or without us, the world will change. That is its nature.
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Broader-Based Giving From Employees Across The Industry
We expect our CEOs and billionaires to give. There is a long, philanthropic tradition in the technology industry with organizations like the The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan also recently gave the largest single donation of last year with his nearly $1 billion gift to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Earlier this week, Zuckerberg gave $5 million toward construction of a new East Palo Alto medical clinic. Then Facebook co-founder and the world’s youngest billionaire Dustin Moskovitz has this lovely explanation about how he feels about his sudden wealth and responsibility.
But there isn’t really as strong a giving culture among rank-and-file employees.
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Leadership From Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter on Regional Housing
Here is an idea for a Google X moonshot: Bay Area housing.
It sounds ridiculous. But frankly, it’s a waste for Google to spend its time media coaching employees at a hearing for $1 fees on bus stops, when it could be joining forces with Facebook, Apple, Twitter and other large tech companies to push for regionwide housing solutions.
The tech shuttles exist because public solutions have failed us. Unlike New York City and its five boroughs, we don’t have a regional authority with sufficient power to coordinate development for the broader Bay Area. For decades, cities up and down the peninsula have resisted building the high density and walkable housing that young people want, so that burden is being placed upon San Francisco and Oakland.
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And lastly, for the protesters (if any activists actually read TechCrunch):
This is not going away. It’s painful to see friends and community members get displaced because of higher rents. But bus protests aren’t going to stop it.
These are the facts: there are six times as many people in California compared to when my grandfather grew up here. There are twice as many people in California compared to when my mother showed up in the Bay Area. Another 2 million people are expected to join us in the Bay Area over the next 25 years. Tech industry or not, people will get squeezed.