Facebook Envisions New Campus With Affordable Housing Units (sfgate.com) 123
An anonymous reader writes:
"In a few years, families could be living at Facebook," quips CNET. The Bay Area Newsgroup reports that Facebook is proposing a new campus with facilities open to the public "to address long-neglected community needs and to accommodate its burgeoning workforce." But the San Francisco Chronicle sees more than just new buildings. "Implicit in the tech company's announcement is Facebook's belief that it can solve some of the area's most pressing issues, including traffic congestion, demand for affordable housing and a lack of transit options. By opening the campus and some of its facilities to the public, Facebook is also heading off a common criticism lobbed at wealthy tech firms: that they move into cities, drive up the cost of living, displace area residents and then do little to give back."
Facebook will offer 15% of the housing -- about 225 units -- at "below market rates." They're also promising to invest tens of millions of dollars in improvements to nearby Highway 101 and to "catalyze regional transit investment," according to Facebook's vice president of global facilities and real estate. The Chronicle notes that the campus's open-to-the-public pharmacy and grocery store "would also solve the issue of a lack of food retailers in that part of the city, where the nearest large store is a Safeway 4 miles away -- a trip that can take up to 40 minutes during rush hour, according to Google Maps."
Facebook will offer 15% of the housing -- about 225 units -- at "below market rates." They're also promising to invest tens of millions of dollars in improvements to nearby Highway 101 and to "catalyze regional transit investment," according to Facebook's vice president of global facilities and real estate. The Chronicle notes that the campus's open-to-the-public pharmacy and grocery store "would also solve the issue of a lack of food retailers in that part of the city, where the nearest large store is a Safeway 4 miles away -- a trip that can take up to 40 minutes during rush hour, according to Google Maps."
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You'll be paid in FacebookCredits, and everything will be priced in FacebookCredits, all run through your smartphone with just a tap. You'll even be able to stream in real-time what you just purchased and where.
Re: Regressing (Score:1)
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You'll be paid in FacebookCredits,
. . . which will be known among financial folks as simply: "Zucks."
Yeah, it's the old company town, revisited, but The Hypno- Zuck will live there himself, and he just absolutely loves you, and the rest of humanity, as well (promiscuous, indeed), which is why he will be elected the next president, since all that love that the Zuck's been "spreading" around has not gone unnoticed, so living with the Zuck in his factory facetown will be like everyone's dreams come true, living in Calabasas with Justin Bieb
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You may hate Mr. Zuckerberg for all you want, but as a president he most likely would be 100 times or a 1000 times better for the USA, and the rest of the world.
After all he speaks more than one language and visited more countries than Mr. Trump.
And for you family loving americans: he actually has a family and not half a dozen divorces.
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You may hate Mr. Zuckerberg for all you want,
I don't hate Mr. Zuckerberg; I'm just not interested in the product he sells . . . or, more astutely stated, I have no interest in becoming his product. He can sell all the used ball-bearing Rigid Fidget Digits he wants for all I care.
but as a president he most likely would be 100 times or a 1000 times better for the USA, and the rest of the world.
. . . and you are basing that metric on . . . whatever you happened to be vaping at the time of posting? I could imagine Mr Zuckerberg resurrecting the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), since not using Facebook is an Un-American Activity. By not using Facebook
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if someone could please explain why the DNS entry prereq check for my RHEL running under VirtualBox on my SchmackBookSchmoe fails for IBM Maximo Asset Manager
Did you figure it out?
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In fact, you won't be able not to.
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Likes are the new scrips?
Fix Regression Errors (Score:3)
Then step up and use the same fix the last time this bug came up: Unionize.
Coding and programming has made its way into the skilled trade territory. You have 6-18 week hands on training. A skilled trade welder has as much overlap in knowledge and skill with a welding engineer as a 'boot camp coder' has with someone with a CS degree. Both skills are in high demand but the 'boot camp coders' are getting screwed because of their insistence that they are each special snow flakes and a trade union would hurt the
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That's all fine and well and is the equivalent of writing your own code at home.
Are you also volunteering to plumb new hospitals? Volunteering to wire new factories?
The point stands and trades still have their place.
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Company towns? What? We're going back to 1917?
No you insensitive clod! This is novel and unique because Facebook is doing it. History Schmistory...
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They aren't in San Francisco. They're in Menlo Park. Some of their property may even be over the line in East Palo Alto. It isn't the city they need to convince, its the suburbs.
Which may actually be harder. The city is very pro low income housing, so long as its built in another neighborhood. The suburbs not so much. Google tried and failed at this in Mountain View a few years back.
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It was about two decades ago that Sun Microsystems were on that campus space next to the bay. A shuttle bus service would connect between those buildings and the Caltrain station. Inbetween were the low income areas that gave East Menlo Park the highest murder rate in the USA. They got bought out by the tech companies and went elsewhere. Now all that land is being redeveloped. Cities like tech campuses because that brings in property tax as a gain. They dislike family housing because that brings the tax bur
Now that is progress (Score:2)
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It's probably an inevitable [re-]development if we don't reject corporatism wholesale. If the corporations have all the money, nobody else will be able to afford to build housing.
I, for one, will happily pat Zuckerberg on the back if Facebook actually does "invest tens of millions of dollars in improvements to nearby Highway 101" because nearby Highway 101 is fucking destroyed. Unfortunately, I think it would probably cost at least hundreds of millions if not several billions in today's money to actually ge
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Drinkypoo, it sounds like you live there. I'm getting ready to move to San Luis Obispo next month. Anything I should know about the area? One weird trick for living on the Central Coast?
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Firestone Walker brew pub in Paso Robles. Montana de Osos State Park. Los Osos. Morro Bay, Cayucos Beach, Elephant Seals at San Simeon (and Hearst Castle). All this close to SLO. Of course there is Cal Poly. Lot's going on.
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Well, I'm from Santa Cruz, but I'm living in Kelseyville, which is uh... quite a downgrade, and also far away from there. But congrats on moving out of the armpit. I've actually never been to SLO, but a lot of my friends seem to like it.
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Bringing back the company town [pbs.org].
I prefer to think of it as the rise of the mega-corp arcologies that I was promised in a cyberpunk future.
Too Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
The Brainiacs over at Facebook aren't smart enough to think of perhaps putting a new facility in a different town that isn't already congested.
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I mean we have the "Bullet Train' being built. Put Facebook out in Bakersfield and let FB employees commute from Silicon Valley to Bakersfield. Isn't that one of the selling points of the bullet train?
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I'd rather live in Bakersfield than Silicon Valley. There's less traffic. Housing is affordable.
Oh yeah, and also I really miss the 110 degree days.
Don't give back? (Score:2)
Call me old fashioned, but I think that's the job of the town halls, of course they should pay property and land taxes that would allow said town halls to do their job.
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Call me old fashioned, but I expect companies to invest heavily in things like power plants, roads, housing, and whatever else they need.
That's how it went in the old days. These days you have countries building this stuff to attract business.
Sunday in the Retail Park with Mark (Score:2)
Those renderings have a Georges Seurat vibe [staticflickr.com], no?
Other companies? (Score:3)
This feels like what some companies already do in China, except there it tends to be more in the form of dormitories. At the same it could be an interesting idea for other companies, as a way of reducing commute times. One company that I am thinking about is Apple with their new mega campus.
One of the things that put some people off working for these large companies is spending two hours in traffic, instead of 10 minutes using less stressful transportation, such as foot, bicycle or bus/train. Not everyone needs or wants a house, but may be happy living in an apartment with services near by.
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At the same it could be an interesting idea for other companies, as a way of reducing commute times.
And great for turning your enployees into bigger wage slaves.
Well that is one way to play it. The other is to encourage the employees to take that time for R&R, hoping they'll be even more effective?
Like the Truman Show?? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Depends (Score:3)
If Facebook does this it would have to be highly regulated to protect people. If my company did this, I would not accept the housing. Can I get my annual raise? Sorry, rent control means we can't raise housing costs as much as we'd like so no raise. I quit! You are also homeless. I'm fired? You are also homeless. Here is my letter of resignation, effective in two weeks as expected. You are homeless as of right now, but good luck to you.
Considering there is no regulation and no discussion of such, th
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There are a lot of tenant protection laws. I'd imagine it's far more likely to be "I'm giving two week notice." "Okay, well, I expect you to vacate your apartment in [minimum legal time, but probably 1 month\"
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Three fingers pointing back at yourself (Score:2)
Facebook is also heading off a common criticism lobbed at wealthy tech firms: that they move into cities, drive up the cost of living, displace area residents and then do little to give back.
They wouldn't displace area residents if city boards would allow more housing to be built. The cities invite the tech companies (because they want the tax revenue) then don't allow more housing to be built. It is all rather predictable.
Employees to get paid in Facebook bucks (Score:2)
Just like Pulman. Smooth.
I owe my soul... (Score:2)
to the company store!
Everything old is new again. sigh
The "mill village"?? (Score:2)
Thanks Zuckerberg......like this is really something the Western world needed reviving.
Facebook's Favelas (Score:2)
It's got a nice ring to it, no?
15 Million Merits (Score:1)
votes (Score:1)
Factory Town (Score:2)
This isn't new. The town of Hershey PA is a factory town built by Milton's desire to leave a crazy legacy. I'm surprised a billionaire like Zuckerberg hasn't incorporated a town in his name yet.
Kind of sounds like China (Score:2)
History repeating itself (Score:2)
History has shown us that things get bad when the boss also owns your home (and your grocery, and your car, hell even your whole town!). It's as bad as state owned everything.
Re:Notifications (Score:5, Insightful)
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Affordable housing does not make it a company town (Score:3)
I have worked with the population that needs housing subsidies. We need a LOT more affordable housing (or housing subsidies of one sort or another)--anybody who believes otherwise doesn't know the situation on the ground. While there are occasionally people taking advantage of the system or able to pull their weight and not, there are also a LOT of people who just have one medical problem or one bad month income-wise and it snowballs into destroying a big part of their life.
(E.g. you are deciding whether to
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Affordable housing is easy - live somewhere you can afford.
Quit asking the taxpayers to give you welfare in the form of a housing subsidy.
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Re: Affordable housing does not make it a company (Score:1)
Ask nearly every recent stem college grad.
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Real stick built houses. But most are at least 2 hours and more from an urban area.
In your experience, what effect does a four hour round trip commute to and from work in your field have on your morale?