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And those people are there because of all the businesses that are there. It's one big feedback loop that's going to keep building until it breaks

Or until the cities cave in and start allowing high-density housing to be constructed, building decent mass transit (which is easier with high-density housing), etc. The actual population density is quite low compared to truly urban environments. But while they insist on sticking with a suburban lifestyle they're going to be bursting at the seams.

Luckily, it does appear that Mountain View, at least, is finally starting to recognize this. After years of obstructionism, they have finally approved some high-density housing on the north bayshore. http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2.... With a lot more of that sort of thing, they could fix the problem. Of course, if they do too much of it, all of the people with million-dollar mortgages on $300,000 (at best) houses are going to be in trouble...

The only way to fix the Bay Area housing crisis is to build more fucking housing.

This map (which shows the allowed building heights in San Francisco, where yellow is 4 stories. And Mountain View has forbidden Google from building more housing.

So as you can see, developers won't build more housing because they aren't being allowed to.

I don't think anybody said it was the developers' faults. If the city policies don't allow more housing to be built, the city policies need to change to allow it.

The only way to fix the Bay Area housing crisis is to build more fucking housing.

This map (which shows the allowed building heights in San Francisco, where yellow is 4 stories. And Mountain View has forbidden Google from building more housing.

So as you can see, developers won't build more housing because they aren't being allowed to.

For some, a job at Google is the stuff dreams are made of, but for security guard Manny Cardenas, it's been more of a nightmare.

While working as security guard at Google's Mountain View headquarters, 24-year-old Cardenas said he had to move back in with his mother and enroll his daughter in MediCal because his pay amounted to $1,000 a month at most, and he received no health benefits. He says Google's security guard contractor, Security Industry Specialists, doesn't provide a set number of work hours every week to its security guards at Google, which meant he's worked as little as one day a week some weeks. Even though he's paid $16 an hour, his monthly pay at its peak was less than what a full time job at minimum wage provides.

Members of a delegation of 400 Belgian business leaders who were visiting Google seemed to be bit surprised by the action.

''We are accustomed to strikes in Belgium, it's a democratic right,'' said Gael Lambinon, a member of the Belgian business group. ''It's nice to see that people are free to claim their rights, even at Google in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is not paradise --- that is what we tend to imagine.''

A young Googler approached the Voice to ask what the protest was about. Upon hearing a brief explanation, he said, ''Whatever, I don't give a (expletive).''

Mountain View resident Elena Pacheco said the situation was illustrative of there being ''two Silicon Valleys'' where ''the rich are getting more rich and the poor are getting worse.''

SEIU protests at Google (2013)

Google has to ferry their people. Mountain View voted down Google's plan to build a 1000-unit dorm complex.

Bear in mind that most Google employees are not "techies". They're sales reps selling ads. When you think Google, think "Mad Men", not rocket science.

Google Groups: Complaint to the City of Mountain View about Google WiFi Service. And, from January: Amid complaints, Google promises WiFi upgrades.

This is the legacy of the era.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ce6c60ee7382a473882571af007af70d/1368bf2b217e29e288257007005e9462!OpenDocument
http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/7508188dd3c99a2a8825742600743735/f11948ed421fa45188257007005e9412!OpenDocument

http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=6180