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Facebook is Building a Real Community in California To Test Whether People Love Tech Companies Enough To Live in Them (nytimes.com)
In Menlo Park, Calif., Facebook is building a real community and testing the proposition: Do people love tech companies so much they will live inside them? From a report: Willow Village will be wedged between the Menlo Park neighborhood of Belle Haven and the city of East Palo Alto, both heavily Hispanic communities that are among Silicon Valley's poorest. Facebook is planning 1,500 apartments, and has agreed with Menlo Park to offer 225 of them at below-market rates. The most likely tenants of the full-price units are Facebook employees, who already receive a five-figure bonus if they live near the office.
The community will have eight acres of parks, plazas and bike-pedestrian paths open to the public. Facebook wants to revitalize the railway running alongside the property and will finish next year a pedestrian bridge over the expressway. The bridge will provide access to the trail that rings San Francisco Bay, a boon for birders and bikers. Mr. Tenanes, Facebook's vice president for real estate, contemplates the audacity of building a city.
The community will have eight acres of parks, plazas and bike-pedestrian paths open to the public. Facebook wants to revitalize the railway running alongside the property and will finish next year a pedestrian bridge over the expressway. The bridge will provide access to the trail that rings San Francisco Bay, a boon for birders and bikers. Mr. Tenanes, Facebook's vice president for real estate, contemplates the audacity of building a city.
...we don't trust you to run a virtual community, so why the hell would any of us want to live in a REAL community under your control?
How is working for these big CA tech companies any different from being in a cult at this point? You believe their ideology or at least pretend to; speak up and you will be fired. They already paid extra to keep you on a string so they could summon you whenever it was convenient for them. Now live on their property? Will they hand out free drinks next? (Read: DON'T DRINK IT.)
company store days are comeing back and the irs can hold a big tax bill over your head as well for the real cost of your free housing. so jay you better be ready for the 80-90 hour work week.
I'd rather cycle in Chicago in the middle of winter than on a pristine cycle path in sunny California in a Facebook village for overpaid yuppies. The latter sounds like my personal idea of hell on Earth.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Seriously - anyone who takes below-market housing from Facebook of all companies should expect a double-dose of data collection.
btw, has Zuck shown his face yet since the Cambridge Analytics debacle?
There are tech companies that do this in India, one big gated community including housing and the office space. The folks that lived there seemed to enjoy it.
Most homes will be built near the corner of Cambridge and Analytica. The Home Owners Association will demand that none of the houses shall have locks and no windows will have blinds/drapes .
"...contemplates the audacity of building a city."
Examples of audacity: sending people to Mars, sending a car into orbit, exploiting peoples' desire for social connection, putting pineapple on pizza
Not an example of audacity: building yet another company town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town
Invest a little money into poor communities buying up properties tax free .. of course no one living there now can actually afford them
Make new apartments and condo's reinvigorating a blight, tax free
Keep it on the books for 10 years, pricing all the poor people out, until its full of hipsters and yuppies, then sell for a massive profit and still not pay taxes on it
http://dof.ca.gov/Forecasting/...
The federal tax bill passed at the end of December 2017 allows the Governor to designate eligible census tracts as Opportunity Zones. Investments made by individuals through special funds in these zones would be allowed to defer or eliminate federal taxes on capital gains.
1) You get ostracized at 35 and removed at 42
2) Local laws are contradictory
3) You are treated as an infinite resource
4) You lose all the freedom required to do your job
5) Immigrants take your home after 8 months
6) Everyone looks for the most superficial ways to show the world how smart they are all the time
Should we allow men to request sleeping quarters with young boys.
Yes
No
I have seen that Black Mirror episode, why are they trying to LARP it?
I can't wait to see Zuckerberg personally do some community outreach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... - South Park compilation :)))
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
I live in a city that was created back in the early 1900's by the railroad. They put their infrastructure here and then built a "planned community" around it. Today, CSX still uses the tracks here as a rail yard and we have a station stop that's used for the commuter rail system. But generally, the buildings the railroad originally built have all been re-purposed for other things and we have a self-sustaining town here.
I think it's wishful thinking if they believe success in such an endeavor proves people "love tech companies enough to live in them", though. More likely, it's about the convenience of living right by where you work, in a housing market that's gotten so expensive, that's not otherwise feasible for a lot of people.
So, live in a community which falls under the control of a company which is able to monitor and judge you based on what you do, say, visit, watch, associate with, and has the right to terminate you at will for violating whatever unspoken values they enforce? And is essentially run by teenagers who suddenly got rich, powerful, and more responsibility than they knew how to handle?
Wait, and it comes with a 15% discount on their products? Sounds great!
I have a name for it: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
Or is that already taken?
bickerdyke
...but this is taking "branding" to a truly disgusting level.
mnem
"I refuse to belong to any club that would have me as a member." ~ Groucho
Everything old is new again. It's called a company town. Will they pay their employees who live there in Farmville points, only redeemable at the local company store?
Just two different flavors.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
"below market rate" in the Bay Area means something quite different than what you might stereotype. These aren't section 8 housing for ex-convicts. "Below market rate" simply means "not $1M or above". So that the non-tech staff or workers (full time jobs) earning "just" 100k or so can afford to live there.
First of all, "below-market rates" in the SF Bay area does not equate to "low rent", it simply refers to rental rates that are below the uber-exorbitant standard rents in the area. Most middle-income people still won't be able to afford them no less people of limited income.
Secondly, poor, Hispanic communities do not equate to "ghetto neighborhoods" and "criminal and low life" individual. This kind of racism and elitism does nothing to promote a diverse, productive society.
Some people say a coder is made outta mud
A poor coder's made outta hacking and fud
Hacking and fud and scripts and caffeine
A mind that's weak and a keyboard that's strong
You code sixteen slocs, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Google, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I wake up in a basement where the sun doesn't shine
I picked up my keyboard and walked in half past nine
I hacked sixteen slocs of fine gui code
And the manager said "well, bless my soul"
You code sixteen slocs, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Apple, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one morning', it was drizzlin' rain
Hacking and trouble are my middle name
I learned coding in a bootcamp from an ol' timer mom
Can't no high toned woman make me stand in a scrum
You code sixteen slocs, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Microsoft, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me debuggin', better step aside
A lotta devs didn't, a lotta devs cried
One window of logs, the other source hell
If the first doesn't find it, then the second one will
You code sixteen slocs, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Facebook, don't you fire me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to your company store
-- with apologies to Merle Travis
"The Bay Area's poorest..."
Read: most affordable. Last I checked, the poor need to live somewhere as well.
How many existing residents will be displaced if eminent domain (aka land theft) is used to build the thing. I bet the 15% of below-market-rate homes will still hold fewer people than the homes bulldozed to build this utopia.
Orwell rd 1984.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Like most Google projects, they'd have 250 houses in varying degrees of incomplete, fiber would be run to the opposite side of town, they would have neglected to lay the utility infrastructure, and kick everyone out in 6 months when they change remind everyone this was BETA.
I feel more sorry for the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods...
(1) Will their reasonably-prices stores and gathering places be replaced with those that cater to chichi tech-hipsters?
(2) Will any of their communities be bulldozed under eminent domain/"blight" laws to make way for a measly 225 housing units?
Not being as rich as your neighbors doesn't make you "ghetto", and poorer people need to live somewhere too.
why would you actively try to bring in likely criminal and low life tenets to live with your employees?
"Below market rates" for rent in that part of CA does not imply affordability to "low life tenets[sic]", or anyone in the bottom three quintiles of household income in the U.S.
Think of all the cool experiments Facebook can do with real life people in real world boxes?
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
Please submit your suggestions using hash tag #DeleteFacebook winner will be announced during next Facebook shareholder meeting.
- Fuckerville
- Slavetown
- Pwn3dville
- New Pyongyang
- Dusttopia
- Stalkerville
- Airstrip Two
- Creepertown
I live in a nice neighborhood. They also included about 12 'low income' style houses in the mix. I believe it is a requirement where I live.
These are houses, which are purchased. Not rental units. I have no idea how they maintain the 'low income' ideal when houses are sold.
But here is what I have found:
The turnover rate of the low-income housing is probably triple of the 'regular' (somewhat high-end) houses.
MOST of the people are good/fine. No problems.
I would say that 75% of the 'problems' in the neighborhood stem from the low-income section. (My house is close by, I see what is happening) 75% of the problems yes, but this is in a neighborhood that has very, very few problems. So we're talking about maybe 3 police actions per year that I see.
75% of the traffic is also generated by that small collection of homes. Like these people drive a lot.
The biggest difference though is the age of the residents. In the 'regular' homes, the homeowner age is well above 50. I am on the young side, and I turn 50 in two weeks. I think two other guys are below 50, the rest are much older.
The low-income housing is made up of lots of younger people. 20 somethings, 30 somethings.
I don't think income has much to do with the 'problems', I think it has more to do with age. And honestly, the number of 'problems' is very low. It seems like a bunch of normal people, who couldn't afford $700,000 homes, but were able to live in a nice neighborhood for maybe a third of that price.
OH! The only issue I have is with parking overflow. Every once in a while a new group of people will move in with a plethora of cars which they start parking in front of other houses. The low income area is more like a condo complex (but they are detached) and they have their own parking areas, but they do get full. So people park on the normal street. All of the houses have at least 3 car garages, and giant driveways. We aren't even supposed to park on the street overnight...but the low-income residents didn't have to sign a CC&R stating they wouldn't park on the street...we did.
That's it. These are all really small issues. But I do believe that the people living in the low-income area benefit greatly from being in a nice neighborhood. I think it's fine.
No reason to lie.
I think the kind of drugs dealt in this neighborhood is intended to be adderall and maybe some overpriced "designer pot", and "low income" merely means "junior" employees who can't afford million dollar homes or $6k monthly rents.
Labor camps, like in the movie Angel City, existed to enslave and exploit workers. They can't afford to leave, had no one to contact for justice or protection.
The 225 low rent places will be for the "contractors" at FB (janitors, kitchen staff, thought police, etc).
Wouldn't it make more sense to just pay them more, rather than subsidizing their rent?
Rent subsidies for poor people to live in the heart of Silicon Valley makes about as much sense as subsidizing the BMW dealerships so they can sell Z4s to poor people at lower prices.
The key to making housing affordable is to increase the total supply. These 1.5K new houses will help, but the SF Bay Area really needs 1.5M.
I have seen large companies that "own" small towns in the 70s-80's do this.
This is how they try to get you in as a selling point, free in-house child care, discounted food, discounted gas, grocery stores and housing, company vehicle. Where they trick you is you won't see any real raises or employee growth and once you have a few kids the convenience is to good of a deal to walk away from, so your stuck there for another 15 or so years....
Some places were very much like the movie the firm, as in, you really didn't want to leave under threat of the company "knowing" certain things about your lifestyle.
I guess it's fine if you totally ok with that kind of lifestyle ...then again this was back when companies actually kept people until they retired, they may have wanted a slave but at least they kept you employed for ever...
Why stop there? Why not just go all the way and do dormitories? Workers could subsidize their living with being onsite 24-7 and agreeing to have the company monitor what they do.
landlord tenant law say they can't kick you out that easy.
What happens when the employee gets laid off or RIF'd?
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduction_in_Force)
Obviously this is for management, not employees.
The idea is not new. Comrade Stalin has successfully implemented it already in 1935, it called GULAG. It is a good way to control your people.
All the free KoolAid you can drink.
Have gnu, will travel.
The town where you have no privacy. It's surveillance capitalism at its epitomy.
If I had to guess, it was required by the local government as part of allowing Facebook to do this new development in the first place. It's quite common in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's an example in San Francisco.
Just wait until one is made into a sober living house.
There was a cluster about a mile away from my house. Being converted into old folks assisted living now, after 3+ years of hell.
We'd have the recycle bins disappear regularly. As tweeks would steal them for 'bag money'. Couldn't leave the cheapest thing where it could be stolen.
The theory of 'low income housing' is that the scumbags stop reinforcing each others bad habits. But they always build them in mini clusters.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
What's the lease on these units? What happens if you quit? More importantly, what happens if you're fired/laid off/whatever? If the house is part of the employment is it factored into any severance packages? (If/when applicable.)
Moving is already hell. Losing your job is already hell. Imagine being told to pack your things _and_ that you have 30 days to find a new place to live at the same time!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
"The series follows an unnamed man (played by Patrick McGoohan)... located in a mysterious seaside "village" within which he is held captive, isolated from the mainland by mountains and sea... The man encounters the Village's population: hundreds of people from all walks of life and cultures, all seeming to be peacefully living out their lives. They do not use names, but have been assigned numbers... Potential escapees therefore have no idea whom they can and cannot trust.... Number Six is monitored heavily by Number Two, the Village administrator, who acts as an agent for the unseen "Number One". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Those systems will likely be used to snoop into Google employees' lives, first and foremost. Who is kidding whom?
Living under the microscope of your employer would be terrible.
I know what a biker is, but a birder? Is it what you call someone who loves doing birdwatching?
#DeleteFacebook
What my grandparent's generation had to deal with is now new again Company Towns
Let's all contemplate the ramifications of this statement for a moment.
The 225 low rent places will be for the "contractors" at FB (janitors, kitchen staff, thought police, etc).
Wouldn't it make more sense to just pay them more, rather than subsidizing their rent?
Where else do you expect the baristas, shop keeps, wait staff and other servants to live? At least the higher paid ones, every one else making minimum wage will have to commute.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
Where else do you expect the baristas, shop keeps, wait staff and other servants to live?
Gilroy.
At least the higher paid ones, every one else making minimum wage will have to commute.
Without the rent subsides, people will not be able to live in the area and accept the low pay. Employers will have to pay more so that workers can afford to either pay market rent or commute from someplace cheaper, such as Gilroy. What the workers get in rent subsidies, they lose on payday. The difference is that rent subsidies don't give them the freedom to spend on what they really want. Perhaps instead of cheaper (but still high) rent in Palo Alto, they would prefer to commute and spend their higher paycheck on groceries, or medicine for their sick kid.
Well, at least you're original. Most idiots make the mistake the other way round.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
That seems to always be a problem in Sims...
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
"Facebook is planning 1,500 apartments, and has agreed with Menlo Park to offer 225 of them at below-market rates."
Oh Facebook has agreed to? That's nice of them.
Menlo Park requires new residential developments of that side to reserve at least 15% of new units for below-market rates. Guess what 15% of 1,500 is?
Source: https://www.menlopark.org/Docu...
I think you're wrong about age not making a difference. Young adults tend to be more aggressive, and less willing to obey rules they don't agree with. This is just a statistical extrapolation from personal observations, and certainly doesn't translate into "belligerent punks that trash the neighborhood", but I remember my friends from just post-college years, and tales my younger brothers told, and...well, lots of anecdotal stuff. And it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, too. Enough so that I'd require a reasonable amount of evidence before I'd believe otherwise. Older people just tend to be less active, and that's going to translate in a lot of different ways.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
When I read the headline, the image in my mind was a community built like an open plan office. All of the beds are in one or two huge rooms. If people snore, you can use headphones to block it out. Surrounding the giant shared bedrooms are a whole bunch of small rooms for changing or other activities of an intimate nature. There aren't nearly enough, so book early. Outside of that is a narrow strip of grass that they call a park.
I don't know who the singer is, but I have in my mind the chorus, "I sold mah soul to the Company Store". Toured an old mine once....they showed the ledger books and yes, you could live on the salary, but it was rigged that with holidays, major life events, etc, that you couldn't not be in debt.
You know those people ( most of the nerds ? ) that advocate buses as means to get from point A to point B ?
This must be their dream. Imagine... no more traffic, planet saved, and all that ? What you say nerds ? -1 ?