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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?
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.
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?
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 .
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.
As someone who has cycled in Chicago in the middle of winter AND on a pristine cycle path in sunny California, I can say with confidence that you are bullshitting. After about ten minutes of getting hit in the face with sleet and your bike sliding on icy streets and the hairs freezing in your nose and cars splashing a colloidal mixture of slush, road salt and filth onto you, it gets kind of old.
Also, you're likely to find just as many overpaid yuppies in Chicago as you would in Menlo Park. If you've ever cycled down Halsted Street or Ashland near Division or Diversey & Sheffield, or Lincoln Ave toward downtown or Dearborn past Chicago Ave., the place is crawling with overpaid yuppies. The difference is that in California, you are more likely to see those yuppies wearing cropped t-shirts and short-shorts with their butt cheeks hanging out (even the women!) and that can make all the difference when it comes to quality of life.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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 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.
Zuckerburg too obvious?