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Google announces $1B, 10-year plan to add thousands of homes to Bay Area
The housing crisis in the Bay Area, particularly in San Francisco, is a complex and controversial topic with no one-size-fits-all solution — but a check for a billion dollars is about as close as you're going to get, and Google has just announced it's writing one. In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai explained that in order to "build a more helpful Google," the company would be making this major investment in what it believes is the most important social issue in the area: housing.
San Francisco is famously among the most expensive places in the world to live now, and many residents of the city, or perhaps I should say former residents, have expressed a deep and bitter hatred for the tech industry they believe converted the area to a playground for the rich while leaving the poor and disadvantaged to fend for themselves.
Google itself has been the subject of many a protest, and no doubt it is aware that its reputation as a friendly and progressive company is in danger from this and numerous other issues, from AI ethics to advertising policies. To remedy this, and perhaps even partly as an act of conscience, Google has embarked on a billion-dollar charm offensive that will add thousands of new homes to the Bay Area over the next ten years.
$750 million of that comes in the form of repurposing its own commercial real estate for residential purposes. This will allow for 15,000 new homes "at all income levels," and while Pichai said that they hope this will help address the "chronic shortage of affordable housing options," the blog post did not specify how many of these new homes would actually be affordable, and where they might be.
Another $250 million will be invested to "provide incentives to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units across the market".
They should build an arcology or giant pod hotel.
Also at NPR.
Previously: "It's a Perfect Storm": Homeless Spike in Rural California Linked to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley Charter Buses Vandalized by Pellet/BB Guns or Rocks
Related: Soaring Rents in Portland, Oregon Cause Homelessness Crisis
City of San Francisco Says It's Illegal to Live in a Box
San Francisco Restaurants Can't Afford Waiters, so they Put Diners to Work
In San Francisco, Making a Living from Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash
A Rogue Coder Turned a Parking Spot Into a Coworking Space
(Score: 5, Interesting) by CheesyMoo on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:04PM (6 children)
This is Google inching towards the libertarian future of corporate ecologies.
Tech campuses will be complete communities: housing, restaurants, tennis courts, didgeridoo classes and of course workspace! If you are part of the tech enterprise you get to breathe the filtered arcology air and occasionally look through the geodesic dome to see the scavengers of the waste choking outside.
Peter Thiel already wants to build his own islands to try experiments like this.
*This post is only half satirical*
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:44PM (1 child)
It will increase productivity. You do not want to get fired and evicted on the same day.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @02:03AM
*And deported.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @11:11PM
They've obviously heard about the global warning and are doing something about it.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @11:15PM
I think this will turn out more like a mill town [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 18 2019, @11:31PM
Oh no! Mr. Thiel has already bribed one of our political parties to get citizenship here. [nzherald.co.nz]
Oh well, at least he won't have to actually build any islands. He can just take one of these. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 18 2019, @11:34PM
You write 16 kilobytes and whaddaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Sergei don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.