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connor bathen

You live in San Francisco? Sooo, do you work in tech?

Today, I started to talking to a woman and her husband while on vacation in Idaho. The woman was wearing an SF Giants hat and the husband, a 49ers shirt. True bay area locals. They asked me, “Where to hail from?” (No joke) I told them I’m originally from Southern California, but I live in San Francisco. They ask, “Sooo do you work in tech?” I said I work for a small finance company but yes I’m in tech. At the end of the day, aren’t we all in tech? Even if you work for Chevron or Johnson&Johnson, you’re in tech. They proceeded to ask, in a rather passive tone, “Sooo do you have have free food and slides at work, etc?” I told them we have lunch at work but no slides. That’s Google. The woman then abruptly replied that her daughter use to work in tech but now, being in her 30s, is too old to work at a place like that. I sympathized and agreed since that’s largely the way things are in the tech community. The culture and work force is primarily very young. Frankly, from a executive point of view it makes sense, but obviously I’m bias being 25. Younger workers will work more hours for less pay while arguably doing the same or better work than their more experienced counterparts. Then we briefly touched on how the cost of living has skyrocketed and the remarkably, unique character of SF has drastically changed in recent years, but I told her that it’s far more complicated than “it’s those darn techies fault.” She wasn’t buying anything I was saying. That’s fine. She’s entitled to have her opinion and resentment towards people in tech. There are plenty more people just like her. The conversation ends as she receives a call on her iPhone and walks away.

Here are my two(or three) cents:

  1. Only about 15% of the employed workforce is in the IT and Software field according to the San Francisco Center for Economic Development. This means 85% of the employed workforce is AREN’T in tech.
  2. The combination of implementing rent control and restricting the supply of housing has dramatically affected housing affordability in San Francisco. With rent control, landlords are forced to charge above market prices for open units in order to cover the risk of tenants locking an essentially fixed rent for decades+plus. And basic economics states that if the demand goes up and the supply doesn’t increase with it, the prices will rise-hence the surge in rental/housing pricing.
  3. Most people would kill to live in a place with such a booming economy. Most bay area natives have benefitted in some way. For example, either they are living in a rent controlled apartment where they are paying pennies on the dollar compared to the market or they bought a house decades ago where their property values have increased by 20X.

This issue is complex and I’m not trying to aggravate the battle between tech douche bags and SF hippies, but this gentrification is well underway and will only continue to cut deeper and grow more complex.

It’s not easy for any of us.