Uber To The Bay Case Study

The documentary San Francisco 2.0 examines how San Francisco city officials have given tax breaks to the Silicon Valley tech industry to move to San Francisco. These new techs companies have brought in a lot of wealth to the city, but at a cost. The majority of the low-income natives are being evicted or having their rents raised so high that they can't afford them. The gentrification of the city has impacted low-income districts (for example, the mission district known for its Latin immigrants) that the residents and the culture are being displaced. I believe the documentary is important for the study of the issue of gentrification because San Fransisco was known for being-counter culture, caring for the arts and for civil progress. The housing

There has been a recent phenomenon throughout the United States of gentrification. As older parts of neighborhoods are occupied by new tenants with money, the neighborhood changes and loses its old character. Those who might have lived in those neighborhoods their entire lives are pushed out as rents begin to skyrocket and the surroundings begin to change. This has happened in many neighborhoods. One of the most well known is San Francisco, where technology companies have brought in new software engineers that have caused local rents to skyrocket and people to move out of the area. However, just as importantly has been the influx of new money to Brooklyn, where local neighborhood changes have forced people from their homes, traditional music to be replaced, and old businesses to go bankrupt.

Gentrification has greatly changed the face of Oakland so far in the 21st century. New shops and people are moving in at record numbers, greatly increasing the median income of the city; however, many long-term residents are being evicted due to increasing property values and rent prices. Many are also outraged at the loss of Oakland’s strong cultural roots, but at the same time, in low income areas, crime rates have greatly reduced and academic performance has increased. This begs the question: In what ways has gentrification positively and negatively affected Oakland so far in the 21st century?

When the recession happened, and the housing market crashed in Los Angeles a few years back many people lost their homes. The foreclosure crisis displaced many homeowners, drove up demand, and rental prices increased. Now, it is almost two years later, and the dramatic rent increases continue to soar. There would be no issue with cost of living increase except; the increases in income have yet to make the same shifts. “In many cities, rent is rising out reach of

Affordable housing has become the paramount issue of cities and dense urban areas. San Francisco is the posterchild of an unaffordable city that regardless of immense investment from blue chip firms like Google, Facebook, and their ilk of startups evaluated at $1 billion or more, policymakers and elected officials must wrestle with the housing affordability crisis that is considered endogenous to swaths of homelessness and record statistics on crime. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has made affordable housing the centerpiece of his legislation and championed the cause as a social justice issue—neighborhoods must remain affordable to maintain diversity for all races, ethnicities, and low-income families. A small sample of 827 New Yorkers by the NY1-Baruch College City Poll found the main concern of respondents was affordable housing while crime, jobs, and homelessness were peripheral problems (Cuza, 2016). The public discourse on how to address housing across the United States has pointed to negative externalities that surround rent-regulation and homeownership. Conversely, for this essay I will present various cases in order to illustrate the housing crunch is influenced less by housing and land regulations, or antagonistic homeowners but is induced by global market forces.

“I took a trip to Oakland, California and fell in love with the area. We stayed at an Air B&B for the three days of our stay and the house was absolutely beautiful, it looked like my dream home. Despite all the glitz and glamour around us we noticed a large amount of homelessness compared to Columbus. We found out that this property is not someone’s home but a house used strictly as an Air B&B. When you hear something like that and see the amount of homelessness it makes you wonder how many of these homes are strictly for show? So after researching I found out, the reason for the rampant homelessness can be attributed to large increases in rent. Even worse, the cause for the increase is due to Silicon Valley” (Kasongo, 2017). Unfortunately, rent increasing virtually overnight is the reality of many low-income families. This situation is called gentrification and is felt throughout the world, from the Midwest, East coast or even Western Europe, no region is immune to this process. Gentrification in the Midwest is extensive and wide causing the displacement of many low-income minority residents which can lead to even bigger issues.

As the leasing amount and house rent goes up while there is stagnation in wages and salaries, affording the monthly rent becomes difficult leading to gentrification in the city.

When cities begin their journey of being gentrified, many locals become displaced. Displacement is when locals are uprooted from their homes, due to outside factors, and forced to move elsewhere. According to the Urban Displacement Project conducted by U.C. Berkeley, “Gentrification results from both flows of capital and people. The extent to which gentrification is linked to racial transition differs across neighborhood contexts... Displacement takes many different forms—direct and indirect, physical or economic, and exclusionary—and may result from either investment or disinvestment” (U.C. Berkeley). Many people are coming into San Francisco’s Bay Area because of how diverse each element is. However, according to Census numbers, between 1990 and 2010, 35.7% of San Francisco’s black population dwindled (Bliss). 35.7% of the black community within San Francisco suffered from displacement. An additional 53% of low-income households in the Bay Area are at risk for displacement and gentrification (U.C. Berkeley). This has definitely left a dent within the diversity reputation held up by the Bay Area. When such a strong large part of people leave, The City will experience a shift in culture and community. Whether, it is the real estate, the food, the different cultures, the Bay Area has always been known for being different. Perhaps, this is why so many outsiders are coming in and buying up every piece of land they can. Whether their intentions were to purchase land and

Over the past twenty years, San Francisco’s Mission District has experienced a tremendous amount of change. Similar to many neighborhoods across the United States, it has been undergoing a gentrification process in which increases in housing prices, redevelopment in buildings, and a shortage of rental units have left many of its low-income population homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless. In order to understand the controversial issue revolving around the gentrification process taking place the Mission District, it is essential to know the history of the Mission District, San Francisco’s geography and housing laws, and the socioeconomic impacts of gentrification.

We looked at a variety of ways to help alleviate this cost. Since one of the main issues causing high living costs in the Bay Area is shortage of housing one of the possible solutions could be building more housing. Possible problems here are that San Francisco itself is not too big of a city and in most cities of this type in the world the population density is increased by building tall buildings –

However, a highly affected area of gentrification, in turn with living situations, is the suffering of local businesses. The appeal of gentrified neighborhoods has raised commercial rents to the point where small-scale tenants cannot afford to pay them, even at a steady profit. This situation has many titles, but most appropriately it has been named hyper gentrification. It is described as a mature stage during gentrification when not only are residents displaced, but, when commercial real reaches a market value difficult for anyone but a national or global corporation to pay, forcing businesses to also be displaced. It has the same benefit as displacing a common resident would in the end, higher profit for the larger owner (Ehrenhalt,

As the bay area technology boom continues, so has one of residents’ basic needs: the cost of housing. According to U.S. Census data five of the top seven fastest growing counties in California are in the bay area, with the fastest growing county being Alameda (2010). Since the 2010 census, it was estimated Alameda would add a little over 100,000 residents by August of 2014. With the increased population the cost of living has also increased, especially housing costs. From January 2014 to January 2015, the average rent in Oakland increased by approximately 20 percent in a city struggling to deal with housing demands (Zillow, 2015).

Uber and Volkswagen are both very important and revolutionary companies that have shaped the world in their own individual ways. Although they are successful, they both have interesting start up stories and have run into the law on multiple occasions. Law has had a powerful impact on the how both companies have created their business model and made expansions to better each company. In the novels Wild Ride by Adam Lashinsky and Faster, Higher, Farther by Jack Ewing the authors go through the company’s stories and also the legal challenges that they had to face along the way and that they are still facing to this day. It is clear that the law gets in the way of these companies plans, and has gotten major employees of these companies in a lot of trouble for the illegalities that they committed. Many major companies get sued by employees and customers because they try to make money off of them. In many of the cases we can examine if it is worth it for the company to fight all of these cases individually or to group the similar ones together and make necessary changes to the company to satisfy the employees and customers. Even with some of these issues going on and many counter-arguments, both Uber and Volkswagen have handled their situations with the law very well to keep the companies moving forward.

Another effect is that service providers' clientele and staff leave the gentrified area in search of affordable housing. For example, in San Francisco, many low-income constituents have left the gentrified area known as the Mission. In response to their migrating client base, service providers have begun to establish offices elsewhere. In addition, non-profit organizations often cannot pay employees enough income to live in the gentrified area because of the price increase (Alejandrino 28). So as a result, many long-time employees are leaving non-profits in the gentrified area, which is definitely hurting these businesses.

Gentrification is a problem that is occurring in many communities. The city of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles is one of the communities that the citizens of the community are notice new apartments build, galleries owner by rich people, and high prices for apartment the people are not able to afford to live there. Because the renewal of neighborhood environments that transform and attract middle and upper-class households and investors, creating problems for those who cannot afford rises of rents. According to O’Regan, “some of the biggest concerns about gentrification-potential displacement and increased rent burdens-are driven by rent or housing cost increases” (152). The only way to