It’s the American version of the China slave labor factory dormitory! In their comfotable houses, with their well-paid jobs, they won’t even realize that they are, in fact, slaves. Suckerberg, you are some kind of genius. Well at least until a significant amount of people delete facebook and/or someone launches a secure social network that isnt’t selling users’ information and data. You didn’t actually think that Facebook makes all their money from selling ads did you? They sell users information to third party marketing and data services companies, it’s pretty obvious. Cambridge Analytica was the one who got caught. There are more.
2
Facebook, interestingly, wants to bring the largest possible number of its employees together in one place.
I think the dangers of company towns are obvious. But you also have to think about how to solve housing problems when the median price, the median, in tech rich Palo Alto is over $2 million. Menlo Park, where Facebook is headquartered, is the next town over and is no better. Both cities (and Menlo Park and Sunnyvale) until very recently have been very happy to approve thousands of jobs and tens of housing units. Regionwide in the last few years there have been 11 jobs created for every housing unit (to keep even a 1.5/1 ratio would be needed).
I'm not a Facebook fan and don't use them very much. But local governments in the Bay Area have manifestly failed to provide new housing and affordable housing. "Local control" of housing has failed, except for longtime homeowners--we can sell our houses for obscene prices (and our taxes are the lowest thanks to Prop. 13). There needs to be intervention by a number of parties to push housing back toward sanity.
1
Zhengzhou has a population of over 7 million people and is the capital of a Chinese province. It's about as "remote" as San Francisco.
1
"But in a society where government is increasingly ineffective, company towns are nevertheless likely to be welcomed, or at least tolerated."
Streitfeld states this conservative talking point as fact w/out any reference to whether he's referring to federal, state or local government, or whether he's citing studies that reached this conclusion based on actual data. Does he mean to say that some Americans might view some government agencies as ineffective? Can it be that when governments are ineffective, it is due in part to the massive tax breaks he cites being given to lure these corporations?
2
Algorithms may be capable of designing human developments, but only people can form humane communities.
2
The rich need to pay higher taxes!!! Then democratically elected governments can provide affordable housing, decent schools, a functioning public transportation system -- rather than giving Facebook and Apple and Google and the other corporate giants yet more power to shape our lives.
6
Port Sunlight, across the Mersey from Liverpool, and developed by the Lever brothers, is one company village that worked for the better part of a century, with lasting impact. The site had serious benevolent karma. On August 18, 1962, history was made at Port Sunlight's community center, Hulme Hall, when four musicians from across the river played as a group for the first time. Their names were Richard, Paul, George and John.
1
I don’t understand by what criteria is Zhengzhou classified as a remote city. Zhengzhou is the provincial capital of Henan province, which happens to be where the Han Chinese (91% of all Chinese are Han) originated. It is also a major logistics hub, and a major stop along the Beijing-Canton railway, which happens to be the first railway built in China.
I suppose by your criteria, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston are all pretty remote places.
1
These are the techno slums of the future.
1
How many company towns have been built and failed over the past century? How about a lot as an initial estimate. Otherwise, if I had to choose a global community network technology that links billions that would be the phone network, even from 20 years ago, over Facebook. Ahh, but those calls weren't free - but they also didn't steal every scrap of your personal information and subject you to Russian spies on a daily basis.
1
What do you think the Auto industry did in Detroit ,you can see the remains. In Pittsburgh ,the steel industry ,what remains ,is there. The mines began in PA and WV ,what remains? Some is there ,a lot is not. Its just a question of time and economics.
1
Two issues that the article mentions, but doesn't explore:
* The Facebook neighborhood has been home to lower income families for decades. As Facebook gobbles up real estate, these families have nowhere to go, and a $3mm legal services handout is barely going to make a dent in the need. Well-paid engineers can find a place to live around here, even with the sky high rents. Our low-paid service people, however, are out of luck.
* Drew Combs employment at Facebook. Drew is truly a nice guy, but he's not the only member of the two decision-making bodies (city council and planning commission) to have landed a plum job at a local tech giant or Stanford, a developer in the guise of a university. Thus, these companies have co-opted the government decision-making process.
If a town of 30,000 can't escape this kind of corruption, is there hope for anyone?
5
All that ingenuity, and they missed just naming the town Zuckerberg?
I used to live in West Virginia, and this reminds me of the company town. In the Bay Area, where I now live, the tech industry has brought prosperity to some people--the real estate business springs to mind--but many of them appear to be people who came from somewhere else. I know the Bay Area has a housing shortage; however, Zucktown seems like an eerie place to live. I also appreciate a decent economy, but Facebook/Amazon/Google/Apple et. al. are overwhelming. It's like being hugged by a giant octopus.
5
Please large companies, move into places across the U.S. where local communities can be lifted up. There are so many places in the U.S. where taking a location to another place, outside of the norm, could do miracles.
4
Sigh...
I grew up in Menlo Park. On WIllow Road no less. Went to elementary and middle school there. In those days, breifcased husbands and fathers took the train into San Francisco to jobs at Bank of America, Levi Strauss, Crown Zellerbach and others. It was a quiet bedroom community. And people could control who knew what.
Now this Harvard fraud wants to convert East Palo Alto into a planned community? Antiseptic? Controlled? As if tech firms, which are full of people (like me) who sit in corners by themselves writing code, know anything at all about what makes a community livable.
If he needs something better to do with his money, why not take the company private again and work on protecting peoples' data.
9
Zuck Town sounds more like the 21st Century version of indentured servitude upscaled or a 21st Century Southern Plantation where the "good" slaves think they have it made over field hands because they live in with the Master. Yuck.
9
Facebook & Google taking their queues from Foxconn, which in turn took it's queue from early industrial age "worker dormitories." With a nod to coaltowns. Yeah, this will end well. When your boss owns your house, they own YOU.
11
“There’s is no such thing is a free lunch” now we know the real price of why FB/Google has given us all these services for “ free” over the years. Agree with other commenters sounds just like the book The Circle written by Dave Eggers, scarily prescient.
9
What a gut punch to conscious living these 'community' ideas are? It's the 'Truman Show' on steroids, with every member their own version of Jim Carrey. I'd prefer 1000 of acres of apricot orchards to these lame, techie, feckless ideas for 'living'.
30
Read about Pullman, Illinois
“Pullman: A Social Study,” Harper’s Monthly 70 (1885)
"The article came to the conclusion that “Pullman is un-American” and “it is benevolent, well-wishing feudalism.” ~ Wikipedia
Nuf said.
8
I wonder does anyone recall the humble Mill Village? Or in other sectors the company town? I suggest facebook will go down in flames. I know too many people that left it because it's no more than a bunch of people you never liked in high school trying to get you to friend them. I see Amazon being swallowed by their smaller associate companies that do the delivery part. They will soon seek out their own supply lines and since they are closest to their customers will simpy undercut them as they have local retailers. People will come to resent these companis like they have Microsoft. It is just a matter of time.
3
During the first dot-com boom in the early 1990's, I lived in San Francisco and worked in Silicon Valley. This is when Netscape (remember Netscape?) was the next new thing.
I couldn't afford a home in San Francisco, but insisted on living there because I wanted an actual LIFE outside of Silicon Valley.
I remember sitting in bumper-to -bumper traffic for up to 4-hours EVERY DAY wondering if it was all worth it.
At the time, Oracle had just introduced it's on-site gym and gourmet cafeteria which was all the rage.
That's when I realized it was all a massive bait and switch.
Of course these companies want you to spend more time on the job. So while you're eating and exercising at work, you're still..well, at work.
Now, they want you to LIVE at work. Smart!
Meanwhile, they slowly suck the life out of you.
I saw the game and left Silicon Valley 15-years ago to build a real life, with a real home and real friends in Scottsdale, Arizona.
I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media.
I find real life is much better than virtual reality.
13
High tech has always been a disruptor. Its next disruptor is home rule and democracy. Congratulations. What happens to all this real estate when AI takes all these jobs in 10-15 years? Asking for a friend.
7
Facebook is built on a popularity contest. It doesn't actually provide its users anything other than a post-it board at a magazine stand.
Sooner or later, it will fade away, but the real estate will still be there.
5
Conservatives have long told us to fear Big Government. In its place we are supposed to embrace Big Corporations. Steve Jobs didn't want to give Cupertino free wi-fi while Apple paid any taxes at all. If Apple, Amazon, FaceBook, Google and their ilk paid a fair tax communities wouldn't have to beg and would be better positioned to deal with housing needs.
10
Why are we singling out Mark Zuckerberg? Every time I download an app on my tablet, I'm giving permission to access my data. There are many other social media sites. Our government is collecting data on us.
I noticed a singular focus on denigrating Mark Zuckerberg in a very personal manner around the time that he hired political consultants and gave the impression that he might be considering running for president. My first thought was: "They're not going to like this....a guy with enough money to be totally independent".
We need strong privacy laws -- starting with the government first and then extending to the private sector. We need this we soon as possible. The problem is not Mark Zuckerberg, it's the lack of proper laws protecting privacy. And I'll add: Building workforce housing in an extraordinarily expensive part of the country is a good thing.
2
Its really NOT about social media. It is about making money from data mining, sales of user information and exploitation. Sounds like the KGB.
10
The legacy of company owned housing is regretfully a sad one, both in the UK (coal mining towns) and here -- Hershey -- as mentioned in this article. I have no doubt that members of these communities never envisioned a day when they would be shot and killed by police hired by their employer for striking. And I imagine that tomorrow's inhabitants of these towns can't envision a future occurrence like that as well. It can't happen here, can it? Yes, Virginia, it can.
4
I’ve worked for small companies, mom and pop shop professional engineering firms. Pay scale was always flat. Salary increases were like groveling. HR was a joke (the owners wife or sibling) or non existent.
Then I got hired by a huge SV tech firm. The difference was radical. Professionally trained managers, clean well cared for offices and labs. Perks and benefits galore. Holidays, flextime and vacation. Regular annual reviews for compensation.
2
It may be too late for many long-time residents of Silicon Valley, who are being priced out. Decades of under-building housing, a local political policy strongly supported by the Bay Area's NIMBY homeowners, has resulted in sky-high real estate prices and rents. The high wages paid by companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. displace ordinary working and middle-class people who struggle to hang on, spending 40-50% of their incomes on rent. What would be a very comfortable salary in other parts of the country, it is hard to stay afloat here. The unsympathetic say 'so just move away' - but -here- is where work, family, friends, and a vibrant, diverse community are. These companies dodge taxes by playing cities and states off each other for tax breaks.Ultimately this will result in their well-paid employees being forced to live without the store clerks, waiters, auto mechanics, police and firefighters - the other 'non-tech' workers who make a city, a region, and a community functional. The return of the 'company town' is good for Facebook employees - but 'Facebook-town' does nothing to help all the rest of the struggling working and middle-class people here. Perhaps it is time for Facebook, Google, Apple and others to bring their considerable political pressure to bear for more housing for everyone, not just their employees - and for them to fund more of the infrastructure municipalities that provide schools, public safety, and a liveable society for their employees.
9
This part of town is so dangerous at night that the city has installed gunshot detection software. I don't see a utopian village blooming anytime soon.
5
All the Big Data companies capture, analyze, and sell everything you enter online, even your browsing history. Actual example:
I play some online poker at a free play-cash site. They make their money from the ads the players are forced to view; use an ad blocker, they shut you down. So, some time ago, my gf, who makes cloth handicrafts -- pet clothes, walker bags, etc. -- was concerned about her use of cloth with school logos. Yes, the fabric maker has paid -- but was she liable when she made and sold an item using that fabric? So, I researched the topic on Google, at length.
A week later, my poker site's ads were, suddenly and continuously, only from fabric.com, offering me -- wait for it -- fabrics with school logos! For weeks.
We are all being manipulated. Some of us believe we are not really vulnerable to such.
In "Minority Report", as the hero is walking past window displays in a mall concourse, the displays change, presenting products that analysis of his history implies might be of interest. Well, one installation in London started trying that a year ago.
Welcome to Big Brother. Not the Federal government. But your friendly free websites, credit card suppliers, watching and recording every detail.
12
Texas, this began way back in mid 1990s with ecommerce and online content publishing. Computer algorithms watch you closely so everything is personalized from the videos you watch online to what you search for to what you shop for and what you listen to and read. Audio video and reading topics are fine tuned to your personal taste, just check your “recommended for you” column in NYT online version! It is the nature of online publication to make your wish come true to allow you to pursue your interests online. Just for YOU.
2
"Saint Peter. don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store."
Another company town idea, eh? Since that worked so well for Carnegie and Anaconda Mining.
Please note that this note could not have been published with my Facebook ID, because they deemed a comment made not on their site but another with a link to Facebook not in compliance with their ideas of how people on the internet should behave. This from a company that has proved itself incompetent to know when their data is being stolen from them for purposes of subverting an election. Facebook has no moral authority here -- and they ought not to seek more by building a company town that runs under "their" "rules." Willow Village is an experiment in restoring 19th-Century corporate paternalistic values to Americans and needs to be opposed by any and all means necessary. That includes physical dismantlement by the public. Whatever it takes.
13
Gosh, I hate to remind the viewers but really, Silicon Valley wasn't just cherry orchards before tech showed up. Long before Facebook & Google & Apple, there was another huge corporation there. It was called Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, and it employed thousands, designing & making America's fabulous arsenal of nuclear missiles. So believe me, this paradise down the peninsula from San Francisco has ALWAYS had some pretty weird karma.
8
Will 1984 be playing in big screens daily?
8
The Truman Show come to life.
11
What fresh hell is this? - Dorothy Parker
13
“Facebook, Mr. Tenanes says, has a dual mission: “We want to balance our growth with the community’s needs.”
Yeah, right.
10
One of the first things I learned about history, is that history inevitably, repeats itself. Ancient cities were built to accommodate the power of the activities it fostered (agriculture, building, religion); Middle Ages with its feudalism (castles, lords, serfs); Industrial Revolution with its company towns, stores, credit - and now comes Zuckerville, Guggletown, Applecircle, etc.
The military has always created it's own "company towns", complete with schools, housing, commissary, PX, hospitals, sports facilities, theaters, libraries, Fire Dept's, etc, primarily due to the very low wages. Eventually, this will be the next development to supply the lower waged folks who will service the facilities. San Francisco and San Jose are already busing in low wage workers. On the positive side, these corporate "developments" could very well become the renaissance for rural America.
1
The architectural scale of this project is the most significant part. People living where they work is not. For instance, the Branch Davidians did it as well.
5
And Facebook is getting hammered for being out of touch and allowing its systems to be used for nefarious purposes. Obviously, a company town is the way to go!
I also worked at Microsoft during its boom days; the thought of a company town is repugnant to me. Creative people and innovators don't want to live in a homogeneous company town, only talk to like minded people who speak the same corporate jargon.
10
Sort of disappointed in the NYT that, when offering examples of “company towns,” doesn’t mention New Amsterdam, which was the Company town established for the Dutch West India Company. Kind of an easy example that fits the narrative...
4
Welcome to our democracy. No public funds for public schools, police stations, roads, libraries etc. Great if you can live in a corporation's fantasy land. What about rest of us?
20
Trying to understand the motivations for this article. Is it a Facebook/NYT PR collaboration to divert attention away from their security breach?
10
I think it's the opposite, John. NYT is conflating the two threads to make a point – who would want to live in Facebookville when it's a corporate hegemony complicit (or at least derelict) in managing political propaganda... get it?
7
Perhaps the security breach & the company town concept are both alarming.
3
"But in a society where government is increasingly ineffective, company towns are nevertheless likely to be welcomed, or at least tolerated." I can't believe my eyes. An article that admits that not only does government not work like we want but that it's getting worse. No mention of the Russians though. LOL!!!
Personally I'd never move into a company town no matter how cushy the conditions are. But the problem is the younger crowd falls for the same story line that businesses have been giving out for centuries. We care about our employees. The reality is they care about the company first. That is management's objective as without a company no one has a job. So painful decisions are made.
Another major problem is that, at least in the case of Facebook, many of these companies have little to no real economic value. Facebook is just entertainment. I guess that some have started to figure out a way to generate revenue but still it's a very hollow sphere.
7
Oh please, please don't do this to me. The first syllable of my last name is the same as Zuckerberg's. I've been basking in his reflected glory (and correct spelling now that the name and its variants have become well known), whereas in the past the only connection was Mr Zuckerman in Charlotte's Web.
As for the last time I heard "Zucky," it was when my dad told us that some of the guys in his Army company called him that. In 1944.
2
Does greed have no limits? I was concerned when Sheryl was hired to make Facebook "profitable." My concerned are now confirmed. I have posted that I will be deleting my account within 72 hours. Really---we CAN live without Facebook for goodness sake!
15
Personally, I used Facebook for a few weeks, after I first heard about it. I soon concluded that it was a giant waste of time.
4
Is Facebook worried about the loss of revenue resulting from allowing 50,000,000+ accounts to be used illegally to help elect Trump? Evidently, not, because it is moving ahead with building the largest company town in American history. This should not be surprising. Zukerberg had a large bronze statue of "What, me worry?" Alfred E. Newman made and placed at the main entrance of Facebook headquarters.
7
I deleted my facebook account last Monday. Greedy corrupt traitors to democracy. I wish there was a law to prosecute Zuckerberg with.
14
George Orwell, please don't read this. It will make you unhappy.
Good grief, Charlie Brown, this is a nightmare, but one that's making all those pubescent techies rich, so why complain?
4
Seems like maybe this whole concept... zucks!?! Scary on first impression - Logan’s Run anybody?
5
Sounds like that book "The Circle"
7
Isn't this where they filmed the Truman Show?
14
The answer to housing is simple and glaringly obvious. Change zoning laws and build up, nothing else works. Populations will increase and more housing will need to be built, if america had similar attitudes toward zoning laws for its first 150 years skyscrapers wouldn't exist and the economy would be a fraction of its current size. Current zoning laws are choking innovation, and economic opportunity in the bay area, nyc and every other major, famously expensive city. Future economies will be built around large urban centers like tokyo, we have to make that possible.
This anti tech/corporate attitude is self defeating and destructive and both left and right wing media are jumping all over them for political benefit (using them as scapegoats and punching bags), with no one defending the free market. If you want to look like Europe, a continent without a single relevant tech company keep up the pseudo communist nonsense. America is the wealthiest nation in history, we did not get here with socialism. Governments acting in their own self interest actually support their tech industries, if you want china to dominate the tech world , AI, and eventually the entire global economy keep shooting everyone in the feet. Otherwise just build taller buildings and stop whining.
The american left call themselves progressives implying (in support of progress), I don't think there has ever been a more hypocritical name.
7
Hi 2-6, Please read history. The USA has had Enlightened Capitalism (aka socialism) since the 1930s. Corporations have received incentives (aka subsidies) since the 1900’s; that is how the railroads were built.
8
Capitalism and Communism are two ends of a sliding scale. On one end there is no government at all, obviously this wont function well or optimize growth (imagine trying to create sustained growth with no police or patent system.
Some government institutions function well-ish some of the time. The problem is they take a extremely long time to change and have no incentive to be efficient. Health care would be more efficient right now if managed like Australia or Singapore's system, will this be true forever? I doubt it. Government organizations have no competition therefore no inventive to evolve and change where as private sector is constantly changing where market conditions allow (which they sometimes don't creating problems). However there is a clear correlation between the increase in government spending as a share of gdp and the slow down in growth in the US and europe starting primarily after the great society (1970).
The ny times had an artice a few weeks ago about how subways are built today and how nyc pays seven times more then even france per mile. Right now I cannot name any us government institution that functions well or efficiently primarily because their structure is old and incentives are terrible, as well as quasi legal corruption. The us government has been useful for certain large investments however they also screw a lot up. I trust Musk more with hyper-loop the Californians 60 bill high speed rail
1
It seems as though various cities are eager to enrich a valued company so it will house itself there. Is this akin to the gifts given to the rich owners of a sports team, so it will come or stay in a given place? This, at the expense of other community's needs? Somehow, it doesn't seem just nor right, but go figure. But it may enhance the prestige and commerce locally. Perhaps.
2
It looks like the real thing. It tastes like the real thing. My fake plastic town.
This isn't a community meant for human beings, it's a community meant for happy, hardworking cogs.
7
Hey, JB, that's why half the population and all those star athletes are so excited when they say, "I'm goin' to Disneyland!" They want to experience the "real" fake thing.
1
It's truly a race to the bottom when different cities and states compete against each other to see who can give a large corporate behemoth the biggest tax rebates.
The percentage of tax revenues paid by these corporations versus individuals is already at historic low levels. Anyone that thinks Trumps' "tax reform" is going to change that doesn't understand exactly who butters the toast for our elected politicians.
13
Was an original Facebook user the year it became available to any student with a college email address. My relationship with Facebook ended yesterday. We could never have fathomed the monstrosity it would become in a mere 10 years.
13
I still can't past the 5th paragraph that states that Facebook employees get a 5-figure bonus if they live near the office. Is this just so they stay later at work? Do the local housing prices even make it worth it long term to take this offer?
8
an extra bonus of 5 figures a year means there's more money available for the mortgage payment. This will evenutally prop up/inflate the real estate market, things become more expensive. Seems logical viscious cycle.
2
It's a one-time payment designed to encourage people to live closer to alleviate long commute times and transportation gridlock. Unfortunately there is little housing nearby, which is why they want to build more housing. The municipalities in Silicon Valley have actually been resistant to building more housing and expanding transit. As a result we have an incredibly expensive housing market and commuter gridlock.
4
Much like smart speakers, this new model community is a Faustian bargain, where you sacrifice your personal privacy and private data rights in exchange for high-end centrally located conveniences all too willingly provided by a company whose sole intent is to monetize the details of your daily life by auctioning off your information to the highest bidder. These companies are creating algorithms that seek to manipulate and divide an ignorant populace for commercial and political gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch people - Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and Facebook are constantly enabled and recording everything you search, read, do, or visit and this will be used against you whether you agree with it or not. As Joseph Heller said,"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
17
Do people still read "Catch-22?" I hope so as in my mind it is still the defining novel of modern America.
3
Lots of negative comments here. This is all paid for by users of Facebook. Don't like what FB, the company, is doing? Stop using their product. Simple.
8
I have spent the past 40 years in the real estate business, many in land development. The following are a few observations I made while reading this article.
First, 59 acres is not a city, only a small subdivision. “The community will have eight acres of parks, plazas and bike pedestrian paths open the public.” That is a miserly 13.6% of the gross area; typical for a subdivision is 15% parks and open space.
Second, Steve Jobs’ stating that Apple pays their taxes and expects the cities to supply the utilities. First, Apple clearly does not pay their taxes and second, utilities are paid for by land developers as part of the development expenses, those expenses are recouped from tap fees that the builders pay to hook up to the utilities.
Third, Ms. Taylor of Belle Haven Action stating that “the trains will run.” Il Duce did even better; he made the trains run on time.
Finally, I hope the Chan-Zuckerbergs do not intend to live in their new city. That never turns out well.
22
Essentially Zuckerberg has no soul like the group he joined when Facebook went public. Money is evil and has the power to dull and change anybody lacking a soul and devoid of any appreciation of what it really means to be human and alive on the planet earth.
7
We see articles on a regular basis that the tech industry is biased against hiring women and minorities. Even with 250 apartments having lower rent, won't tech cities like Zuckville be mainly inhabited by young, white men?
17
Linda, these young hi tech men and women live in a bubble. Whether it is Google or Facebook or Apple, employees are spoilt beyond belief, right from the time they graduate from college, in some cases while they are still in college. The perks these kids are lured into, from free gourmet cafeterias 24 hours a day, to games and athletic facilities, to mending clothes, shoe polishing to dry cleaning and laundry facilities. These kids don't have to lift a finger except to click on their devices. These kids are paid well (way above non Silicon Valley salaries), so they would not dream of ever leaving the companies and they are literally made to believe in a cult like leadership.
3
Tech is running over people, metaphorically and literally speaking in the 21st Century Yellow Brick Road:
Where reality is not quite - its virtual;
Intelligence is imagined - its artificial;
And we keep re-inventing what was already here all along
....almost.
6
Company towns all over again! It did no good for the employers and factory workers back then and it will do no good to the tech workers now. We need to remind ourselves that these tech workers are humans, with a family and very much an equal part of society as any other.
Tech workers are married to their companies, always working, right from the minute they step into the shuttle bus that takes them to their 'campus' office, till the end of their working life some decades later. In the meanwhile, their life and family suffers because they just don't have the bandwidth for anything else besides their job, products or people outside their work. These towns will make it worse!
Perhaps exploring various cuisines and traveling the globe is the only other thing they enjoy besides work, but that too comes as a job perk! Aarghh! I see this depressing phenomenon among close family friends and relatives, there is a slow and steady conversion of those folks into dumb workers of , where identity of self in society is almost negligible.
These future company towns, if not opened to community at large, is only going to create urban voids in the suburbs of Bay Area. It will result in more displacement and urban chaos, it will create Zuck-man and Woman, Droid man and woman! No, this is not the world I want for myself or my family!
5
This will be modeled after Logan's Run, I presume.
7
So where will the aged-out run to? Auburn? I can imagine a diaspora of disenchanted 30-something telecommuters sprinkled among the quaint towns in the Sierra. There go the neighborhoods.
4
They've already gone.
1
Zucktown, no Yucktown is more like it. Are we really regressing to the early 1900's company town? Ask West Virginians how well that worked.
11
East Palo Alto, where I live, is impacted by being in the "Golden Triangle" between Google, Stanford, and Facebook. Housing is a huge issue, and would continue to be a gigantic challenge for the community even if Facebook went away. Apple, Amazon, Hewlett Packard, Salesforce, Palantir, and a bunch of other great employers are also nearby, and our neighborhood is full of employees from these companies. Tech workers are no longer scared of living in EPA, and we have had a 97% drop in the murder rate since the early 90s. The real culprit for housing is local development codes which prevent sensible things like the building of apartment buildings close to employers and rapid transit. Facebook Village is an interesting concept, and I certainly hope it succeeds. That being said, I would be happier if Menlo Park did not cap the building height at four stories, and more housing of all types could be built.
7
The book "The Circle" come to life.
6
Another example of a tech compamny founder, many of whom were lucky to be in the right place at the right time, thinking he is so brilliant, that he will solve the worlds problems in areas far removed from where he started. Mark, stick to selling other peoples live for money.
7
re the picture of Juan Salazar and the representatives of local businesses: those locals seem to be looking at a corpse. Why dat?
4
I can't help thinking about an old Mike Royko column. Royko's friend invites him to a survivalists' camp, because the friend believes that in the future, there will just be survivalists and vandals. Royko figures that in that case, he'd rather be a vandal, so he can get out of the house, meet people, enjoy a varied diet, etc., so he decides to form a vandals' group to raid the survivalists' camp. Wouldn't you?"
9
"Namaste. Welcome to the DHARMA Initiative.
My name is Ben and I'll be your station leader."
7
You GOT it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaNO09cPS6c
Heehee
2
I deleted my Facebook account. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
21
I just created one.
2
yes, yes and YES!
1
I see the hoards of Amazon drones (not the flying kind) of South Lake Union in Seattle all the time. This sounds even worse. How and why are so many supposedly bright young people beguiled by this sort of corporate fascism?
5
Have you seen the pics of the new Spheres that Amazon built? Looks like the hydroponics garden on Deep Space Nine or something. I could see the allure of such a place although I can not for the life of me understand why someone would spend a few billion dollars building an indoor rain-forest in Seattle. A sunny beach with white sands, sure, but more rain?
1
There aren't sufficient alternatives for bright young people to make a living.
1
hordes
2
What will it take for us to stop referring to FB as "the social network"? The past week's news wasn't enough? How about Zuckerberg's referring to those who trust him with their personal data "dumb clucks"? (Euphemized here for your "protection.")
Based on the destruction they're doing to democracy in general and to our society in particular, they should be known as the antisocial network.
14
The Truman Show revisited. Just wait and see "Zuck"
5
Too much like Pyongyang.
6
I predict it'll be just like The Prisoner, with much uglier architecture. Oh, and don't forget that it will destroy all the real communities around it, in service of creating some Zuckerberg-iean view of faux "community" . . . but that never stopped Facebook! In fact they're well on their way to destroying the surrounding communities already!
9
The tech companies are only building housing because cities are forcing them to add housing as a condition of expanding their offices. These companies don't care about housing, as tech workers are able to outspend others. The Bay Area has built only 1/3 as much housing as needed over the past decade.
2
Construction here in Seattle this past decade has been mind-blowing. Now, according to the paper, there are more apartments than renters and prices are starting to drop.
1
So seems like Facebook is preparing a 'state-in-state' solution for its aggressively expansive plans.
This is one of the consequences, when governments follow a hardline neo-liberal agenda: Companies are getting so powerful, that they can overrule regional agenda.
For some reason, the history seems to repeat itself again. In this case with the cycle of a superpower:
vacuum of power - rise - maturity - downfall - ...
Hopefully, I am wrong.
2
An interesting twist to labor-camps. Are we seeing the day when Corporations buy entire neighborhoods and broker the homes exclusively to employees at a cost break? An interesting direction but Im not sure yet what the pitfalls might be. Someday might we have Corporate towns? Goodbye city government and hello corporate government.
12
I'm sorry, this is just weird. I've worked in tech almost all of my adult life and for some of the giants like Oracle and Nokia, too, so I appreciate a company that tries to be involved in the community. But I just can't get behind this all-inclusive living/working concept, which is so obviously for profit and not for any "good" they'll do for the community.
Besides, we already have enough problems balancing work and family life. I want to go home at the end of the day, and not remember that I'm owned by a company already--something that would be impossible here. And on top of that, I just permanently deleted my Facebook account. If I can't trust these guys with my personal information, I'm sure not going to trust them with my home.
30
The perfect place to send everyone with earbuds, a hoodie, sunglasses and their faces buried in their mobile device...God, what a soulless place...
24
That sounds great: a whole city full of Ready Player One arrogant nerds closing ranks against reality. We can measure their success by the zeroed-out birth rate and the truckloads of Amazon boxes full of inflatable companionship.
12
Company town, eh? Not exactly students of history, are they?
18
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes
Little boxes
Little boxes all the same
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
And the people in the houses all go to the university
And they all get put in boxes, little boxes all the same
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same
And they all play on the golf course and drink their martini dry
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university
And they all get put in boxes, and they all come out the same
And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
And they all get put in boxes, little boxes all the same
There's a green one, and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same
21
Little Boxes was written by Malvina Reynolds.
7
thanks Pete Seger
Welcome to Zucktown, where drudges cavort,
As they quaff kombucha down by the quart.
Their homes are quite modest, but of the best stuff,
The air seems so winsome, with clouds of pearl fluff.
The schools are pitch perfect; the trash doesn’t smell;
The sidewalks are marbled with dainty seashell.
Flowers and trees grow with quiet profusion;
Republicans live in real quiet seclusion.
All workers can walk to their jobs, or commute
On pink bicycles that are lightweight and cute.
They work for long hours, and see not the light
Of sunset when they traipse on home for the night.
In fact there are hammocks and fleecy down cots
To sleep on at work, with soft macrame knots --
So no one need leave their nice office unless
It is for a seminar or tooth abscess.
Even the graveyard is tidy and slick,
And no one is laid there unless they’ve been sick.
So: Welcome to Zucktown, the city that cares
If you have German or Swedish au pairs!
17
More self-aggrandizement of tech titans and sycophantic adulation of geek gods. Just another chapter in corporate striving and power, and gravitation of a mercenary society. Money and power, greed and fear. We've been there, done that. And we'll keep doing it - that's human culture and mythology in this epoch.
5
Getting a little scary out there. Residential factories in China, anyone?
7
Welcome to Mark Zuckerberg's Brave New World.
6
The houses will all have glass walls I assume?
4
There are two issues that make this a bad idea:
- Gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area is already a problem
-The company store comment is a real issue. After the civil war Textile Mills reinvented slavery with Mill Villages where stores and even churches were provided for workers and their families. The mill owners also gave employees store credit, and low or no rent. Once in the mill village you became trapped, especially if you challenged management on any issues. Mill owners were quick to dispose of employees who questioned their authority, and raised human or civil rights issues by firing them, and then arresting them as debtors, while simultaneously evicting the family from the mill village home.
Thus, slave owners continued for years with business as usual until labor and civil rights activists forced changes.
8
You forgot the virtual currency that the workers were paid in: good only at the company store.
5
Make no mistake: Zuckerberg, (and I'm being nice), is just another billionaire looking to acquire more and more money and thus, more and more control! We are officially living in an oligarchy which will be controlled by these predatory grifters!
17
Leaving aside the current and very serious legal and privacy issues around the sharing of 50 million Facebook users' data with Cambridge Analytica, let's talk about the impact of Zucktown on the local community. Yes, there is a serious housing shortage in Silicon Valley. Thanks to CA Prop 13, our schools are underfunded. If FB is proposing to build a community with 1,500 apartments, it needs to be required to build new schools. Many local schools, especially Menlo-Atherton High School, are at or over capacity. Local school districts cannot afford to buy property to build new schools. Approval of any large new housing developments must come with a requirement to pay for new schools for the students.
12
Gentrification in the Bay Area continues un-opposed. Offering about 1/6 of the apartments for a reduced price doesn’t mean that the poorest people will obtain them. If nothing less, this company is simply making it easier for affluent people. This company that has completely lost touch with reality figuratively and now they want to literally by creating this “village.” This company and the platform are no longer (if they ever were) healthy for people.
8
What do you expect when you have 22-year-old young men suddenly becoming billionaires and being annointed as one of the most powerful people on the planet? Do you expect wisdom and maturity? No wonder Silicon Valley has issues.
39
Drew Combs, ex-journalist and current chairman of the Menlo Park Planning Commission, was hired by Facebook. Right. That sums up the simmering mendacity so prevalent in Silicon Valley, in a nutshell.
I watched the clip of Steve Jobs presenting to the Cupertino City Council, seven years ago. So much pandering from the councilmembers! The softball questions were bad enough, but then Councilwoman Kris Wang pointedly says, “Hi, Steve” — when everyone else has been, correctly, addressing the man as Mr. Jobs — so she can broadcast the fact that they know each other socially. It’s nauseating. And that, too, is The Valley in a sound bite.
20
lol, check out my city council members led by Kshama Sawant who recently passed a billionaire/s tax aimed specifically at Jeff Bezos. All that talk of a second headquarters is his way of trying to get the city back on board...or he might move his entire operation elsewhere:)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/seattle-approves-new-...
1
It’s ok if companies want to help with the housing shortage. It’s also ok if they experiment and innovate new, inventive ways to make communities more efficient, sustainable and enjoyable. What’s not ok is for them to be their employees own direct landlords. They can’t be allowed to control who lives there, gets a loan or leases a storefront. They certainly are entitled to a reasonable profit from their investments, but those must be made in completely independent business entities. They can’t be allowed to so much as directly look at a lease agreement or hire a community manager. The personal lives, politics and finances of employees are none of an employers business.
19
To most people, Black Mirror is a horror show. To Facebook, it’s an instruction manual.
13
Could people please stop using facebook for their own good and for the good of all society? Thanks.
31
I don’t work for Facebook, but it’s been fabulous - at no cost - for my publishing company, for my career as a writer, and for staying in touch with family, friends, and folks with similar interests. Indeed, I’ve been much more pleased with my dealings with Facebook - and Google, and Apple, and Amazon - than any city, county, or state government. I’ve gotten extreme value from tech, while I’ve mostly got waste, incompetence and corruption from government.
Worried about privacy? Pull up the big boy pants because there is none. Hasn’t been for a long time.
1
I never take a business seriously if it uses Facebook for their website. If a company can not afford to set up their own website/domain, I figure they can not be doing all that well. If a company uses Facebook they limit themselves to other Facebook users rather than the whole web. Again, not the smartest company move.
3
Can it be ZuckerVille ?
7
Talk about a cult-like culture. Actually, not cult-like, but an actual cult. Disgusting. These parasites should be taxed at 90%, to help the communities they displace by inflating real estate values.
26
“We’d like to continue to stay here and pay taxes,” Mr. Jobs said. “If we can’t, we’d have to go somewhere like Mountain View.” Lol. Another inartfully-phrased threat from the late Apple founder. I actually think it's a good idea that tech companies build their own walled-garden housing for their employees. We deal with Snap employees all the time here in Los Angeles, and they are some of the most narcissistic, narrow-minded, silly people I've ever met. Make a lot of Zucktowns and Goofball Gardens.
12
Zuck sure has his zuck up. Zuck's super zucky at creating deliberately confusing jargon and user-interfaces which trick users into sharing more info about themselves than they really want to. Zucking folks into believing they're Zuck's super zucky buddies sure makes zuckers out of those Zuck lovers who get zuckered me into sharing more info about their zucky lives than can be counted... That kinda zucks...
12
Ever wonder whether his elementary school teacher ever read the role backwards so that he could come first?
Didn't work.
2
"We don't need no thought control".
10
I sense some dark sarcasm . . .
All under the simple guise of better keeping in touch with friends. A nation obsessed.
11
Ho,ho.
Vonnegut/Orwell/Asimov etc. is not rolling over in their graves. They're laughing, in a sad and cheerful manner at the same time.
"Told you so", I get from my psychic.
/s if necessary for that last sentence, who knows anymore.
I would say, go home.
1
Investing in the community you occupy is a good thing, but trying to occupy a community is a bad thing.
Right now this plan may go on hold anyway as FB may be facing billions of dollars in lawsuits from the 50 million users who did not sign up to be in a psycho-digital study or lose its private information to the data mining company named Cambridge Analytica led by Steve Bannon. He recommended their services to Trump in 2014 before he joined the campaign. The Mercers bought their services for Trump.
Next thing you know FB has all these Putin or Russian accounts working along synchronously with the putrid, rancid Trump political propaganda machine that got him our presidency. No coincidence there.
Paying taxes and investing in America is a good thing and I am glad that billion and trillion dollar industries pay back America, but when they buy up America as far as legislation, economic policies, corporate tax breaks, foreign policy, then it is no longer a good thing.
10
Because Celebration, FL, worked so well...
6
This sounds like serfdom. And no matter what they say, the poor will be forced out. Creepyville.
11
Imagine that a community built entirely of Legos.
Food --- Soylent Zuck
Will everyone on Facebook send me a dollar? Please.
I will give you my thoughts and prayers.
12
Thanks for making me laugh very hard, Dry Socket. Your four lines trigger a cascade of multi-imagery that is comic genius. And if it weren't for my recent tooth extraction, I wouldn't know what dry socket is.
What a dream come true,
We can all become landless serfs working for the .01%.
22
I've lived in Menlo Park for a year and a half and have never actually met somebody who works at Facebook (except for occasionally seeking Mark around town). I am a grad student at Stanford who occasionally attends city council meetings, hangs out at local businesses, and regularly attends community events. There is such a disconnect between the Facebook culture and the rest of our city. It would be awesome if they decided to build a new campus in a place that has room for them and enthusiastically wants the business.
6
So a small portion of the apartments will be offered at "below market rates." Do tell, how far below exactly? Will "Zucktown" include people at the very low end of the economic spectrum? Nobody is forcing Facebook to base it itself where it is; if housing is too expensive, move the HQ. It would be a lot easier than building a faux community.
11
Sure, live in FBville - make it even easier for the company to track your habits and sell it off without vetting who the buyer might be.
Company towns always keep their residents beholden to the landlord - don't cross the authority if you want your housing, don't strike, don't complain, don't report harassment. Oh, and shop at the company stores!
Heck, even hippies with their lofty goals couldn't make communes work for long.
11
Creepy (just as creepy as Facebook and Zuckerberg). The Stepford mentality of so many "sheep" who allow Facebook to dominate their online time is really quite frightening to me.
That's exactly why Facebook has the power, money and influence it does today (hence this surreal Facebookville, which looks like an industrial complex).
Sign me : Happy to have never been on Facebook
22
Melinda--Another "Me TOO!" from me. It IS creepy. Why are young people so addicted to it?
6
Yay - Zucktown, complete with creepy two-way mirrors, and probably inescapable surveillance. I bet facebook will also analyze your sewerage in order to better target you. I'll pass.
10
At the Zucktown Supermarket checkout line.
Autom voice.
I'm sorry, you may not make that purchase, your cholesterol level is above the desired range.
I'm sorry, you may not have that wine. Your intake of alcoholic beverages is above the desired level.
I'm sorry you may not purchase that. Your blood sugar level is approaching undesirable levels.
That's better that you put it all back. Enjoy your Soylent Green.
11
"Do people love tech companies so much they will live inside them?"
The answer is decidely "no."
Especially since "Zucky" is as of this writing holing up, staying silent and showing his true stripes with the Cambridge Analytica business.
Caveat emptor for anyone who believes it's a good thing to live along "1 Hacker Way."
Keep your "virtual" community and begone, sir.
9
I wish that the Times and other reputable media would share this information to its readers about how to adjust their Facebook settings to protect their privacy. I had no idea I could do this so easily: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/how-change-your-facebook-settings-...
5
The architecture of one building pictured is worth just one word: soulless.
10
The point David Kirkpatrick makes about insularity is not a small one. Jaron Lanier has pointed out that Silicon Valley may have diversity in race, age, gender and sexual orientation, but it lacks diversity in cognitive attitudes. This shows: San Francisco has beome boring.
13
Stockholm syndrome for the company town.
10
I spent almost 2 years working on a podcast about Google’s company town a few miles down the road. And solving the Bay Area’s traffic and housing issues without any real regional government has forced cities and company’s to find their own alternatives and solutions https://goo.gl/info/nkcGgW
3
WOW! There are 10's of thousands of Hispanics, who need affordable homes, and one of the richest people, in the world is going to build 1500 apartment for them? What a guy! Please elect officials, who will pay particular attention to the plight of the poor and working poor! Even the lower middle class can't make ends meet. This is wrong, wrong, wrong! And, let Zuckerberg live in his little dream world, thinking he's helping. Right.
5
Basically they're building high tech hives to ensure compliant worker bees.
9
Ha! The timing couldn’t be worse! Who here would live in a town owned by one of the most amoral corporations in the world? Can you imagine how many privacy rights you would sign away in the lease? The surveillance would be similar in intensity to living in North Korea, and they would sell every morsel for profit. Better check the bedroom and shower for cameras on the day you move in.
12
I don’t have Facebook I got rid of it after I noticed the Russians in 2016. It was a long time coming. I do not miss it one bit and I think ppl who are still on there have some self centered self disclosing addiction. I wonder if facebookville will feature real life Russian troll robots and hidden big brother type surveillance cameras to keep track of everything residents do so it could be sold to nations and companies without your consent.
3
And here I thought Peter Thiel and his sea steading was egotistical, but no, this takes the cake.
6
And what do they monitor about your behavior and speech in Zucktown?
Or should the question be what don't they monitor?
2
Now we will see if Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and their family will abandon their lovely home in SF's Mission District to move into Facebook Village. The tycoons of the past didn't....
7
"Facebook is a company that at least tries to have conscience." Oh please, give me a break. Here's my feedback to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. The strategic actions your company has taken mining people's data and hiding the fact UNTIL it was unavoidable that your company's actions were about to be revealed indicate that you care little about trying to have a "conscience". You are living in an bubble that is void of ethics, destroying the ability of individual world citizens to protect and maintain privacy and cultivating and rationalizing insatiable greed and power. You try to have a conscience? Really?
9
Let's just hope Facebook and Google never get a hold of nuclear weapons. Of course we've allowed them to acquire something far more lethal already.
this is the old "company store" model, isn't it?
2
Published comments yesterday confirm suspicions: Facebook is not concerned about 'community' or security or users. Facebook is only concerned about the money. Shocking, ain't it? Said Capt. Renault. As he pocketed his winnings. Shocking.
3
Talk about living in the Silicon Valley bubble.
6
Republican hatred of taxes and government and love of unfettered capitalism brought us here. Thanks, St. Ronnie.
7
Is Zuckerberg the new age guru? Who would want to live in a town they work? Live, Eat and Pray Facebook. Next, send your kids to Zuck school and university, what a nightmare.. about time people separate real world from the virtual world.
7
George Pullman built a company town over a hundred years ago, and he thought he had all the answers just like Zuckerberg. Here is an impartial quote that describes his company town:
"There are variety and freedom on the outside. There are monotony and surveillance on the inside. None of the "superior," or "scientific" advantages of the model city will compensate for the restrictions on the freedom of the workmen, the denial of opportunities of ownership, the heedless and vexatious parade of authority, and the sense of injustice arising from the well founded belief that the charges of the company for rent, heat, gas, water, etc. are excessive –if not extortionate… Pullman may appear all glitter and glow, all gladness and glory to the casual visitor, but there is the deep, dark background of discontent which it would be idle to deny." The Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1888
https://www.nps.gov/pull/learn/historyculture/index.htm
3
That “Willow Village” area has long been a kind of no-man’s land, right up against the back of affluent Atherton, and spitting distance from tech-money-rich Palo Alto — which is another county with a 30% higher median income per capita. I worry less about a corporate mini-city swaying local elections than I do about the effect on local services and neighborhood business districts. In that part of the Peninsula you have all these high-income communities with their own police and fire departments, intermingled with low-income communities that have limited, underfunded services. There are islands of unincorporated county that come under county control, as well. If we end up with multiple, insular company towns sprinkled here and there, at what point do they start to draw resources away from their surrounding communities? Do they establish their own schools? Their own medical clinics? Do the residents eat most meals at work and in other ways not support local businesses? That sleep-here-but-but-don’t-really-live-here way of life among young techies has already adversely affected neighborhood businesses in San Francisco. All I can say is this looks like a slippery slope.
4
Zuckerberg and his company express disdain for people who posses firearms to protect themselves and their businesses. Hypocritically, he creates his own private police substation filled with heavily armed police officers at over $250,000 per person per year to protect his employees and property.
3
That land lies on very low ground. Nobody seems to address rising sea levels or liquifaction created when the area gets the next big one. Silicon Valley is fraying and the big companies which put the most stress on our communities simply do not give back in proportion to what they take. Given the little we know in the presently developing Facebook treason we are bracing for the worst.
5
Facebook is a bunch of people with nothing else to do sitting around talking about themselves. It costs less than a psychiatrist, and they can even show pictures. I am sure this is a very unusual perception, but that is how I see it.
How different is Zuckerberg than Trump? It is the participants that make the success of any company. He only led the sheep. Too bad he wasn't aware that all innovation has the seeds of its own destruction.
2
...a new-age Pottersville
5
Heartbreaking to watch Steve Jobs.
Knowing Facebook's blatant disregard for privacy, I'm sure there will be cameras in every room.
5
why the jolly article about Zucky. Why are we not dropping Facebook from our lives. It has done nothing to protect freedom of speech instead it has help lay waste to democracy in the US letting a Russian backed scheme take the data of 50 million Facebookers and which was then sold to groups of the Alt Right across America and Europe allowing them to come to come to power in some cases. Facebook needs to be held accountable. And no one is doing that. I don't understand. Even closing profiles for a month would disrupt their business and put Facebook on notice. That is needs to improve it's systems. LET THE PUBLIC LEAN IN on this matter. They won't if the US news ignores this story.
6
Good, we need this. There is a severe housing problem in the bay yet cities restrict new construction. The traffic is absolutely horrible and public transit on the peninsula is a mess. Its time all the companies in silicon valley put their foot down.
Absent from all this planning is consideration for the impact to the school system. Where will the kids of these household be educated? Local public school districts have not been invited to the table up to this point and we are just starting to find out the impact of adding 1,500 household in the area. This project is estimated to add 300 more students to our high school already the largest in the district at about 2,400 enrollment. Local elementary and middle schools are also impacted. School districts span across multiple municipalities and it is always not easy to get our interest in the City's agenda. If Facebook or any other tech companies are really interested in building the "community", public school should be considered one of the pillars of that community building exercise. So far, they have not done a very good job.
7
Social media immersion, 24/7/365. Disgusting. This is what America has come to. Take a walk down any city street or downtown business district and count how many people have their faces buried in their personal devices. They won't look up to cross a street or to avoid walking into another pedestrian. This country has lost its way. And the Zuckerbergs of tech are making fortunes at your expense.
7
living down in the "peninsula" ( palp alto, melo park, los altos, mountain view, sunnyvale and cupertino) once orchards and ranch style homes, and suburban lving, has become a nightmare if you are not a tech employee. traffic,rents,cost of living is ridiculous.. not to mention the ever present under the surface competetion
3
No, just, no. Divorce before I ever move into such a place.
4
Live inside a tech company? What a nightmare. I ate dinner at Google once. A tinfoil tray of horrible "Thai" chicken and they didn't bother to ask if anyone was allergic to soy, which I am. So I couldn't even eat the dinner after all.
3
I"m sorry, but this is seriously creepy.
I know that there is a history of company towns in America and there are many examples of doing it right (Hersey's for one). But, seriously, Facebook and the other tech giants are sound/acting like cults.
7
Spare us!
Have we taken leave of our senses? This is not the kind of civic community our great democratic philosophers envisioned.
Folks, for pete’s sakes, ‘lean away’ from Mark Zuckerberg, and run away in the opposite direction as fast as you can!
Our democracy depends on it
8
Imagine the souls of the individuals who voluntarily want to live in such a place. For that matter imagine the souls of FB users...
5
1500 units of housing is not much of an achievement in such a large area. Maybe Facebook should consult some urban planners; and I expect the engineers will alert the building authorities of the problem of liquification, inewvitable sea level rise, etc. Actually, the project seems a little pathetic; puny on the housing, and still thinking about a being a "company town?"
1
Insularity breeds arrogance and tone-deafness. Exhibit A: Mark Zuckerberg. He needs to take a break from his cocoon and come have a chat with our elected representatives and senators about how careless he has been with the privacy of Americans and the integrity of their electoral system.
And if his stonewalling is any indication of his lack of interest in such an invitation, a subpoena can be arranged. As can federal regulation.
4
Very interesting: Proponents of open digital societies simultaneous promoting physically closed societies.
2
Company town, company store, and compliant company employees. Just like “coal towns” in another era.
3
Zhengzhou is a remote city? It is a city of more than 6 million people, metro area close to 10...
1
It would have been much more useful if Facebook had created a new campus outside the Bay Area. Adding more housing and offices to this area is not only compounding the congestion problems, but robs another community of a golden opportunity for jobs and taxes for schools and infrastructure.
8
Oh I see, so they want us on their platform so they can surveil us. While we are not on their platform, they will use self driving cars to further surveil. And when we aren't doing either of those, they will use our smart tvs, phones, and laptops to listen in. Is this really the vision silicon valley has for a free society? The backlash has only just begun, Zuck.
8
Regardless of the platform--Facebook, Tweeter, Google, Instagram, etc.,--all of them should be required to immediately alert the user that the information provided/shared cannot be verified as accurate or reliable. Just as each pack of cigarettes is required to state the dangers from smoking, each platform should follow the tobacco industry standard and inform the user that what they receive or read from Facebook, Tweeter, etc., may be untrue and should be checked out.
3
Absolutely nothing will come out or happen to Facebook after this latest scandal. People will keep using it and quickly forget what brought on this scandal. However, like everything digital, Facebook will collapse some day and all these employees will find themselves looking for new jobs, with no takers.
2
Not sure if this is true:
"If Facebook’s image is permanently sullied by the furor over Cambridge Analytica, the data firm hired by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign, Zucktown will falter before it is finished."
People love their Facebook and after they drop out of the headlines they will soon forgive or forget.
4
I'm surprised Ms. Taylor wants Facebook to install red-light cameras to monitor traffic. Most recent court decisions have been against the red-light cameras, and there is CA legislation banning most red light cameras in cities/communities. She needs to review the CA laws and regulations more thoroughly before trying to make demands from Facebook.
1
This reminds me of The Company Store with the coal industry during the 1880's.d The miners were paid in scrip to be only redeemed at the Company owned store. The miners often lived in company owned housing, didn't they?
I don't see much of a difference than what Facebook is proposing.
The workers who subscribe to this will still "owe their souls to the Company store"
12
Maybe if there was adequate public transit (trams & trains, not buses) that actually went nearby to all major destinations and business parks, AND if developers were allowed to build high density housing nearby to the stations, then this wouldn’t be necessary. What I’m describing is Japan, basically. America’s car-centric culture is the main problem here. Cars get in giant traffic jams, are unsafe, and extremely expensive to run/maintain. The only solution is to live within walking distance of your job, which is what Facebook is trying to do here.
3
I used to work in Silicon Valley before there was a Facebook and I remember that the voters of the area had no interest in investing in public transportation since they were all pretty well off and drove luxury cars.
I moved to Seattle which has a pretty awesome public transportation system and even though I live on the north end of town, I could be at Amazon in less than 30 minutes by bus. Bezos could build a similar project in South Lake Union but I still think his employees will continue to flock to Capitol Hill with its gay bars, microbreweries, espresso shops, pho restaurants, couch sledding, and of course the annual block party. Amazonian hipsters love Sodom and Gomorrah and pay good money to live right in the center of it:)
I wonder how many of these commenters angry at Mark Zuckerberg have deleted their Facebook accounts. The problem is us, not Mr. Zuckerberg. He provides a service. We can easily say no to using his service if we were so inclined. It ain't hard. Try it.
10
Your reporting missed the elephant in the room. Tech companies are only building housing because California's housing shortage is so awful that even well paid tech workers can not afford homes here. Google and Facebook don't want to be your landlord, but the fact that their employees have nowhere to live forces them to develop housing.
If it is bad enough that Google and Facebook have to start building homes for their relatively privileged workers: what does mean for the rest of the population? Life for the great many in California is becoming increasingly unbearable due to the housing shortage, and New York Times reporting would do us a favor in keeping this root problem at the front of public consciousness.
5
the leading question being "Do people love tech companies so much they will live inside them?" I'm inclined to say 'no', not even. What people do love is that living where you work is a far sight more enticing than paying the astronomically high rents that companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and other tech giants have created as they move in and purchase huge swaths of available properties for their own ends.
4
I live in Seattle, where Amazon has established a significant footprint in the South Lake Union area (where I once worked in a warehouse loading trucks with shipments of clothing from Asia). What strikes me is the way Amazon has transformed the neighborhood from working-class and industrial to its own enclave. Granted, the retail stores and restaurants are open to anyone, but the vibe is all Amazon.
An aspect of the sub-culture that I find alternately amusing and pathetic is the way the lives of the young people working at Amazon (and Microsoft across Lake Washington) have an arrested-development aspect. As with elementary school children, these adults take their own bus (or Uber), eat in the cafeteria, have playtime (while "Mom" in the form of hired help cleans their room), has dinner brought to them, and now even has an app to tell them when to go to bed.
Perhaps I'm jaded, but their public demeanor seems also, in many cases, to reflect a rather juvenile character.
98
:) I live in Seattle and before Amazon, I always thought of Lake Union as a bunch of rotting docks and abandoned office buildings:) Its not like they had a summer solstice parade or block party or something:)
I wish they would stay in their own enclave but they seem to have invaded and taken over Capitol Hill:)
1
There's a song lyric about that... "I owe my soul to the company store!"
7
This is the novel The Circle, by Dave Eggers--but with a few (scary) details left out. But in the novel, the evil genius company was (transparently) Google, with its fingers in every pot (or, as it were, eyes and ears everywhere). Facebook makes its money off user data, and Zucktown will be no different. FB will know what flavor of gum you bought at what time at the corner bodega. It will watch you walk past Experience X and choose Experience Y. Now they won't just build your profile remotely...you'll help them do it in person so you don't have a horrific commute!
5
Facebook and companies like it building these housing developments make their money by data exploitation. So the housing developments will put folks, connected I assume with Facebook friendly smart appliances and Alexas and the other AI robots that learn from us, spy on us and report our behaviors, personal idiosyncrasies and violate our privacy in our homes, in the same central location. Talk about living under Big Brother. I guess it is a lot easier to study all of us tech product guinea-pigs and test new product development when we are all kept in the same pen. I read somewhere that Zuckerberg was a psychology major at Harvard and Cambridge Analytica, Facebook's partner in crime, uses psychological conditioning techniques and the power of suggestion via data exploitation of social media to brainwash the masses. It's making more and more sense now. I am disconnecting as much as I can.
12
Simple-stay in Virginia Beach, and don't move to any tech town, You just will have to deal with Trumpsters.
This is another click-bait article from New York Times. Come on NYT; you can do better than this. Facebook is forced to build the housing because the Bay Area cities are refusing to build high-density, mixed-use housing that's desirable to the young people who work at Facebook and other tech companies. Most Facebook workers commute long hours to get to work because there is not enough housing available in the area. This article may keep your pitch-fork crowd happy but doesn't address severe shortages of housing in the Bay Area. Liberals in the Bay area like immigrants but hate housing and density. Please try to do a better job next time.
7
The massive development that Facebook is undertaking in Menlo Park is exacerbating the housing shortage exponentially. They want to have 35,000 employees on their campus when all is said and done — that amounts to more than doubling the current population of Menlo Park. All without doing any meaningful traffic mitigation or planning to add police, fire, schools, or any other infrastructure necessary to support such a massive population increase. Menlo Park is putting up mixed-use projects and building dense housing wherever possible (and in some cases where it shouldn't be possible), but the city doesn't stand a chance of keeping up with Facebook's growth. 1,500 housing units is a pittance, and won't make a dent in the housing issues that Facebook itself is intensifying. Facebook has taken over the east side of Menlo Park, creating traffic nightmares on neighborhood streets and severely negatively impacting the lives of residents, but it's too late to stop its development now that it's the Goliath in the room and has a stranglehold on the city. As a resident, I wish we'd never let them get a foothold.
19
Also, the rentals that are described as below market value? What does that mean? A few dollars less than the hyper inflated rents these robots are currently paying?
2
"""NO LOCAL HOUSING - FORCED TO BUILD""" Wow that's funny... They use to said the same thing back in the day at the Mines in Illinois, Pennsylvania and West Virginia!
3
Not "Zuckberg?"
3
Welcome to Zuckergrad.
12
hey zuck. don’t give in/up yet. there are still gazellions $$$ out there to take.
2
We’re doomed.
3
“Oh Bartleby! Oh humanity!”
1
Fordlandia, again?
8
Ha...you must have heard the 99% Invisible podcast too.
1
I have commuted past the Facebook site for over 20 years. Once the second facility in that area opened my commute time doubled to over 90 minutes. Facebook NEVER considers the consequences of their actions. Or is it that they just don't care?
14
I would encourage readers to watch the video of Mr. Jobs that accompanies this article. The whole presentation: "I'm staying here, because I live here." To a friendly question, but pushy, what can we expect for free (wi-fi) from this?" Ans: "I'm a simpleton", we pay taxes. Contrast this to the $7 billion in taxes Illinois is willing to give up to get Amazon.
I once wrote Mr. Jobs, suggesting a business software module for my computer. He wrote back suggesting I buy a new Lisa computer for $10m, more than our budget at the time. My thinking then, I had Visicalc (which didn't work--it wouldn't always pick up the little boxes) and it seemed like it would be easy to convert this to general ledger/data base/payroll software. In retrospect, Mr Jobs had already reduced the price for a computer from $1.5 million (IBM's price) to $1500. I was expecting too much; any software was my problem. His idea then for a PDA, a personal digital assistant, was way ahead of his time. It would have to wait for new technology, especially a miniaturized cell phone. The software to make it reach its full potential is still out there, but kids can now find themselves easily with GPS.
At Apple show us a picture of the Apricot orchard and trees. Interview some people who work there; is it like a park? And are there beams focused in the middle to to make it easy for spaceships to land?
The trail pictured by Google is almost a religious space; the Dalai Lama spoke close by a few years ago
It’s unfortunate that this analysis only reflects on the visible surface of the issue—the element of corporate scale and that these large companies are building their own housing—but fails to address the reason why this is happening; that towns like Menlo Park, Cupertino, Palo Alto and Mountain View have systematically permitted runaway corporate office development (which nets huge tax revenue gains for the municipality), while vehemently fighting even the smallest additional medium density housing developments. While it might be en vogue to use this as an attempt to draw parallels between Facebook and Google and the evil, industrial revolution magnates of the early 1900s, the reality is that they’re building houses because the cities, and their housing-secure, Prop 13 insulated residents refuse to. This is the true crime being committed in the Bay Area, and the real culprits are those who enjoy improved parks and schools, but refuse to scale in kind with the growth that provided it.
10
It is so obvious what has changed in the last 60 years. In 1958, both companies and their very wealthy employees would be paying more than double what they currently do in taxes. This in turn would allow better government services from roads to policing to housing.
And those wealthy folks in the 1950's lived just fine.
The government(s) throughout this country have been bled dry through corporate cheating, and frenzied tax cutting for the wealthy over the past 35 years. Now we complain that they do not help us.
Do we really prefer a world where rich business owners and corporations keep 90% of what they actually "earn" and then talk about all their wonderful philanthropic ventures to take care of employees, and communities, and even the poor?
It is so ironic that this is exactly how we ended up electing Donald Trump--as a self fulfilling prophecy about government being a joke. Do I think Facebook enjoyed helping get Trump elected? I certainly do not think it bothered them.
60
Tech progress ,inevitably , morphs into improving, evolving,and increase usage of machines so their human builders can become increasingly redundant.
Facebookville ,like Walden 2, will become an end stage experiment in benevolent standardization and behavioral control of machine builders .....by the machines they built and serve for pay ......in an ironic turn of reverse human engineering................the INEFFICIENCIES of social,cultural,and political differences will become distant memories !
1
With all of the exploitation of peoples private information, how could anyone actually want to reside in the Facebook community.
The people who work at Facebook should be ashamed of themselves.
I don’t know why people are not leaving Facebook in the millions.
11
Will there be nets attached to the outside of the buildings so they can catch those who try to fling themselves out of the windows or off of the rooftops?
47
Facebook is the new government. Except they only care about their own business. Which is in trouble. Not good for thge citizens of Menlo Park.
Why doesn't FB promote working remotely? Saves money on real estate, reduces traffic and pollution, and employees are happier.
Republicans want to privatize government. They should love Zucktown. One question: If an employee leaves FB, do they have to leave Z-town as well?
11
The future is yesterday...these remind me of medieval walled towns, which were simply fiefdoms. And, we are the peasants outside the walls. Wait for the moats to appear, even if they are electronic, that's what they are. You may be admitted at dawn, bearing a cart of onions, but their own police force (er, "security") will check to make sure you are not hauling in something forbidden: like dissent. The rest of us should start building catapults and other siege engines until those walls come down.
16
There's no need for catapults: In a few years, most of Menlo Park east of Highway 101 will be soggy; it's all built on landfill. After a few more years, the bottom floors of new buildings will be under water.
12
So, they won't need to even build a real moat? They'll be living in one I guess.
1
Very good!
2
I'm sure Zuckerberg never thought when he and his colleagues started building Facebook that he wanted to be a dictator, but that's what he has become. The question is, will he take responsibility for what he's built? Even if it means giving up money, power, and especially, his view that he's right about his company being a force for good?
That would be nice to see, but I'm not holding my breath.
4
I'm all for it because much development is so ugly and unfriendly to the environment. Walking to work is a GREAT way to live--I did it for many years in Berkeley. I fear that their glass "donut" building may be causing a lot of bird mortality via window strikes, so I hope this one is more bird and wildlife friendly.
1
Zucky rhymes with ....
Let's hope the recent revelations will stop this greedy annexation in favor of the few and against real people who need real affordable housing. "Affordable" units? Not so fast, a cosmetic control move.
6
As someone who works in a small startup in the next building over from Facebook's ever sprawling campus (which now includes a hotel for Facebook visitors), the consequences are real. Yes, this is (soon to be was), an "industrial area" where new startups (biotech, green tech, electric cars etc) acquired their first office spaces and built real businesses. I used to see new company signs constantly and would be excited to go look up what new idea someone had. Now I see Facebook Building Numbers and people posing in front of a thumb for a selfie. Our employees can't commute to work anymore or figure out child care because of traffic congestion. Soon, non-software tech professionals won't be able to afford to live here. Facebook gives you a bonus to buy a house in Menlo Park. No startup can afford to do that, consequently no startup employee can live close to work and consequently the next startup will not be here. These monopolies (Apple, Facebook, Google), flush with cash, are destroying the diversity of the valley in infinite ways.
140
As someone who grew up there just before SV really took off, seeing what the tech gentrification and cash, as well as general greed and 'bad neighbor' attitude, has done to the people and places of the Bay Area is awful. Skyrocketing prices, nightmare commutes, and middle class pushed towards the Central Valley just to eke out a living...
I can't help but wonder what will happen if the tech giant bubble pops. Will this be the next rust belt?
3
I live in Menlo Park, and your observations are on the nose. I drive over to Zucktown once a week to volunteer at a local school, and I'm appalled at what's happening. Facebook is stripping the character from a huge swath of East Menlo Park, and leaving nothing but homogeneity and traffic nightmares in its wake.
6
Yeah, come do startups in Camden, ME, Newark, Philly, Carmel, IN, Kingstown, RI. Who needs Lotusland - you’ll love the rest of the best.
Ick. Will someone please start a social media platform that guarantees to keep your private data completely private, and that doesn't push ads at you? I'd gladly pay $10 - $20 per month for such a thing. And, I know I'm not the only one.
15
use Ello.
There is a lot of confusion about the term "tech". Having lived and worked in SV for well over 45 years, it is apparent that the hard types of technology (i.e., computer chip manufacturing, computer manufacturing, computer controlled device manufacturing) have long since moved to other places on the planet. "Coding", i.e., writing computer instructions, most frequently used on smartphones and PCs, is now called "tech", but it's actually virtual technology. There is no physical need for humans to cluster together to perform this activity, however the "old ways", e.g., building huge, physical shrine-like complexes persists. That's the problem. Concentrating too many people in any one place results in what's happening here now: a self-induced human clogging of the entire environment. As the human population of the planet has more than DOUBLED since the 70s, and many of those people want to live (and work) in the same place, this problem will not be easily solved, especially by building more "hives" for the workers. And, of course, local politics are creating unwanted friction for the hive masters. Meanwhile, the inflationary spiral of housing prices is choking the life out of the place.
To be continued.
15
...but they now can simmer in their own gravy, without any need to interact with the unwashed and deplorables.
2
My private information can buy all that? Wow!!
23
Thanks god at least one person on this thread has a sense of humor.
2
Dear Mark:
Where do you live? In a beehive, surrounded by a thousand of your favorite co-workers? No, actually. You live in a mansion so big you bought up several lots around you and leveled the existing homes, so you'd have more space to yourself.
Guess what? Your workers want what you want. Your workers want their own space and lives outside of work, too. Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're better, or even different, than most of humanity. Ah, humanity- there's a word you might want to look up, next time you take a break from selling peoples' souls to make a buck.
130
Note that zucky tried the same "buy it all up" approach in Hawaii with highly mixed results.
13
Bravo!!!!!!
This idea is creepy no matter how you look at it.
Who wants to live at work?
45
One of the few factors known to affect happiness is length of commute, so this could be a happy situation for anyone who likes their job. It is good for the environment. When I worked for a company just starting out, we lived at the office anyway.
2
Who cares?
I am not a Facebook owner, user, customer nor employee.
4
How did the author miss the fact that California has a chronic housing shortage and that the cities of the Bay Area have deliberately restricted housing production?
These companies did not want to have to build "Zucktown" - they have been forced to take over responsibility for housing their workfoce because the chronic underproduction of housing is hurting their ability to recruit talent.
This whole article is absurdly shallow and misinformed about Bay Area politics.
176
"This whole article is absurdly shallow and misinformed about Bay Area politics."
Well, that's an easy charge to make. Not that it's untrue, but as long as the Bay Area remains a desirable place to live, geographical limitations will continue to feed the housing shortage more than city government will, or can. Especially on the Peninsula, there just isn't much physical space available, and building high-density housing on landfill, whether in Menlo Park, Redwood City, Foster City or elsewhere, just isn't a sustainable proposition for more than a few years.
As others have suggested, the obvious solution to the housing problem, as well as to traffic congestion, is not more (ultimately unsustainable) housing but telecommuting.
A personal note: For nearly 20 years, I rented a little bungalow on Willow Road -- actually on the same block as the famous Willow Road Garage where Hewlett-Packard (some say Silicon Valley itself) began -- and worked, off and on, for Sun Microsystems. It was only a mile and a half to Sun headquarters, where Facebook is now located, and Sun, at the time, looked like it would last forever. Once I found that the technology developed there allowed me to work at home -- telecommute -- I went to the office only for the occasional face-to-face meeting and got a lot more work done without the distractions of a corporate office. I give Facebook another 10 years -- 20 years max -- or less if liquifaction becomes an issue in the next big earthquake.
11
But this doesn't explain why a tech company is so dependent on geography.
4
Ummm... how about opening other offices elsewhere and/or letting people telecommute? This is not about helping employees, it's a power grab. Not only that, it's slightly hidden segregation.
1
For the life of me I cannot understand how people willingly hand over their personal and private information to Facebook.
Facebook's business model, their source of income is to sell your information. No amount of 'leaning in" changes the fact that you are being abused. Get off of Facebook, it is also LAME
42
Sounds like the old time "company town" in which the landlord/employer soaked the renters/employees and controlled every aspect of their lives.
Anyone who lives in one of these places is likely part of the Cult of Zuck, sort of like the Cult of Trump. "Tell me how to live my life, DEAR LEADER."
Who do these people think they are?
8
"Maybe a cultural center".
They're contemplating building a community and debating whether a cultural center would be beneficial. Yep, that's Facebook.
18
What culture?
5
There was an awful movie called The Circle. I think it captured the shallow hubris of big tech...even its "heroine" believed in the same baloney as the more malevolent CXO's of this FB type company.
I would never work for a place that also had a live on campus...how awful; how insulated; how like that rotten movie I saw.
Mr. Zuckerberg appears to be out of touch for billions of reasons.
103
The novel by Dave Eggers was much better.
1
If my company offered cheap housing, I'll take that up in a second. In fact, it's probably going to be one of those perks (like free lunch) that is expected. Its ridiculous in the bay area.
And don't tell people to move out. They won't because they don't want to. The companies won't because that's where the talent is.
1
Haven't seen the movie but the book is by Dave Eggers. It is a story which ought to be too ridiculous to be true, except it's not.
2
Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.
This is what these tech ghettos will rapidly turn into.
Isn't anyone looking further down the road than the next cash stream, the next power grab?
11
Will protests against Facebook policies be allowed in this “public sphere”?
9
Big Brother, Mark Zuckerberg is watching.
9
Technology is the new religion.
4
The Stepford Wives, the movie comes to mind although in this community it will be everyone... A white privileged enclave with the same mindset..Eeee!
2
I'm currently engrossed in the Wild Wild Country documentary and I couldn't help but see parallels between the Rajneeshees take over of Antelope, OR and what Facebook is doing in Menlo Park.
9
The focus on Facebook and Google is understandable but misplaced. The core concept here -- enclosing profitable workers in a bubble of corporate security and surveillance -- is already widely used in China and the model for urban renewal prjects in places like Toronto (or the future winner of Amazon's HQ2).
The point is a multifaceted technology is being created that treats human capital as livestock and manages human life entirely within a carbon based infrastructure of supply, command and control.
Human as veal pen animals. You've already experienced it in your corporate cubicle. Well, it's on its way to your internet, your street, your home, your bedroom, your refrigerator, and your soul.
12
Facebook's CEO is not the first to conceptualize an ideal life-style arrangement. Once again in a NYT comment, let me quote from George Sarton's insightful and readable book, "Ancient Science through the Golden Age of Greece". I have reached his chapter which describes Plato's conception of an ideal society. Mr. Sarton says, "In the 'Statesman', the rulers of the state are likened to shepherds of men. That comparison and similar ones occur many times in Plato: the rulers are shepherds, the guardians are the dogs, the masses are the herd. The art of ruling men is not essentially different from that of managing and breeding cattle." Later, the author wonders, "Where would one find an elite worthy of such an exalted position and one that would not abuse it?"
Where indeed?
1
That dumb Tom Hanks movie 'The Circle' is starting to look less dumb.
6
What a sad, pathetic life.
You live with your "friends", instead of with any real friends.
10
Five figure bonus for living close to the office?? Now you are talking! I get pissed every day because I have to pay to take public transportation, yet everyone I work with (really everyone!) drives to work and gets free parking. This is not demonstrating commitment to fighting global warming!!San Diego's output of global warming gases is 40% from transportation!
I am a resident of Belle Haven, the neighborhood in Menlo Park that is home to the sprawling Facebook campus. I have mixed feelings about its continued development. Here are a few pros/cons re: the presence of our high-tech neighbors, off the top of my head:
Pro: Improved bike paths and pedestrian walkways, an underground tunnel that made it safe to cross under a major expressway to access the Bay Trail, sponsorship of a local farmer’s market, funding for the rehabbing of our community pool, hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for community grants and programs, a new police officer and neighborhood substation, and the value of my home increasing 132% (from 500K to 1.16M) since I bought it in 2013. It seems to me that Facebook does try to be a good neighbor to our community. Things the City of Menlo Park has been discussing (but has rarely moved on) are happening thanks to the infusion of Facebook money - eg. a grocery store and pharmacy in our community, along with the construction of more affordable housing.
Cons: The influx of affluent tech workers who continue to fuel the Bay Area’s ever-increasing income inequality and affordable housing crisis, gentrification that is displacing people and families who built this community and who have lived here for decades.
What a tradeoff. There are big winners and even bigger losers. As in most of the rest of the world, the losers are the poor, economically and politically powerless, and minorities.
14
"We’re solving a problem here."
Tech is about problem solving. Find a problem; solve it. This has been going on, in big ways, since the Industrial Revolution, although the Information Revolution accelerated it.
Trouble is Future Shock, which is both the title of a once-best-selling book (published half a century ago), and a real thing -- which that book's author succinctly defined as "too much change in too short period of time."
I grew up in what's now called Silicon Valley. Today I live not far away, in San Francisco. The best thing that's happened in the last few years, at least around here, is the passing of the notion that tech is just wonderful. For the longest time nobody (around here) could say a bad thing about it. The myth, more or less universally accepted, was that tech delivered tons of wealth while making the world a better place.
Glad we can finally see through that one.
Tech solves problems -- and creates them. Future shock is real.
44
They might be trying to solve problems, but while doing so they've also created additional problems for local residents. Traffic and housing prices in surrounding areas have gotten worse and now with the addition of housing units, school systems will be impacted. Residents of Menlo Park will be asked to bear the burden of supporting additional infrastructure by way of paying additional taxes.
Isn't' this just another case of a private company stepping in where government has failed to act? (See Amazon providing health care for employees or certain companies increasing minimum wage without being required to). Over the course of the next few years we citizens will have to rely on companies to continually step in where governments don't. In California, they have had a hard time reeling in housing prices and markets - but tech companies have to compensate employees in order to attract and retain them. What I've seen is some companies hiring engineers in other cities where they have offices, where it is cheaper to live and they can pay the engineer less - saving the company money but also providing a job outside of Silicon Valley. It's true though that we probably shouldn't trust these companies to run town, if they can't even run their own business properly.
2
The business world once failed so spectacularly (the Great Depression) that their iron grip upon our lives was finally loosened. In the response, Americans saw how government, being the only large-enough counterbalance, could harness the excesses of business through progressive taxation and regulation to greatly improve our country.
Many forgot the historical lesson, but the corps. never did. They spent decades coming up with ways to first weaken and break the power of gov., and then making sure that enemy could never regain the strength to fight again.
First, with pithy slogans like "gov. is the problem," they weakened people's trust in it. Then, when given control, corpo-politicos broke its back with corp. tax-breaks, deficits, and subsequent austerity. These had a two-fold effect: not only was gov. weakened, but its inability to act bolstered the cynical claim that gov. was never the solution.
Then they took over the gov. by controlling courts through any means necessary (e.g. stealing a Supreme Court seat), regulatory capture, and public financing of private profit. They made gov. so beholden to corps. that the former became simply an extension of the latter.
Now here is the next step. Not content with breaking and controlling gov., the corps. now move to completely supplant it. The middle-man is being cut out so that the corp. is now the gov. itself. And people, so starved for progress after years of enforced paralysis, welcome it with open arms.
God help us all.
88
It reminds one of "Rollerball", in which corps. totally supplanted sovereign nations.
2
Speaking as someone with a decent knowledge of computer science, why do programmers need to be physically present on a corporate campus? You're either meeting the parameters and deadlines of your project or you're not. Establishing internet redundancy is pretty easy if you live anywhere remotely on the grid. Whiteboarding ideas is easily accomplished with a few dollars worth of hardware. I really don't see the need to build infrastructure, and oversight, around a problem that doesn't actually exist.
If you're not a self-disciplined coder, that's fine. Go buy a two million dollar house in California. You can pay to enjoy a regular work environment. Personally, I would opt to live in a much less expensive area and bankroll the savings towards an early retirement. Buying-in to corporate tech culture is a losing proposition. The "benefits" aren't about benefiting employees. They'll take more out of you for less at every opportunity. That's the corporate equation. I guess you've already bought into corporate on-boarding if you joined Facebook though.
37
There is value-add to individual effort when conducted in a group evironment in person. Bouncing ideas off others, sharing code/designs/brainstorms informally and in face-to-face meetings stimulates new approaches and places more eyes on a proposed solution.
Working in collaborative teams in proximity generates creative energy not present via video- or Web-conferencing.
A value-add for the employer maybe. If you've sat through enough pointless meetings, you'll notice group collaboration is mostly a punishment for talented employees. I'm pulled from my desk to go spend an hour explaining software design to a disinterested audience that's simply happy to be away from their desks. I then go back to my desk and actually implement everything I just spent an hour explaining because either the room wasn't listening or they don't care.
In-person meetings can accomplish a lot. However, they are just as often an unrecognized time drain on the entire staff. You can communicate essential information digitally. You don't need to live next door to your co-workers in order to be successful.
6
Yes, there's an argument to be made in favor of this approach, but for the last 10 years or so, I found that I seldom needed to be physically present at my clients' headquarters because, for a typical conf call, everybody (or nearly everybody) would be either in their home office in Houston, Berkeley, London, Mumbay, Portland, Ottowa, etc., or somewhere else "in the field". Under these circumstances, there was no need for me to drive an hour, or even five minutes, to Palo Alto or Redwood Shores to sit alone or with one other person in a conference room.
"Some likes taters, some likes rice..."
1
I can see the sign: Welcome Zuck-Ups. Yes, to answer your question, they will find plenty of Silicon Stepford Wives. They are just making explicit what has been de facto for two decades. By the way, no one should be surprised that a company that makes money exploiting the social insecurities of teenagers (and conformists of all ages) wouldn't care much about privacy.
17
Scary stuff, more suitable for a sci fi movie than reality, but now that we are living in the Trump era, I guess it fits right in.
3
Just think what local, county, and state governments could do if the Alphabets, Apples, Facebooks, and Googles didn't have legal mechanisms (and plenty of smart lawyers and accountants) to shift income to avoid taxes. Rather than recreating the company store phenomenon of our industrial past, we'd all be able to enjoy more and better parks, schools, and healthcare, if (and it's a big "if") the tax burden was more evenly shared across society.
I know, Mitt Romney thinks captains of industry are the agents of their own success, but none of these companies would exist without public investment in infrastructure, bandwidth, research, and education, not to mention IP protection and the stability of a country that mostly abides by the rule of law. Business taxes are simply the public's return on our investment, and right now we are getting shorted, even as the oligarchs play at noblesse oblige.
60
In Seattle, entire blocks of traditional working class homes are being raised and replaced with generic apartments filled with tech workers, paying upwards of $4k per month to live there. Everything is at there fingertips and nothing to keep them from their 24 hour a day immersion in a world created by their companies. One can still see the old neighborhoods of tiny craftsmen homes with flowers in the well-kept yards and across the street the future.
Is this truly what we want? If not, then we will have to act soon and together.
We have a housing crisis in the country. The only way to preserve what we have is to act together by refusing zoning changes. But this will also mean building a lot more housing to reduce market pressures.
4
You do realize the last two things you ask for are kinda contradictory, right? And that tech employees aren't really happy about the prices either. It's barely within our capacity to pay. There needs to be more housing, especially lower to middle income housing, but the nimby types such as yourself guarantee that prices will continue to rise by resisting change (high-rises, higher density construction). Hey, it's not so bad for us since the already overly expensive house we're buying will double in value in 10 years, and it does preserve the skyline, but it also means nobody else will be able to afford to remain. Sad, but largely self inflicted. See San Francisco.
2
"In just a few years, Facebook built a virtual community that linked more than two billion people, an achievement with few precedents."
In just a few years, Facebook created a way to harvest the most intimate economic, health, behavioral, psychological, and sociological information about two billion people, all for sale to the highest bidder whatever the consequences, an achievement with few precedents."
Which description is more accurate?
179
Exactly, and well said.
1
Both are right. And BTW: 40% of Americans are NOT on FB .. there is hope for the USA.
Will Facebook track their purchases, interactions, activities and demographic data and sell that as well? Do residents give us their privacy to Facebook?
And why only 1500 units when the housing need is so dire? Why not build up?
5
This article seemingly describes a marriage between19th century industrial towns, where the textile mills or coal companies owned all the property and controlled every aspect of their workers lives, with mass cult-like ideologies such as Scientology. People are social beings with a natural affinity to live together in groups with common beliefs or goals, and yet my impression from this article is that Silicon Valley has become a kind of creepy dystopia, like one of those movies where everyone always smiles and looks happy, until the bad stuff begins.
124
Bingo! A company town where financial pressure can control lifestyle, behavior, and even belief. I was told that my relatives who were in a company town lived in constant fear of losing their jobs and behaved accordingly.
71
Absolutely, in a company town, there are always eyes upon you. In computer company town, everything in your house, car, and work will be watching you.
5
Reminds me of The Truman Show.
3
The entire San Francisco Bay Area is completely clogged with traffic and loads of construction equipment building massive condominiums everywhere they can. Almost built on top of commuter train tracks, one is welcomed to purchase a "luxury" mini condo called" Trestle Estates". Many long time residents are wishing for the tech bubble to burst, or be housed elsewhere. And then there is the issue of a treasonous activity by THE giant in silicon valley. I hear North and South Carolina would love to have the business.
35
I just read about a new documentary on Netflix which I am curious to see, It chronicles a town in Oregon that was taken over by a guru from India and his followers in the 80's. It seems they liked to wear red, engage in free love and sunbathe naked in the local parks. Accolytes ran for city council spots and won. Eventually the government entered the scene and it seems to have fallen apart.
The planet's addiction to tech and platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. is, in my opinion, scary. The CEO's are the new 21st century gurus who seduce via a much larger pathway, the internet.
What astounds me is that people, some smart people, voluntarily give up their privacy to these entities.It was only a matter of time that company communities would strive to keep their employees on the treadmill.
The monetizing of people as products to mine is mind boggling, but in the final analysis no one is holding a gun to anyone's head to join these networks. Vanity thy name is all the members of Facebook et al, who simply cannot bear the thought of anonymity.
26
I can tell you that most experienced IT professionals I know saw social media as evil from day one. Before Facebook it was considered common good practice to never use your real name online. Facebook destroyed that caution, took advantage of the ignorant, and we are reaping the consequences today.
3
Well said, Han Dwavey. I've never used my real name online or put a photo of myself online. Heck, I even use fake birth dates and such on top of it. Always add as much noise to signal as you can.
1
How ironic! The tech industry that has revolutionized the world to create online shopping (that destroyed brick and mortar retailers) and social media (that has impacted our elections, and endangered our personal and financial safety) needs a "company town" to house its employees. What a blast from the past!
Why, with all its technological expertise, can't these companies spread this industry across the nation and provide improved infrastructure, wages and economic opportunity to small towns and rural areas not in the Pacific Northwest?
Maybe before they suffocate families and businesses that their presence is currently overwhelming and destroying.
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Rural areas in the Pacific Northwest are not benefiting either. If you live East of the Cascades these companies have no presence, except for a few server farms that hire very few people. They haven't spread their industry around because I think the people they are trying to attract want to live in an urban, environment that they think is cool.
The answer to your question is simple:’Silicon Valley’ has some of the best weather in the world.
1
No mention of the loss of 50 million FB users data at the hands of this company. And the ethics issues related to funding of things like legal services stopped me in my tracks. You don’t have to look far historically to see the other potential consequences: Coal miners with lung diseases were sent back into the mines by doctors the company choose and paid for. This is not a benevolent organization. When are we going to take notice of that?
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Probably too late, and probably with violence.
1
See the Roger McNamee interview on PBS Newshour on facebook.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg are both responsible for this mess. They betrayed their customers.
73
I, for one, feel they betrayed our country as well.
3
They betrayed their customers by decimating their privacy — while fiercely protecting their own.
4
They betrayed their country.
1
"As workers begin to literally live at the office, they will inevitably be more beholden to bosses who also collect the rent."
This to me is nightmarish.
And don't be surprised when it comes out that FB is tracking and collecting data on everything that happens in it's own little Pottersville including your purchases at the stores, who comes and goes at what times, etc. Read the fine print on any lease or purchase agreement -- somewhere in there you're probably consenting to all kinds of stuff.
Remember, FB's entire business model is selling data it collects from users.
202
"And don't be surprised when it comes out that FB is tracking and collecting data on everything that happens in it's own little Pottersville including your purchases at the stores, who comes and goes at what times, etc. "
That's done now. Every time the cashier at your supermarket scans a purchased item: That's captured. As is every purchase you make anywhere.
Only if you pay cash can the data collection behemoths not capture, store, analyze, and sell your purchase history.
This article does a good job of showing the absurdity in the situation, but also recognizing the dysfunctional status quo that got us here. Densely settled regions in the U.S. all seem to struggle with transportation, only breaking ground on truly ambitious public transport projects when the situation has reached crisis levels. Is it just an inherent issue with democracy that short-term planning almost always wins?
The cultural issues brought up in the article are also quite interesting. If a large tech company is truly interested in diversity, having their employees all live and work in a cultural bubble hardly seems conducive to that goal. Perhaps Facebook should break up it's company into smaller modules, similar to Alphabet, and locate them in a variety of states, so monolithic work communities are not necessary.
20
Part of the root of this problem is that large companies generally pay local taxes at much less than the “full” rate, if they pay them at all. This is because states and municipalities use tax breaks to lure companies and also because these companies can be very clever and flexible in where they report their assets. End result is that the population of the community increases with all the new employees but the resources to meet the needs of the population do not. Companies would rather build their own towns than pay more in taxes - probably because they can deduct the cost of building the town from their federal taxes.
We already live in a society where white collar workers are expected to work until the assigned tasks are done, rather than any set shift. Nap pods and company canteens merely acknowledge the reality that employees don’t have time to leave the office for lunch, or even go home at night when home is hours away. Working 9 to 5 with an hour for lunch is a thing of the past.
RB
43
George Orwell in spades. This has gone far enough, corporate tech culture, is not real culture. Google and Facebook have their heads so far up a dark ally they have lost all perspective. And now that they have ruined what was once an admirable collection of communities they propose ghettoizing it with their workers enclosed in bubbles where they will further turn into Stepford people. Automatons who can be put to work fixing elections and either not care or not know what they are doing. These are the people working hard to invent the next fake need and provide you with the only way it can be fulfilled.
Small wonder the world is the way it is with people like these driving the bus.
What we have in the tech sector is a bubble economy, bubble consciousness, bubble culture, and the beginnings of our dystopian nightmare.
Cream "We're Going Wrong"
Please open your eyes,
Try to realise.
I found out today we're going wrong,
We're going wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
12
The concept isn't all that new. Steinway Piano built a similar neighborhood for its employees over a century ago in Astoria, Queens, NY.
5
There are pretty nice rowhouses in Trenton all leading down to the Roebling steel factory, dating from the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1870's.. Rochester New York is all Kodak company housing..The list is really endless, and quite old - how about the worker housing surrounding the pyramids, some even with teeny little pyramids that the head 'engineer' built for himself.
3
The concept isn't new, but how it is going to be done is. And computers/surveillance is the difference.
5
I don't think I'll ever love a company enough to want to live on campus. It'd be interesting to see an unbiased third party do a study on the employees' work/life balance once they've lived on campus for awhile.
16
I'm pretty sure that Zuckerberg Facebook would allow an "unbiased third party" to walk and inspect their company towns as soon as Big Ag allows PETA or Greenpeace to walk and inspect their chicken farms.
The chance of either is roughly nope in a million.
4
If this "community" offers decent, affordable housing for people of all ages and income levels, then bring it on. Who cares who builds it? Housing in this country has become impossible - exorbitant rents and mortgages ridiculously difficult to obtain.
3
No, housing isn't impossible. You just have to be realistic in what you want. Housing in California is exorbitant because these guys in the tech companies make so much money.
7
Really interesting article. I'd love to know more about the mill clock in Lowell which slowed down during shifts and sped up at night, but I can't find any source to back up that claim online. Does anyone (or the article author) have a link to more information about that claim?
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See page 24 of this article --
https://digilib.k.utb.cz/bitstream/handle/10563/28931/bartasov%C3%A1_201...
Thanks! That article doesn't seem to cite its sources on the Pawtucket clock claim, but I was able to find a couple of interesting backups to that claim here (http://www.rihs.org/assetts/files/publications/1997_Feb.pdf, 12th page of the PDF) and here (https://books.google.com/books?id=h8P-uuyYe_YC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&....
The pamphlet "Corporations and Operatives" written by a Lowell resident does not mention the clock idea (full text here: https://archive.org/stream/39002011123487.med.yale.edu/39002011123487.me....
Facebook can't run their own business properly as we find out right now. How can anybody think they can run their own town?
This is a totalitarian nightmare in the making.
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“Instead of being beholden to the public, public servants will be beholden to a private company,” a local activist, J.T. Faraji, said at a City Council meeting.
That FB and Google can't see that this is a seriously bad idea is as disturbing as what is in the news now.
Everything William Gibson foresaw in his book Neuromancer is coming to pass. We are not solving any of our problems, just adding to them.
31
They run their business properly from their perspective; their problem is that people are finding out more about what that business really is.
16
it's the new stockholm syndrome..
8