Right.

"But it isn’t just the tech companies that are changing the city. The city is morphing on its own. All those rent-controlled apartments are turning over. Sure, some are Ellis Act evictions, and there are predatory landlords who should be exposed and shamed.

But tenants are also moving out in the natural order of things. Some are aging; some may change jobs or locations. And when they leave, the rent for those units jumps to market rate, which is too high for many residents."

Landlords are rising rents, not tech workers.

Landlords are raising rents because tech workers are getting paid more. 

I think you lack sufficient historical perspective, Panda. If you look at NYC over several decades, it is far more true that New Yorkers have an understood "sell-by" date. You might have been a badass in art or advertising or publishing when you were young, but at a certain point the cost-benefit of staying in NYC gets to be too much, so you retire to the Catskills or Connecticut or Florida or some other cheaper place where you have a lot of friends. Patti Smith moved to Minnesota long ago, and no one is cooler than her.

I think honestly part of the issue with the Bay Area is that there are few cheapish places that people can go within a reasonable driving radius and still make a living. I recently went to Sacramento and Vallejo, and can't say I saw too much thriving economic activity in those areas. So you can EITHER move to those areas and get cheaper housing, OR you can stay in the Bay and have a job, OR try to make the gigantic commute work. And let's not forget that it is so much easier to move to a place where you have even a couple of friends than where you don't know anyone.

Based on those factors I think it is harder for SF people to make a reasonable move that doesn't just feel like jumping off a cliff. Therefore they fight to stay in the city using the networks they have. We all gotta hustle, but some of us have VC money.

Fair enough but it's causing a massive imbalance.

You could feel it in the anger of that "49ers are the team San Francisco deserves" article.

I agree with Joyce - there is nowhere to move to here.  Traffic is horrendous. Public transportation is not available.   Yes, rents are higher because demand is higher, but still, even those who can 'afford' it pay a very large portion of their salary for renting, and probably cannot afford to buy as a result.