Category: Quality of Life

Ciao San Fran! Part 3

Will Remote-Work Policies Lead to a Bay Area Exodus?

Highlighting our opinion on one of the five investment drivers, Labor, is the continuing exodus from the San Fransisco area, once a thriving, authentic and awesome city that has ignored resident quality of life. while demanding more and more from those residents. This is great news for those communities that are actually creating great public places where people want to live.

This is great for downtowns

This is great for Florida

This is great for Tennessee

This is great for Texas

From Entrepreneur Magazine – “the next question those companies’ employees will likely ask themselves is natural: Why would I stay in the Bay Area if I’m not going into the office? Long the epicenter of tech in the U.S., the Bay Area has become prohibitively expensive for all but the highest-paid workers. Its housing costs are among the highest in the nation, and it’s gotten so bad that companies like Google have pledged staggering sums to help solve the shortage of affordable housing.”

BusinessFlare Approach Entrepreneurship Investment Drivers Quality of Life

Investment Driver: Labor

Why Resident Recruitment is as Important as Business Recruitment, and Quality of Place is the Best Incentive There Is.

How are employees coping with remote working? | HRD New Zealand

There is the adage that retail follows rooftops. Well, business follows talent, and now more than ever talent seeks out quality of place.

More and more, people in general, and especially the talented workforce, are looking for real, authentic places where they can be part of a community. Places that have character and history, community gathering spots, and opportunities to engage with each other.

Cities that embrace and understand the changing landscape of the labor markets and focus on quality of life as an economic development strategy will position themselves for success. Thirty years ago, when a company advertised for a high-skill job, 10-15 prospects would show up for an interview, and one of them would receive the job. They wanted the job and would accept it on the company’s terms (location, salary, hours, etc).

Fast forward to today. 10 companies might advertise for a high skill job, and one person might be qualified. Today, the worker is in charge, not the company. The worker will set the terms regarding location and telecommuting, salary, hours, etc.

What does this mean for cities?

Similar to the skilled worker/company dynamic, it is now the workforce that is in charge of where they decide to live, and they will make that decision as part of a balance of different lifestyle choices that include housing characteristics, transportation and commuting, school quality, social and recreational activities, and many other factors, even including the presence of craft breweries. As previously mentioned:

Cities that embrace and understand the changing landscape of the labor markets and focus on quality of life and quality of place as an economic development strategy will position themselves for success.

COVID-19 Downtowns Quality of Life

Ciao San Fran! Part 2

Tech Workers Consider Escaping Silicon Valley’s Sky-High Rents

From Bloomberg, a continuation of the coverage of California and the San Fransisco area’s apparent cluelessness regarding how the economy and labor markets work, and their continued efforts to drive business and high skill workers out of their area.

From the article: “Sachin Dhar thought he and his fiancée had a great deal paying $2,650 per month for a one-bedroom rental in South San Francisco, a short commute from Facebook Inc.’s offices in Menlo Park, where she works. But when the social networking company announced that most employees would be working from home until the end of the year, their calculation changed. “It makes no sense paying Bay Area rent if we can earn our salary living elsewhere,” says Dhar, 25, who already works remotely for a New York advertising startup. They’re considering moving to Hawaii—or, to really save money, somewhere in the rural U.S.”

As workers seek out quality of life, working remotely means that they can live in places that offer great quality of life and quality of space, instead of spending you life in bunker in a sea of parking with no authenticity or character.

This is great for downtowns

This is great for Florida

This is great for Tennessee

This is great for Texas

I guess its also great for California… They get rid of those pesky capitalists.