XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.homosexuality, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: lock-up-the-queers@glaad.org   
      
   In article    
    wrote:   
   >   
   > Faggots overpromoted their filthy habits.  Nobody wants to raise children   
   around them.   
   >   
      
   Over the past decade, startups migrated north from Silicon   
   Valley to make San Francisco the country’s hottest tech hub. The   
   streets of the city were bustling as throngs of — mostly tech —   
   workers walked or caught Ubers to their next meetings.   
      
   Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and things slid to a halt. Now,   
   more than two years and several vaccines later, San Francisco’s   
   office scene has still not rebounded and the city’s streets   
   remain eerily quiet.   
      
   If you think it’s even more sparse than other cities you’ve   
   visited lately, you’re right. San Francisco is seeing the lowest   
   attendance rates for office employees in the United States,   
   according to Colin Yasukochi, executive director of real estate   
   brokerage CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. Silicon Valley is not far   
   behind.   
      
   Turns out the region’s heavy reliance on tech workers has also   
   slowed down its recovery, with many local employees continuing   
   to insist on remote work, and employers grudgingly allowing it.   
      
   Tech companies, said Yasukochi, have “been the most   
   accommodating in terms of offering flexibility and not requiring   
   their employees to come back for any number of days. Some   
   certainly have [asked staffers to come back]. But what their   
   policy is and what their compliance is are two different things.”   
      
   He added: “They’re saying you need to be back three days a week,   
   and if you’re only back two days of the week, or one day a week,   
   or not at all, what are they doing to enforce that? And the   
   answer to that question is, not a lot at the moment.”   
      
   Why tiptoe around the issue? Well, despite the fact that the   
   tech industry has seen tens of thousands of workers laid off in   
   recent months, Yasukochi believes that a still-strong labor   
   market that provides employees with plenty of options has “a   
   disproportionate amount of influence” over remote work policies.   
      
   As he explained it, “It’s still very difficult to hire,   
   unemployment remains pretty low, tech workers have been   
   traditionally difficult to hire for, and so many employers are   
   worried about accelerating the normal turnover that they already   
   have.”   
      
   Bottom line, they’re scared. And it’s not just startups that are   
   worried about losing employees. Some of the biggest and most   
   powerful companies have backed off, or at least delayed their   
   return to work plans, because of pushback they received from   
   their employee base. Examples include Apple and Google, among   
   others.   
      
   So just how low are attendance rates for office workers in San   
   Francisco?   
      
   According to Kastle Access Control, in mid-to-late August, San   
   Jose had the lowest attendance rate at 34.8% compared to pre-   
   pandemic levels. San Francisco was not too far behind, at 38.4%,   
   including the East Bay and the Peninsula. By contrast, emerging   
   tech hub Austin’s attendance rate stood at 58.5% in mid-August.   
      
   Supply way up, rents only slightly down   
   Despite so few workers actually going in to the office and the   
   amount of supply on the market in SF having gone up   
   dramatically, rent prices are only down 13.1% since the first   
   quarter of 2020 — from an all-time high of $88.40 per square   
   foot annually then to $76.86 in the second quarter of 2022,   
   according to Yasukochi.   
      
   It’s astonishing, considering that San Francisco’s office market   
   was 4% vacant. It’s now 24% vacant.   
      
   Meanwhile, vacancy rates in San Jose stood at 6% at the end of   
   2019. They are now at 12.5%, which is “not very high relative to   
   the city,” noted Yasukochi.  And office rents have remained the   
   same compared to the end of 2019.   
      
   If you’re curious why San Jose is faring better than its   
   northern neighbor, Yasukochi says it owes to the types of   
   businesses in both cities. While San Jose is home to stalwart   
   businesses like eBay and PayPal that were established over two   
   decades ago, San Francisco has a higher concentration of less   
   established startups that had a harder time surviving and   
   thriving in the pandemic, from companies involved in mobility   
   and transportation to retail to restaurants.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)