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0 pointschipotle_coyote6y ago0 comments

I'd agree with it being bad for the quality of life, but eliminates is a bit of an exaggeration. It makes it more difficult, to be sure, but there's a BART station in South San Francisco and a free shuttle that runs between there and Oyster Point. For anyone coming up from the Peninsula or the South Bay, though, this might be a commuting improvement.

Of course, the big difference is that Stripe's current office is at the edge of SOMA and Mission Bay, within pretty short distance of the Embarcadero and Financial District. Their new office will be...a business park. No offense to business parks -- Bishop Ranch in San Ramon is unexpectedly lovely -- but they're rarely known for their vibrant cafés, restaurants and nightlife.

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x0x06y ago

Do you ride Bart?

You're going from a local commute to bart -> walking to the office, to a local commute to bart -> going to a station that is skipped by 3/4 of bart lines (ie requires an xfer for Antioch, Pleasanton, or Fremont) -> a shitty bus. NB: Bart is ass and generally is too incompetent to align train and bus schedules.

This adds probably at least 45 minutes each way for anyone coming from SF or East Bay locations and using public transit. It's an enormous downgrade.

chipotle_coyoteOP6y ago

I have ridden BART and Caltrain in the past for work. I've had commutes that involve transfers, too -- usually Caltrain to MUNI.

I don't think what you're saying contradicts anything that I said -- I said that the move to SSF makes it more difficult to commute via BART, but that it was too strong to say that it "eliminates" the possibility of doing so.

In any case, I really suspect that if companies keep moving to the SF Bay Area and keep growing, they're going to have to start moving to places that are out of the city. The rent per square foot in SF is approaching $85/ft^2, the highest it's been since the original dotcom boom; downtown San Jose is around $60/ft^2, better but not that much better. But places like San Ramon, Fremont, non-downtown San Jose, and yes, South San Francisco are around $30/ft^2. Some would argue that staying in the Bay Area at all is silly for tech companies at this point; while I don't think I'd make that argument, if I had several hundred employees to find space for, I just don't think I'd do it in the City.

jdavis7036y ago

Before claiming incompetence consider there are at least 23 different transit agencies in the Bay Area BART has to coordinate with. Yes, we need a system that integrates seamlessly (I personally feel it, I ride BART from Oakland to Caltrain in Mountain View 10-12 times a week). But blaming BART alone for this problem misses the root cause: fragmented transit operators. We need a lead or unified agency like the MTA in NYC or WMATA in DC.

inferiorhuman6y ago

Do you ride Bart?

How do you think most East Bay commuters are getting to San Francisco?

wbronitsky6y ago

This isn't a very helpful argument. I live in Oakland and commute to San Francisco and rarely take Bart because there are many other options that don't involve me breathing directly from someone else's exhalation like we all are forced to on Bart.

Personally, I take casual carpool, https://sfcasualcarpool.com/, to work and a transbay bus home. Total cost is $6.50/day, which is cheaper than commuting by Bart, and because I live 30 mins walking from Bart, it is also much faster.

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randycupertino6y ago

Most all of my coworkers from East Bay drive in, but my office is in Mission Bay and BART doesn't go there. People used to take BART to the shuttles but so many people were quitting as a company retention thing they started letting everyone wfh during rush hours, commute off hours and gave people free parking instead. I like the flexibility but it's still a pita.

Bay Area needs more robust interconnected public transit, and higher density housing near transit hubs.

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