Programmers are low-paid highly-paid workers. (Especially when you factor in rents in SF.)
If tech workers didn't move in, it would be folks in biotech, or finance, or high-end sales, or...
There are many factors that drive up rents in SF. The primary -and by far largest- factor is the fact that it's nearly impossible to build new housing. Get the City Supervisors to hang obstructionist landlords, NIMBYs, and Real Estate Investment Firms who are currently making mad bank [0] out to dry and you'll -relatively- quickly see rents drop back to vaguely sane levels.
The enemy isn't tech workers. The enemy is those who choose to make obscene profits, rather than permitting others to build housing to meet current and near-future demand.
Tech workers make up ~8% of SF's population.
Programmers are low-paid highly-paid workers. (Especially when you factor in rents in SF.)
If tech workers didn't move in, it would be folks in biotech, or finance, or high-end sales, or...
There are many factors that drive up rents in SF. The primary -and by far largest- factor is the fact that it's nearly impossible to build new housing. Get the City Supervisors to hang obstructionist landlords, NIMBYs, and Real Estate Investment Firms who are currently making mad bank [0] out to dry and you'll -relatively- quickly see rents drop back to vaguely sane levels.
The enemy isn't tech workers. The enemy is those who choose to make obscene profits, rather than permitting others to build housing to meet current and near-future demand.
[0] And have been for at least ten years.