Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

Re:Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers f... by Nursie on Sunday August 16, 2020 @02:16PM (#24179914)

> But cities have enduring appeal - proximity to people and culture and things to do is just as much a factor as proximity to work.

Proximity to people may be something that loses appeal in the medium term.

This is a suspicion rather than anything that can be evidenced yet, we'll see how it plays out, but I think it might start counting as a negative, or less as a positive, for a while.

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Re:Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers f... by throwaway2048 on Sunday August 16, 2020 @03:14PM (#24180370)

Few people are going to restructure their entire life over medium terms concerns, if they can avoid it.

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Re:Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers f... by Nursie on Sunday August 16, 2020 @03:35PM (#24180534)

Firstly, I disagree, I think a lot of people structure their lives around the medium term - "I'm going to retire to X one day, but for the next few years I'm doing Y", "for now the city life is great, but I'm putting aside some cash for a house in the burbs in a few years" etc etc

But secondly, that's not really what I meant, I meant that for the next several years people's motivations and choices are likely to be impacted by the virus. This may result in a larger percentage of people moving away from cities or choosing not to move to them.

i.e. I'm not talking about an individual holding the thought in their head that "I don't want to be in a city, in the medium term, but may move back later", but a population which is less favourable to city life in the medium term, and holds a greater proportion of people who think "I don't want to live in the big smoke at all"

I may be wrong, of course, but I think we're already seeing it to a small extent.

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