The NY Times published some personal stories of people who live in Silicon Valley.
Quote:
Diane
Diane lives in a spacious house in Menlo Park, the city where Facebook is based. Her home is filled with beautiful objects from a life of travel with her husband, a Chinese businessman and philanthropist, now deceased. The couple moved to the Bay Area over 30 years ago when he retired, and they loved the area — the sunshine, the ocean, the wide-open spaces.
Since then, Diane has watched the area change: “It’s overcrowded now. It used to be lovely, you know — you had space, you had no traffic. Here it was absolutely a gorgeous place. Now it’s heavily populated — buildings are going up everywhere like there’s no tomorrow.
“The money that rolls here is unbelievable,” she continued, “and it’s in the hands of very young people now. They have too much money — there’s no spiritual feelings, just materialism.”
Victor
Victor came to Silicon Valley from El Salvador more than 25 years ago. He lives in a small white trailer in Mountain View, a couple of miles from Google’s campus. He used to live in an apartment nearby but had to leave when the rent got too high.
His trailer is parked in a long line of trailers, some inhabited by others who’ve lost their homes. Victor, who’s now in his 80s, doesn’t have electricity or running water, but the custodians in his old apartment often sneak him in to bathe and to wash his clothes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/b...on-valley.html
|
The two stories that stood out the most to me were Diane's and Victor's. Victor is living a third world slum existence in the middle of the richest region on Earth. Meanwhile, Diane doesn't like the Bay Area anymore because of all the new money. It seems like she has the means to leave but hasn't yet.
It also sounds like some of the Bay Area's problems could be solved by better transit. For instance, the couple living in Foster City said they would consider living farther away to save money but the commute keeps them from doing that.