Are tech workers ruining San Francisco?

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Since the 1990s, the tech industry in Silicon Valley has grown and many of those workers own or rent here in San Francisco. In that time, housing prices have gone through the roof and now the city is the most expensive place to live in the United States, beating out Manhattan. Longtime residents are being priced out and teachers, nurses, and police officers are struggling to live in the city. Lots of people blame the tech workers for the problems facing San Francisco, but are they really to blame or just a convenient scapegoat?

Sources:

A. “MissionCommunity Organizing and Resistance in SF’s Mission District” by Miriam Zuk and Karen Chapple. 2015.

B. “Mapping Displacement and Gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

C. Metcalf, G. (2018). Sand Castles Before the Tide? Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 32(1), 59-80.

D. Pogash, C. (2015). Gentrification Spreads an Upheaval in San Francisco’s Mission District. The New York Times

E. “MissionCommunity Organizing and Resistance in SF’s Mission District” by Miriam Zuk and Karen Chapple. 2015.

F. Brinklow, A. (2017). San Francisco says development not to blame for Mission gentrification. Curbed San Francisco.

G. Metcalf, G. (2015). What's the Matter With San Francisco? CityLab.

H. Pogash, C. (2015). Gentrification Spreads an Upheaval in San Francisco’s Mission District. The New York Times

I. Samara, T. (2016). Don’t blame SF’s “leftleaning, antigrowth, NIMBY homeowners” for the city’s housing crisisIt’s not as easy as building our way to victory. Salon.

Video thumbnail: HBO and Wikimedia Commons user Bernard Gagnon.

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