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Comment by tnolet | Hacker News Reader

I live in this neighbourhood and my office is on the same street, one block from the new campus. The area is nice and lively, so I get people want an office there (hell, I did the same!). But Google has the means to positively impact the less hip, more strugling parts of Berlin. I bet people would welcome them with open arms in Marzhan or Wedding.

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This is true, but Google isn't a philanthropic organization. They want to profit from the reflective "hipness" that comes from being based in Kreuzberg, even if by being there they accelerate the destruction of that same hipness.

Yes, but would the people Google wants to hire want to work in Marzahn or Wedding?

If Google is there, they would. And if not Berlin is one of the few cities on this planet where people actually live in the city center and drive outside for work.

People already do for things like university and other companies around the airports. It would be an experiment for Google of course, but they have the means and it could change public opinion massively.

IBM has a train station outside of the city in Scotland, why couldn't Google do that?

I worked in Charité in Wedding - it was fine, the only pain was I was living in Schlachtensee so I had a huge commute every day.

Since most people in those neighborhoods are already suffering under increasing rent prices, I really doubt many of them would be happy to have another gentrifying influence near them.

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