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Comment by robert_foss | Hacker News Reader

Being a Berliner, on a personal level it would have been nice for me to have a Google office where they would have been.

But I'm very happy about people standing up for their neighborhood and actually protesting. Having a Google office with >400 decidedly well-compensated people move in would very much change the neighborhood and not for the better.

People fighting for their own local interests is what makes Berlin great, and it is _so_ refreshing after having lived in North America where no-one protests anything and letting corporate interests dominate yours is the norm.

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> Having a Google office with >400 decidedly well-compensated people move in would very much change the neighborhood and not for the better.

i don't understand this. so berlin would rather have poor citizens? how is that better for the city? and how would >400 "well-compensated" people affect the city in anything but a positive manner? has there been any sort of study as to how better wages affect a city?

Do you reject the entire concept of gentrification or is there something about this particular instance you have trouble understanding?

Not the parent poster, but I certainly reject the concept of gentrification, or at least reject it as something to be avoided.

That's fair. And you presumably get that other people can have a different opinion so you probably wouldn't be flabbergasted when someone wishes to avoid gentrification. That's what I'm curious about re: parent poster.

> I certainly reject the concept of gentrification

What do you feel about non-resident Chinese nationals investing in real-estate in your city & driving up prices? I noticed HN tends to be ok with gentrification if it's done by well-paid geeks, but not when the same group gets priced-out.

"Gentrification is a process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses."

1. I'm not a well-paid geek.

2. What you are describing isn't gentrification.

There is a finite and already fully utilized number of domiciles. Adding 400 well off families would undoubtedly displace 400 not so well off families over time.

All while jacking up prices of apartments/food/services for everyone.

Where is the positive net effect for people here? The city&state will earn more tax revenue, but for the neighborhood there's nothing positive that's going to happen.

You should look at actual gentrification studies - displacement is almost never as bad as predicted and usually ultimately everyone benefits.

Show me the data.

> so berlin would rather have poor citizens?

not everything is about money

I take "poor citizens" but cultural fecund Berlin anytime over "rich" USA cities with homeless people living on the streets while FAANG workers spend half of their huge salary on mediocre apartments

> and how would >400 "well-compensated" people affect the city in anything but a positive manner?

a city is not only (I would say not at all) the offices of big corporations.

Berlin is also many other things like Köpi or Blu's graffiti in Kreuzberg that he removed few years ago because gentrifiers saw them as a way to keep the place "cool" and raise prices [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/19/why-we...

cultural fecund.. what an expression.

/me swoons

But Google did not want to open a dev center with its own employees there. Campaigners acted like their Kreuzberg was the navel of the world believing that.

This was a „Google for Startups Campus“ project. Co-working spaces and startup events and so on. Money and potential funding for the Berlin startup scene.

I’m rather worried how some vocal and partly violent people, seemingly without a lot of understanding of what they are campaigning against and how the tech world works managed to stop this project.

Have it somewhere else? Have it in Mitte (Downtown) if really needs to exists. Kreuzberg is not a business park.

I don't object to its existence, only location.

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