The Exile of the Bohemians | Hacker News Reader

The Exile of the Bohemians

read.maintainradiosilence.com

30 pointsyirgacheffe16 comments

"There is no room to expand without replacing something that’s already there. Since few of the Victorian residences that give the city its character are taller than three stories, housing is perpetually in short supply."

The problem isn't yuppies, it's zoning.

San Francisco residents and municipal government are more interested in preserving old buildings than increasing housing supply, then complain that prices are going up? Well yeah, Supply < Demand.

In Miami, we had a similar problem: the booming financial industry brought in yuppies that threatened to displace the Cuban immigrants that give the city character. So the city simply turned the area around the financial firms (Brickell) into a bunch of fancy high-rises.

I'm sure there were plenty of cool old buildings in Brickell. But the municipal government compromised and Miami is better for it.

[1] http://marketurbanism.com/2015/04/20/travel-update-a-tale-of...

Just as I'm reading these comments, I get a text from a bohemian friend about the SF How Weird Festival, which is happening today in SOMA, on 2nd St. She, however, had to move out of SF several years ago. and is now in Oakland.

SF's art and music culture has a long history, but hasn't been very good since, maybe, the 1960s. It's too non-judgmental. In NY, they tell you if you suck. In LA, they don't call you back if you suck. In SF, nobody says anything and you can suck forever. The SF scene is a hotbed of mediocrity. I know people from SF who made it, but they left SF to do so.

There are still artists doing cool stuff in the SF bay area, but they're more spread out now. Big projects are at NIMBY in Oakland or the Richmond shipyard. There are still art studio complexes in the Dogpatch area of SF, in old industrial buildings. Most of them are cranking out art good enough to sell, but not great art. It's a job, not a scene.

Of all the people to hand-wring about, the bohemians are the last we should worry about. They will relocate, but they will be fine - and they'll bring whatever benefits they bring to areas that need them a lot more than cash-flush cities like San Francisco or Manhattan.

Not that I agree with the authors that bohemians are what make a city desirable to wealthy yuppies (like, if we're being honest, myself.) I suspect we both like the same things about higher-density cities while mutually disliking each other.

On the other hand, I moved to the Bay Area in 2013 to work for a big famous tech company and I was utterly disappointed. Earning a high income was no fun because I was trapped in a city full of type-a, over-achievers, who only wanted to talk about work. The people who I most enjoyed hanging out with were financially struggling and on their way out.

Cheaper places allow for more diversity, which creates a healthy and vibrant culture. The Bay Area feels sick to me; like something from a William Gibson novel. I left after a year and will _never_ live there again if I can help it.

Yeah, I'm looking into moving to Austin. Even work-wise, conversations have gone from "What are you building? Nifty, how does it work? Thanks for the link to the schematics" to "What are you building? Nifty, who's funding your project? Ah, nobody? I'm sorry".

Funny I hear the same things from friends who left Austin to Pittsburgh :)

I wonder where the Pittsburghers move to when Pittsburgh's too expensive/no longer cool?

Area is colonized by poor people who by necessity develop a subculture that is adept at surviving in that area with little means.

Hipsters follow poor people, add to the subculture, making it a bit quirkier and interesting.

Rich people follow hipsters, kick everyone else out by raising rent too much.

This has happened before and it will happen again.

What's the next step?

  Hey dude, don’t make it bad
  Take a sad suburb, and make it better
  Remember to let it into your heart
  We need your art to make it better

  Hey dude, don’t be afraid
  Move into this low-status neighbourhood
  The minute you walk around looking hip
  Then you begin to make it better

  And every time we raise the rent, hey dude, relent
  You carry investments on your shoulders
  Enthusiastically organize events
  And decorate retail strips with posters

  Hey dudes, don’t let us down
  We allowed you to rent our suburb
  The minute you open up a cafe
  You start to drive our house prices upwards

  We let it out so you move in, hey dudes, begin
  Exhibit your work in this old warehouse
  Don’t forget to spread the vibe among your tribe
  Then we can convert it to a sharehouse

  Hey dude, don’t you delay
  Get creative in this old neighbourhood
  The minute the area’s looking hip
  We’ll throw you out, and rent it to bankers

http://spill-label.org/nw/lyrics/heydude.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev5abK63DGE

Page fails to render without JS.

Flagged.

The HN guidelines say: "If you think a story is spam or off-topic, flag it by clicking on its 'flag' link." They don't say that it's acceptable to flag an article that doesn't render the way you prefer it to.

I also dislike articles that don't display without JavaScript, but the vast majority of people either have JavaScript enabled or are willing to temporarily disable their JavaScript blocker to view a page they want to read.

If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Point.

Though feedback to the submitter regarding site issues seems useful.

One element I've long thought would be useful for user-curated content sites is the ability to distinguish between editorial comment (that is, concerning the suitability of articles) and discussion. I've seen few if any sites making that distinction.

Or on my ipad

Bohemia is actual country in Europe, but I understand the mistake, it is fairly small. It only has 7 millions citizens and 2000 years of history.

It's part of Czech Republic.

Quite, but part of that history included the Bohemian Quarter around the University of Paris.

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