San Francisco says tiny sleeping ‘pods,’ which cost $700 a month and became a big hit with tech workers, are not up to code::The pods, which are 4-foot-high boxes constructed from wood and steel, made headlines after tech workers praised the spaces.

  • jollyrogue@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    134
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ugh. Bougie homeless. Just sleep in your car like normal people. 🙄 /s

    I do want sleep pods at airports.

    • xkforce@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      58
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Late stage capitalism? They were doing shit like this in the 1800s. It IS capitalism.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Speaking of the relative cost of housing, you can buy an actual whole house in other parts of the USA for that much a month. That could be a 30-year mortgage payment on a 100k house.

        • meat_popsicle@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          In San Francisco/Bay Area that doesn’t even cover a parking space per month.

          In the US, the average home price sold was $495k. Where can you find a $100k house that doesn’t need a tear down or complete renovation?

          source

            • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              My first house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath in rural Texas for 5k more than that. That was 14 years ago. I just looked it up and it’s currently $130k. It was built in the 90s, is brick, and still looks pretty good.

            • Seleni@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              So… your solution is to buy a house hundreds of miles away from their job?

              • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Nope, I simply answered their question: “In the US, the average home price sold was $495k. Where can you find a $100k house that doesn’t need a tear down or complete renovation?”

            • Nobsi@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              7
              ·
              1 year ago

              My guy that is a 1900 built House. That is an immediate teardown on purchase.

              • Enigma@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                1 year ago

                What? Just because a house is old, doesn’t mean it isn’t still habitable. If a house that old is still standing and in good condition chances are it’s built better than new builds. And by the pictures, previous owners have taken a lot of care in it and upgraded it. Sure, the cosmetics may need to change depending on your preferences, but there is nothing wrong with that house structurally.

    • triclops6@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ok obligatory fuck late stage capitalism. That said, hot take, this is a perfectly valid move, 700 for location and a box to sleep in is a welcome option for many renters in the city. If there are shared spaces like kitchen baths etc this works.

      If you want your own space, ok, this isn’t for you, but this alleviates a ton of rental demand which could lower rents in aggregate if enough of these are built!

      The alternative is your whole paycheck goes to rent and you retire a week before death, i’d be all for this if I were single.

      Is someone making a profit? Most definitely, but I get a better option to run my career in the city, I’m down. Not only that, I hope this model picks up so more people can have the option.

      My gripe here is the city, bitching about no windows when this is a pretty tangible solution to many renter’s problems. Either fix it yourself or get out the way when others are addressing it.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is a dormitory with a shared living space, bathrooms and shower. If anything the “bunks” are quite generously sized.

      Take a look at your comment and ask if maybe you’re flipping out unnecessarily.

    • deafboy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      ugh, this is dysphorian THIS IS NOT FUCKING NORMAL. THIS IS LATE STAGE CAPITALISM

  • Dagamant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    A pod for sleeping at home: 👍 A pod for sleeping in a hotel: 👍 A pod to rent for cheap on vacation: 👍

    A pod is your fucking home: 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      I imagine this is more like the Japanese coffin hotels. They are for salary men that work too late to take the trains home.

      In this case, probably for people who don’t want to do the 1-1.5hr each way to their “just affordable enough” commutter home every day. I doubt these are many people’s long term permanent address.

      $700/mo is excessive though.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It’s actually an entire shared living space with a common room, bathrooms, and shower. Not comparable to coffin hotels which are not for extended living. You could absolutely live in these long term. It’s essentially a dormitory. Tech workers fresh out of college probably adapt to them just great. You can’t live anywhere else in SF for $700 and you don’t live in the City to stay home anyway. People living in these spend their time working at lavish offices and going out partying and wining and dining. This is a place to crash, and not even a bad one.

  • OhmsLawn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE to see modern SRO-style buildings, noise proofed, with small individual bathrooms and kitchenettes. That sort of development would be a godsend to the housing shortage, perfect for young people, supercommuters, and recent transplants, as well as for stopgap homeless prevention.

    This isn’t that. This is horrible.

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah young people(students) fresh out on their own and have nothing yet trying to make ends meet don’t have standards yet when they first get out into the world and once they run into responsibilities they find out fast this type of living really isn’t living. It’s actually super limited. Until then: extorters are going to extort.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      But how is this supposed to happen in high-density cities like NYC or SF?

      I don’t have any answers, but as someone who lived in SF for 7 years back in the 90s and early oughts as a student, I know for a fact that “there are no simple solutions for the problems that we face.”

      Yeah, I just quoted a DRI song; guilty as charged!

      • OhmsLawn@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I know. It’s difficult. It would require changes to coding for square footage requirements. It might not be particularly profitable. It’d be expensive to run safely. The opportunity costs would be astronomical (considering the luxury-condo alternative).

        It wouldn’t be the solution, because no one thing is. However, It would be a solution to a narrow set of problems, and an asset to residents and workers if it were managed and secured properly. I think one key would be ensuring that it didn’t become a shelter for the vagrant homeless population, nor a place for families, just a relatively inexpensive, clean, safe option for individuals to land for a while.

  • J12@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    $700 for this is insane. I get why they’re doing it but there’s no reason anyone should pay $700 for a bed.

    San Francisco should build their own get that shit up to code, make it about 30 stories, have spots for restaurants, stores, retail at the bottom and make it actually affordable and for everyone. There should be no market for 700 a month 4 foot tall boxes. Greedy fucks.

    Shit should be like $50 a month max

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Just what is shown in the photo would get you $7000 a month… why rent out 2-3 houses when you can rent out 10 boxes I guess.

      • Lyrl@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        With a housing shortage, say 10 people needing a place to live in this space, renting 2-3 houses leaves 7-8 people homeless. Making progress can’t be just a rejection of sub(sub)standard solutions, it has to also be building acceptable but dense housing.

    • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      And then with all the rampant corruption it would turn into a overpriced slum. Yes I’m pessimistic, and I hope I can be proven wrong and that your idea would happen.

    • triclops6@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Ok hot take, this is a perfectly valid move, 700 for location and a box to sleep in is a welcome option for many renters in the city. If there are shared spaces like kitchen baths etc this works.

      If you want your own space, ok, this isn’t for you, but this alleviates a ton of rental demand which could lower rents in aggregate if enough of these are built!

      The alternative is your whole paycheck goes to rent and you retire a week before death, i’d be all for this if I were single.

      Is someone making a profit? Most definitely, but I get a better option to run my career in the city, I’m down. Not only that, I hope this model picks up so more people can have the option.

      My gripe here is the city, bitching about no windows when this is a pretty tangible solution to many renter’s problems. Either fix it yourself or get out the way when others are addressing it.

      Edit: lots of group think and virtue signalling here. If these aren’t there you don’t even have the choice, it’s 5k rent or move away from the city. That’s not bootlicking that’s fact. Whining about landlords being greedy isn’t a solution, and this is.

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You sound like the guy who founded a company to kill himself next to the wreckage of a really old ship.

        “That damned city, bitching about safety regulations! They need to just get out of the way of innovation!”

    • Sunroc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      As a person who worked at one of these cool tech companies that provided food for breakfast lunch and dinner and snacks 24/7, I found I was only using my apartment to sleep. Most of the offices of other amenities such as a gym, and all the tech workers would go out for happy hours. If I was single this would be a very valid option. Some people don’t plan to spend time in their apartments.

      • OrangeJoe@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        1 year ago

        I never understood that whole tech/startup culture. I would absolutely hate for my entire life to be my job. And from the outside all these “cool” perks are very clearly designed to get you to spend as much time working as possible. No thanks.

        • Sunroc@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          1 year ago

          I worked normally hour, I just didn’t need a full apartment. You going to start your work day there’s breakfast you work there’s lunch you work until 5:00 and then you go to the gym and then you go back for dinner when you do something cool in the city. I actually have really fond memories of that period.

          • OrangeJoe@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            13
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m glad it worked out for you. And I also know that my idea of it all can’t possibly apply to every single company that was or is a part of that whole culture.

            I just find myself sceptical of it all since I much prefer to have my own time, and my own space as separate from work and the people I work with. And perks like that just very clearly seem designed to get me to spend as much time at work as possible.

            • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              I really think that it started as real perks to attract a lot of talent, and slowly got morphed and abused into a way to siphon minutes out of employees lives.

              • hansl@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                It kind of started when Google, Apple and others started colluding to keep wages low by refusing to hire each other’s talent. They’ve been found guilty of that and I got a nice check of about 10$ plus a pinky promise they wouldn’t do it again. Yeah!

                • V H@lemmy.stad.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  It started before that. In '98 I remember having dinner with someone who worked at Netscape before then who told me about how a co-worker had just been fired for living in the office, something they’d apparently decided to do in the first place because they already then had all of these perks designed to keep them in the office.

                  The Google, Apple etc. collusion certainly was a huge step up in abusive practices, though.

        • Renacles@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          For what it’s worth, I’m an engineer and my experience is the complete opposite, it’s a super chill job and I have all the free time I could possibly want.

          I guess it depends on what job you look for.

      • V H@lemmy.stad.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        Having worked at, and co-founded, multiple startups over a period of 28 years: Sure. But why are you choosing that?

        The reality is that the moment I started standing up to employers or investors and expecting decent standards, they folded and I was able to have a good work-life balance and get paid market rates and still get to work on cool startups and get shares.

        These companies prey on most people never thinking to negotiate (and having been on the other side of the table, and tried to be decent: most people never negotiate, even though we almost always have space to do so)

        • grayman@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          These people are making $80k at the very bottom, $120-200k is typical. Keep in mind they are paying 40% in income taxes alone (federal, state, social security, Medicare). When rent is $3-4k for a room you just sleep in, $700 for a smaller room is a nice savings.

          • onlinepersona@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            80k minimum? I feel so Europoor.

            Actually… 5 weeks of holiday, mostly free healthcare, good public transport, a mostly functioning democracy 🤔 Maybe not that poor. Still can’t afford a house 😭

            • grayman@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              This is a California city. The rest of the US is not so nuts. And it’s funny you mention socialist benefits. CA is the most socialist state and it’s a giant shit hole for most people.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      The excuse by the residents as to why this is ok is certainly that.

      How dumb do you have to be to complain about how much living in the city costs while paying almost a thousand a month to live in a closet… You. You’re the reason it’s expensive and why housing isn’t a priority. You have to stop buying this dumb shit to solve the issue and let’s be honest if you’re paying 700 to live in a closet and praise it’s networking chances you aren’t unable to move.

      • Trollception@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        You do realize a 500 sq ft studio apartment may run $2000/mo or more in that same area right? It’s one of the most expensive places to live in the US

          • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I don’t argue that there aren’t any better solutions, but SF is on a peninsula (called Yerba Buena if anyone cares) and is already the 2nd most densely populated city in the US, which is just to say that it’s a limited space without a lot of options for housing short of building in more density.

  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Gotta love that if you have enough money you can just do the thing you want to do, and if it’s illegal the government will simply ask you nicely to fix it later, maybe even fine you an amount of money that’s at least on order of magnitude lower than the profits you made from it.

    • Zak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I agree there’s a problem with corporations and wealthy people treating fines as a mere cost of doing business, but in situations where there was neither malicious intent nor actual harm, it’s problematic to create a legal minefield with harsh penalties. The goal of regulation should be to gain compliance rather than punish trivial noncompliance. Of course one might argue that something that does no harm ought not be forbidden at all.

      • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        For a case as benign as this that makes a lot of sense but the attitude of entitlement to projects that generate capital is wild, and not doing something as simple as getting the building permits before you start building is really emblematic of that.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Centered in the square carpet of green plastic turf, a Japanese teenager sat behind a C-shaped console, reading a textbook. The white fiberglass coffins were racked in a framework of industrial scaffolding. Six tiers of coffins, ten coffins on a side. Case nodded in the boy’s direction and limped across the plastic grass to the nearest ladder. The compound was roofed with cheap laminated matting that rattled in a strong wind and leaked when it rained, but the coffins were reasonably difficult to open without a key.

    The expansion-grate catwalk vibrated with his weight as he edged his way along the third tier to Number 92. The coffins were three meters long, the oval hatches a meter wide and just under a meter and a half tall.

    – William Gibson, Neuromancer

    Cyberpunk was supposed to be a dystopian vision.

  • Zummy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 year ago

    Tech companies that offer places to sleep, eat and play at work, only do so so they can keep you working as long as a possible. If you never leave the office they make boatloads of money and make yourself a free Eggo waffle. And if you try to work from home so you can live in a city you can actually afford, they make come into the office so it’s impossible. Not because you aren’t doing good work at home, but because you can’t won’t 24/7 at home.

  • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    As someone who’s not American and had a couple of job opportunities to move to San Francisco, I’m glad not to have done it.

    What kind of hellhole is that city? I had an impression it was extremely expensive but also very wealthy. The more I hear the worse it seems.

    • robocall@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I like the city but it’s not for everyone. I definitely wouldn’t call it a hellhole.

    • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      had an impression it was extremely expensive but also very wealthy.

      The trouble with these kinds of statements is that there are always going to be “bottom of the ladder” workers who are still poor in these cities, and being poor in am expensive city is a shit load worse than being poor anywhere else

      Even then, salaries are high, but the CoL more or less cancels it out. Even the wealthy SWEs I know who live in SF are barely able to swing 2 bedroom apartments that they share with an SO. That’s why you hear about new grads making $200k/year right out of college working for Meta or Google, it’s true, but you’d be better off in a lot of ways working for a small company in Sacramento for $100k

    • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      What kind of hellhole is that city? I had an impression it was extremely expensive but also very wealthy. The more I hear the worse it seems.

      LOL start reading about Dubai sometime.

    • GlitterInfection@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And these tech bro pods, which are not really a thing here unlike in Japan where it’s been a thing for a long time, are a gimmicky joke.

      You would get more space and a better place to live in a nicer neighborhood for a similar price if you simply got roommates here. It might be $900 rather than $700 but if you were sharing a bedroom, which would STILL give you more space than these pods, you could easily get down to below $700. These things are preying on tech kids out of college who only know dorm-style life and have been hired into the new AI startups.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      You definitely should have done it for the resume and networking boost. San Francisco is expensive but you can definitely find deals the more you look for them. Plus the Bay Area is bigger than just San Francisco.

      And regarding the other comment, $200K in SF is definitely better than $100K in Sacramento. More money is always better, unless it’s like a 10% bump. First of all, San Francisco is just more beautiful than Sacramento. Food is better. There’s more to do.

      Second of all, Sacramento is getting more expensive because people are moving there from the Bay Area. It’s still cheaper, but prices are growing and you don’t live in a major city. People are paying $500K to live next to a cornfield.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Houses in my area (Ione, about an hour south ish of Sac) going for 550k or so when I bought, and again, an hour from the “big city” (sac isn’t much of a big city compared to actual metropolis but still)

        • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          California real estate is stupid. There is literal farm land right next to expensive ass homes. Building homes is like printing money.

          The weather isn’t good enough to justify it, considering recent fires and the fact that you have to live in the Central Valley. Homes in hot-ass methlandia should not be that expensive.

    • vector_zero@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s expensive because of the concentration of wealth, not the quality of the area. There’s a ton of crime, homelessness, car break ins, etc.

      People often leave their car doors unlocked or their windows down to prevent their windows from being broken, but instead they find random people sleeping in their cars.

      On the plus side, the weather there is quite nice.

    • Throwaway@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of problems coming together.

      Nature is one, they’re warm year round so a lot of homeless folk are better off there.

      Earthquakes prevent them from building tall. The surrounding hills make sprawl hard. Both the earth quakes and hills restrict the supply of housing.

      And thats before you even start the leftist policies.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    “Became a big hit with tech workers” lmao that’s fucking stupid. There’s just nowhere to live that’s remotely reasonably priced in SF. This is like one of the only choices if you really don’t want a roommate.