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In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 9 July 2013 [View all]xchrom
(108,903 posts)25. Silicon Valley’s ugly rich-poor gap is growing
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/09/silicon-valleys-ugly-rich-poor-gap-is-growing/
When Catherine Bracy moved to San Franciscos Mission district from Chicago to head up the technology team for President Obamas 2012 re-election campaign, she was struck by the difference half a minute can make. Walking the 300 feet between the well-to-do Valencia Street and the near-chaos of Mission Street was like moving between different worlds.
In the four months that Bracy lived in the area, five restaurants opened on one block of Valencia, she told an audience of several hundred people at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City in June. Just one block down, Mission Street, the thick, clotted artery of the historic district said to be built in part on Native American slave labor, and for more than a century a home to the working class and, more recently, gangsters and techies, sat in stark contrast.
I would go from a high-end furniture store to stepping over human feces and witnessing crack deals within the span of about 20 seconds, said Bracy, who now runs the international program for Code for America.
The scene she described is an uncomfortable one given San Franciscos status as a center of innovation and wealth, a description that extends to the Bay Area in general, taking in Silicon Valley, the fabled home of the technology industry. This, after all, is a part of the country in which 43 percent of households make more than $100,000 a year, compared to 21 percent in the rest of the country. The Bay Area has the fifth highest concentration of millionaires in the US, and the median home price is $500,000. Down the 101 in Palo Alto near where youll find Google, Facebook, Stanford University, and top-shelf venture capital firms the average sale price of a home is $2 million.Silicon Valleys ugly rich-poor gap is growing
When Catherine Bracy moved to San Franciscos Mission district from Chicago to head up the technology team for President Obamas 2012 re-election campaign, she was struck by the difference half a minute can make. Walking the 300 feet between the well-to-do Valencia Street and the near-chaos of Mission Street was like moving between different worlds.
In the four months that Bracy lived in the area, five restaurants opened on one block of Valencia, she told an audience of several hundred people at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City in June. Just one block down, Mission Street, the thick, clotted artery of the historic district said to be built in part on Native American slave labor, and for more than a century a home to the working class and, more recently, gangsters and techies, sat in stark contrast.
I would go from a high-end furniture store to stepping over human feces and witnessing crack deals within the span of about 20 seconds, said Bracy, who now runs the international program for Code for America.
The scene she described is an uncomfortable one given San Franciscos status as a center of innovation and wealth, a description that extends to the Bay Area in general, taking in Silicon Valley, the fabled home of the technology industry. This, after all, is a part of the country in which 43 percent of households make more than $100,000 a year, compared to 21 percent in the rest of the country. The Bay Area has the fifth highest concentration of millionaires in the US, and the median home price is $500,000. Down the 101 in Palo Alto near where youll find Google, Facebook, Stanford University, and top-shelf venture capital firms the average sale price of a home is $2 million.Silicon Valleys ugly rich-poor gap is growing
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You probably have me on ignore, but I'm going to say this anyway. There were several ways to handle
A HERETIC I AM
Jul 2013
#46