[seanmcdirmid]

Tech workers making $200K+/year, if it takes them an hour to get to the caltrain station on MUNI, that's a lot of money just gone. And again, these guys are coming/going to the same place, why not just give them a bus that is almost point-to-point? That is fairly efficient/environmental if that is your bar.

But I agree on the last point; but offices should be built where people want to live, not the other way around. Twitter is in SF for a reason. But then people don't all want to live in the same place; some have kids and prefer suburbs, some are younger and prefer the city.

Edit: facebook -> twitter. (face plant)

[rayiner]

People don't want to all live in the same place, but you can accommodate them! Just have a high-density commercial business district and sensible long and short range transit. Here in Chicago, within half an hour or so on the El or the Metra, I can live in a downtown high-rise, a condo in a family-friendly in-town neighborhood, a single family home in a family-friendly in-town neighborhood, or a full blown grass and trees suburb, and still never get in a car as part of my commute.

The problem in SF isn't that people want to live in different areas. The same is true in NYC or Chicago. The problem is that there isn't proper zoning. To make transit feasible, you need an extremely dense central business district with a ton of office space. You need employers to be mostly in the same core area. Then, you need to zone things and lay out transit stations so they're approachable for pedestrians. Too many systems make transit stations into these isolated intimidating affairs.

This is a neighborhood in Chicago with a lot of young families: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Paulina,+Chicago,+IL&hl=en...

Tree lined streets and small yards. Just a couple of minutes walk from the train stations. Just pan around and you can see the train tracks passing right through.

Train stations in Chicago are extremely easily accessed from street level. No parking lots, no elaborate station house, just stairs and a platform: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sedgwick,+Chicago,+IL&hl=e...

[seanmcdirmid]

Definitely. I actually even prefer to live close enough to work to bike it, where transit is just a nice backup. I used to commute to the city from San Carlos on Caltrain; it was kind of nice actually (helps when your office is next to the caltrain station).

Most of Europe (and some of Asia) is beautiful with respect to transit, density, and quality of life. I hope we (as a country) move in this direction, but it really requires a change in our value system.

[rayiner]

I think even our transit-oriented development has messed up value systems. Look at the new Silver Line in DC. Totally pedestrian unfriendly and intimidating. You can't build highly accessible, integrated neighborhood transit around 50' high platforms surrounded by a 3-lane each direction highway.

[seanmcdirmid]

Agreed. You can't do this without buy in from the people, you can't just bolt transit onto sprawl and expect it to magically work.

[mc32]

Twitter remained in sf because the supes and mayor gave them (and workers) a huge tax break -provisionally for workers. Twitter got to stay; the city got to expand its revitalization of mid-market

[enf]

Twitter, you mean? Facebook is in the middle of nowhere by the Dumbarton Bridge.