[macspoofing]

>If offices were built closer to the city, they could be smaller but I'm fairly convinced most people would consider it an upgrade to quality of life in general.

What is this 'solution' solving exactly? These protests are targeting tech workers and tech companies because tech workers want to live in San Fran and thereby drive up the price of housing. How would that change if Google had offices in San Fran?!

[rtpg]

Because then things like restaurants downtown would have more foot traffic during lunch time to help make sure local businesses don't shut down. Also, it could help make downtown "bigger", so even if the end result is the same (higher rent), there'd be more apartments available (instead of the suburbs that take a lot of space for not many families).

[macspoofing]

I'm pretty sure the San Fran downtown is already in-demand, and as I said before, you can't have everything.

[dredmorbius]

Clearly: if the offices were in SF, Googlers would 1) overrun Muni, 2) Ride fixies to work, and/or 3) operate Google Shuttles within city limits only.

The lack of an attractive neighborhood and/or housing near Google HQ is another component of this issue.

I find the protests highly misguided, generally.

[darkstar999]

I thought the protest was about Google using the public bus lanes, etc for private use? This could eliminate that.