Uber shakes up real estate market with massive lease in Oakland

I&#x27;d heard this was going to be a Google office. Oh well.<p>I wonder how much &quot;not driving over the fucking bridge&quot; is worth to people. Uber salaries tend to be pretty good (partially to make up for the stock being so high), and they have a great team, plus are clearly on a rocket ship trajectory, and are easy to explain as a product to anyone.<p>Offering $150-250k cash, great overall packages, AND being able to buy or rent at almost-reasonable (i.e. 2011-2012 SF) levels is going to make them a really annoying competitor in hiring. Oakland for city people, the less-used Fremont to Oakland BART for the other people, or driving from places like Moraga for more rural people.

Listen. Pandora is two blocks away, so I can say it: this is a bad move for Uber.<p>* Oakland isn&#x27;t cool anymore. We were here before it was cool. And we are barely cool.<p>* Attrition is terrible. Coworkers either get shot or are poached by Clorox. I heard we lost a Glass developer to the dock worker&#x27;s union.<p>* Mass transit at that particular location is astounding: the free green bus, the ferry, BART, an AC transit hub. What I&#x27;m saying is that it&#x27;s too ironic for Uber to be there.<p>* The best milkshakes are at True Burger, the best banh mi is in Chinatown, and the best parking is at YMCA. Does any of that make sense? No, of course not.<p>Avoid Oakland at all costs. The real hot spot? Hayward.

I saw teo people shot not far from here, the windows of Obama&#x27;s campaign HQ smashed in with hammers down the street, and a homeless man crap on the steps of city hall in broad daylight. Welcome to Oakland Uber.

If Uber really wants to earn goodwill in Oakland (which is worth thinking about because the local anarchists are probably planning their protests already), it would be worth renovating the exterior of the building too. A lot of buildings in downtown Oakland have beautiful art deco facades that were covered up with ugly concrete facings in the 1950s in a misguided attempt to look more modern. Bringing out some of Oakland&#x27;s original business history would garner a ton of long-term community goodwill.

This is in addition to their new giant HQ in SF?<p>Uber has an awful lot of overhead for a taxi company.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;28&#x2F;uber-new-hq&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;28&#x2F;uber-new-hq&#x2F;</a>

The gentrification of Oakland is now well and truly under-way after the great job gentrification did in San Francisco displacing thousands of people from their homes.

Remember kids, Oakland is actually closer to Market St&#x2F;Mission than most of SF.

Now if only Uber Pool would go to Oakland.

Looks like the VC&#x27;s are spearheading the move to Oakland. Chamath Palihapitaya from Social + Capital is planning a developers village apartment complex in Oakland with the goal of luring more Midwest coders to the West coast.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;17&#x2F;chamath-palihapitaya-on-insane-burn-rates-ipos-and-raising-a-new-real-estate-fund&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;17&#x2F;chamath-palihapitaya-on-ins...</a>

This is going to go very, very poorly for Uber.

Oakland is already an attractive new location for tech companies. It is my sincerest hope that the policy-makers in Oakland see what happened in SF with housing, and are proactive in controlling rent to avoid displacing low-income people and most importantly, the people who contribute to the city&#x27;s culture.