https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4185-6605
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Abstract
Between the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. technology industry increasingly shifted toward cities. Local governments pursuing innovation-led growth encouraged this shift, as exemplified by San Francisco, the spatial and symbolic urban home of the global technology industry. The commercial real estate market is central to understanding the city’s growth as a tech cluster between 2008 and 2020. Platform technology firms substantially contributed to employment growth and demand for office real estate in San Francisco during this period of rapid tech industry expansion. The city also exemplifies how the pandemic-led transition to remote work has profoundly changed the relationship between platform firms and urban space. In this article, we use interviews and secondary sources to study tech-led office leasing and development activity in San Francisco. We identify neighborhood-level trajectories of path dependence, industrial conversion, failed revitalization, and frontier-making during the period of growth leading up to 2020. Digital platform companies exert significant economic and political influence over cities, but their control over urban space is also constrained by the historical, material, and economic realities of commercial real estate.
在大萧条和新冠肺炎疫情之间, 美国科技产业不断地转向城市。追求创新型增长的地方政府鼓励这种转变。例如, 旧金山是全球科技产业的空间代表性城市。为了理解2008年至2020年旧金山科技集群的发展, 商业房地产市场是关键。在科技产业快速扩张时期, 平台科技公司对旧金山的就业增长和办公房地产需求有重大贡献。这座城市还展示, 疫情导致的远程工作如何深刻改变了平台公司与城市空间的关系。通过采访和间接资料, 我们研究了旧金山科技办公室租赁和开发行为。针对截至2020年增长期的路径依赖、产业转型、振兴失败和创新, 本文确定了它们的社区轨迹。数字平台公司对城市有重要的经济和政治影响, 这些公司对城市空间的控制受限于商业房地产的历史、物质和经济现实。
Entre la Gran Recesión y la pandemia del COVID-19, la industria tecnológica de los EE.UU. se desplazó cada vez más hacia las ciudades. Los gobiernos locales comprometidos con un crecimiento orientado hacia la innovación fomentaron tal cambio, tendencia ejemplificada por San Francisco, el hogar urbano espacial símbolo de la industria tecnológica global. El mercado inmobiliario comercial es crucial para entender el crecimiento de la ciudad a manera de clúster tecnológico, entre el 2008 y el 2020. En San Francisco, las firmas de plataformas tecnológicas contribuyeron sustancialmente al crecimiento del empleo y a la demanda de inmuebles para oficinas, durante este período de rápida expansión de la industria tecnológica. La ciudad es también un ejemplo de cómo la transición hacia el trabajo a distancia, orientada por la pandemia, ha cambiado profundamente la relación entre las firmas de plataformas y el espacio urbano. En este artículo, utilizamos entrevistas y fuentes secundarias para estudiar la actividad del arrendamiento para oficinas y su promoción por la tecnología, en San Francisco. Identificamos las trayectorias de dependencia de ruta a nivel de barrio, la reconversión industrial, la revitalización fallida y la creación de fronteras durante el período de crecimiento hasta el 2020. Las compañías de plataformas digitales ejercen una influencia económica y política significativa sobre las ciudades, aunque su control sobre el espacio urbano se vea también afectado por las realidades históricas, materiales y económicas del sector inmobiliario comercial.
Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our gratitude to the interviewees who generously participated in our study and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and constructive feedback on earlier versions of the article.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 SoMa typically refers to all commercial and residential areas between Market Street and Mission Bay.
2 In its current form, 950,000 gross square feet (gsf) of office floorspace is available for approval each year under Proposition M, of which 75,000 gsf is reserved for Small Allocation projects (between 25,000 and 49,999 gsf; San Francisco Planning Department Citation2011). Office space that is not allocated in a given year is carried over to subsequent years. It is unclear how the limit has been determined and whether this relates to projected employment demand and floorspace per job.
3 Available to new office-based businesses across administrative and support services, information, insurance, and professional, scientific, and technical services, these incentives are available to platform tech companies, which typically fall within the information sector.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Laura Schmahmann
LAURA SCHMAHMANN is a PhD Candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, Bauer Wurster Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. E-mail: laura.schmahmann@berkeley.edu. Her research focuses on urban and regional economic inequality, commercial and industrial property markets, and the political economy of local economic development.
Alex Ramiller
ALEX RAMILLER is a PhD Candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, Bauer Wurster Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. E-mail: alexramiller@berkeley.edu. His research focuses on housing policy, housing access, and residential mobility.
Desiree Fields
DESIREE FIELDS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, McCone Hall, Berkeley CA 94720, USA. E-mail: desireefields@berkeley.edu. Her research revolves around how financial processes and digital technologies are shifting the terrain of the housing question in the twenty-first century.