This is the normal, predictable demographic shift that occurs in any area that becomes popular quickly. Prices go up and poor people are pushed out. When the demand disappears and the town goes back to where it once was, then people hanker for the good old days when it was a bustling boom town.

Flagged for blogspam. Original: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n03/rebecca-solnit/diary I think this was discussed recently, but I can't find it.

Summary: SF is changing, new people with more money are displacing people with less money. Boohoo.

I'm surprised this anti free market, anti capitalism BS gets play on here.

So, the less rich people live in SF, the better?

This used to be Town vs Gown - the conflict between usually rich University students and those who actually lived in say Oxford.

Are well funded techies forcing out old people from their homes? No. Are they crowding out the marginal turnover of housing stock - yes. Will this matter? I don't know enough about SF to say for sure, but a town with a proud history, functioning democracy and plannin laws and plenty of juicy tax income has a problem that lets say Detroits mayor can only dream of