San Francisco says tiny sleeping ‘pods,’ which cost $700 a month and became a big hit with tech workers, are not up to code::The pods, which are 4-foot-high boxes constructed from wood and steel, made headlines after tech workers praised the spaces.

  • J12@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    $700 for this is insane. I get why they’re doing it but there’s no reason anyone should pay $700 for a bed.

    San Francisco should build their own get that shit up to code, make it about 30 stories, have spots for restaurants, stores, retail at the bottom and make it actually affordable and for everyone. There should be no market for 700 a month 4 foot tall boxes. Greedy fucks.

    Shit should be like $50 a month max and yea it’s dystopian AF but if people want to do it I guess whatever. Just don’t rip them off.

    • TheMurphy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      but if people want to do it I guess whatever.

      They don’t want it. They need to do it. There’s no choice here. Alternative is to not have a job in your field, because you have to move 300km away to afford something.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Just what is shown in the photo would get you $7000 a month… why rent out 2-3 houses when you can rent out 10 boxes I guess.

      • J12@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yep, there’s a market for it so of course the landlords will do it. Housing and rent prices in this country just sickens me but this is some next level shit

      • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        With a housing shortage, say 10 people needing a place to live in this space, renting 2-3 houses leaves 7-8 people homeless. Making progress can’t be just a rejection of sub(sub)standard solutions, it has to also be building acceptable but dense housing.

    • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      And then with all the rampant corruption it would turn into a overpriced slum. Yes I’m pessimistic, and I hope I can be proven wrong and that your idea would happen.

    • books@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean you pay 700 dollars a month not to have to live next to people who can only afford 50.

        • books@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Sorry that came across as rude, but I assume that is definitely some people’s mindset.

          I wasn’t advocating for it.

      • J12@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Hell, under my plan $700 will at least get you a walk in closet sized living box with a mini fridge.

        • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I could live in a place that big and be happy, I think, as long as the bathrooms were clean and I had easy access to food.

          I lived in a YMCA for a while. I had a very small room with a bed, a small dresser, and a kitchen chair. You couldn’t sit on the chair of the door was open. I had no fridge so I would keep things on my window sill outside (it was late Fall) but crows kept stealing the food. Worked well for drinks.

          The bathrooms weren’t great but I was a breakfast cook going in at 4:30am so I was living opposite other people.

          I heard crazy stuff in there. There was a guy who was really mentally ill and prone to raging out. One night he was storming up and down the hall yelling “this isn’t a hallway, it’s a trap!” over and over. That was scary. Other crazy stuff happened because a bunch of other people were staying in two rooms and were really into coke or something (this was a long time ago) and they’d come home after last call, run out of coke, and start arguing over who was holding out, who had had more than their share, did anyone have money, etc. Sometimes they would fight.

          I was only there for about six weeks before I found a better place but it kept me from being homeless after I had to move out of a place with one day notice (hotel employee residence, my roommate had an opposite shift to me and had been violating rules left and right and getting written up so the evicted us both with very little warning). Anyway, I was lucky to get in there, I couldn’t afford an apartment. I eventually was able to explain to the hotel security that I had no idea what was going on and signed a paper saying I was out on the first infraction and got back into residence.

          Good times.

    • triclops6@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Ok hot take, this is a perfectly valid move, 700 for location and a box to sleep in is a welcome option for many renters in the city. If there are shared spaces like kitchen baths etc this works.

      If you want your own space, ok, this isn’t for you, but this alleviates a ton of rental demand which could lower rents in aggregate if enough of these are built!

      The alternative is your whole paycheck goes to rent and you retire a week before death, i’d be all for this if I were single.

      Is someone making a profit? Most definitely, but I get a better option to run my career in the city, I’m down. Not only that, I hope this model picks up so more people can have the option.

      My gripe here is the city, bitching about no windows when this is a pretty tangible solution to many renter’s problems. Either fix it yourself or get out the way when others are addressing it.

      Edit: lots of group think and virtue signalling here. If these aren’t there you don’t even have the choice, it’s 5k rent or move away from the city. That’s not bootlicking that’s fact. Whining about landlords being greedy isn’t a solution, and this is.

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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        1 year ago

        You sound like the guy who founded a company to kill himself next to the wreckage of a really old ship.

        “That damned city, bitching about safety regulations! They need to just get out of the way of innovation!”