[Foundation-l] Relocation announcement

Sat Sep 22 23:27:47 UTC 2007

Florence Devouard wrote:
> I have another argument to push 
> along, which I think would impair our grown very soon in the future. 
> People. People as in staff. We had the chance to find very good people 
> in St Pete (or had the chance some staff members, such as Brion, moved 
> to Florida in the past), however, we must face a fact: we are more 
> likely to find the skills we need for our development in a big 
> multicultural city than in St Pete, in particular for the senior 
> management.

I think the last part of your comment is key. The Bay Area is great for 
wealthy people like senior management; less so for other people (the 
median house costs more than US$500,000). Unless you plan to only hire 
wealthy people, or to pay very high salaries, nobody can really afford 
to live anywhere near a downtown-SF office. And I say this as someone 
temporarily living in the Bay Area (how do I afford it? tiny, temporary 
rental housing until I finish up my PhD and move somewhere more 
affordable). It's also extremely expensive for visitors; any savings in 
flights for SFO versus Florida will be swamped by the massively more 
expensive hotels.

Since this is supposedly a grass-roots-based organization, that ought to 
have been a consideration IMO.

-Mark