Google coming to the Mission

Well, that’s one way get some of the corporate buses off the streets.  According to an article on VC Post, the embattled tech giant has reserved the former office of Howard Quinn, a newspaper and catalog printer that went out of business in 2012 primarily due to the rise of digital publishing (you can still see the failed last-ditch effort “Digital Printing” sign on the building in the image above the banner is actually from H&H Printing, who moved across the street and are still in business).

Since the NE Mission area is mainly zoned for manufacturing, the new location will most likely serve as a lab for start ups acquired by Google that specialize in wearable technology and robotics, like that frightening techno-hound that will soon be running down insurgents and protesters alike in the near future:

A neighborhood resident quoted in the story provided some background:

“When Google is buying companies, they don’t want to work in the big corporate building in San Francisco or Mountain View. So they are acquiring something cool in the Mission where engineers want to work.”

While some believe that said “coolness” may arguably be leaving the city along along with out-priced artists and musicians, our pal Andy raises another important question:

“Hopefully city officials learned their lesson with the Twitter payroll tax cut fiasco and will quit the special treatment of these companies.”

I suppose we’ll see…

[Link via Mission Local, Image via Google Maps of course]

45 Responses to “Google coming to the Mission”

  1. Ariel Dovas says:

    Alternate headline: No Google Bus, No Google Fuss.

  2. Valenchia says:

    I am wondering why the person refers to Twitter “payroll tax cut” fiasco. The purpose of the policy was to get Twitter and others companies to move to the mid-market area and help revitalize it. That has happened. The amount of tax saved by these companies has been essentially what was anticipated. So really the policy worked as intended.
    There doesn’t seem to be any need to repeat that policy in the Mission — but that hardly makes the original policy a fiasco.
    What was not anticipated was that post-facto a segment of the population would decide that tech workers are evil and somehow to blame for many of the ills of the City. Hence, the bitter, misguided criticism of the policy.

    • Say What? says:

      Quite simply it is a fiasco as no one benefits from it other than Twitter execs. They are allowed to keep more of the $$ at the expense of the average San Franciscan. If Twitter had been the great success good ol’ Ed expected them to be, they would have just moved on as soon as the tax deal expired.

      • Brian says:

        You realize that the tax is a tax exclusively on the equity (stock grants and options), right? This is an extra tax over and above the regular taxes already paid on this compensation (state, federal, FICA). So what you’re saying is that because the city didn’t put an extra tax on these people, it’s a fiasco?

        • Say What? says:

          Yes exactly, that’s where all the money is. That’s the money that is “game changer” around here. Not the salary. Taxing some one who makes a Million + of stock gains is hardly “extra tax”.

          • Brian says:

            But that money is already taxed as normal income. It’s kinda like saying “let’s put an extra tax on tips, that’s where the money’s at!”. You should just come out and say “you are lucky to work for a tech company, you should have to pay an extra tax for not commuting down the peninsula… thanks for saving us tax dollars on road maintenance and improving air quality”.

        • Jeremy says:

          You realize there there were TWO separate mid-market tax breaks, right? One excluded stock options from the payroll tax, and one exempted the companies from all of the payroll tax for new hires?

      • Old Mission Neighbor says:

        If twitter and the neighboring companies really do revitalize mid market – and it appears that they will – then anyone that lives, dines, shops in the neighborhood and is able to be there safely benefits. As does everyone who owns real estate there. And more indirectly, bringing more companies to the city increases tax revenue which improves roads, schools, and social programs citywide.

        I know not everyone agrees with this, but it’s the justification for the tax break. If you don’t agree, then I’d like to see better arguments as to why.

      • Valenchia says:

        @SayWhat: You don’t appear to understand the purpose behind the tax break. Yes, Twitter saved on taxes, but the City got Twitter and other companies to move into a blighted area and help revitalize it. As this was the first effort — in several decades of trying — to actually succeed in improving that area, it is odd to call it a fiasco.

        BTW, your last sentence has no logic and seems to be divorced from facts, so I can’t really comment on it.

  3. Christine says:

    Since the NW Mission area is mainly zoned for manufacturing

    You must mean NE Mission, right?

  4. Christine says:

    I’m happy to see something move in there though, the block needs it. I used to have to walk up 16th street from Potrero flats to S Van Ness all the time late at night, and the section between Bryant and Folsom was always the scariest, just because it’s so lifeless at night. Dear Mom helped a little when it opened, this should hopefully improve that stretch as well.

    • safe says:

      Don’t worry Google will protect that block with their robots.

    • TS says:

      dark scariest. Why did you move to a city? Half that part of the mission use to be dark at night , and full of life during the day. Art, light industry, small distributors…many more jobs than ‘dear mom’. Sorry you just want everything lit and lively like a mall. ‘improvement’ indeed. Over five thousand small businesses had to leave during the dot com crap.
      for ‘light’ and condos and safety and ‘fun’. and real estate speculation.
      glad you like the new mall walk. thank you for coming.

      • Brian says:

        Way to read wayyyyy more into what was written than there really was.

        • Say What? says:

          No TS says it exactly as it is. This is the end game for that area, a brightly light mall. It won’t go directly there but it just made a major step in that direction.

      • Christine says:

        Well, as a young woman who lives in the NE Mission, I *do* prefer lit up streets to dark, long stretches without a single person in sight. I’m guessing you either don’t live in the area, or you’re a man who doesn’t have to worry about being raped, if you think safety isn’t something we need in our neighborhood.

        That being said, there’s a HUGE middle ground between a mall, and a normal neighborhood with healthy businesses during day and night. It’s ridiculous to think that just because a company moves into an empty warehouse building, that means the Mission has suddenly turned into Disneyland. Trust me, it will take more than this for this area, which mostly consists of storage units and warehouses, to “turn into a mall.”

        • um says:

          If it’s a man he should be more worried than you, as men are more than twice as likely to be the victim of violent crime at the hands of a stranger.

  5. LibertyHiller says:

    Andrew, that’s no failed last-ditch effort. That banner is an ad for H&H Imaging, which is still in business today, having relocated to the next block of Alabama.

    H&H and Quinn’s were associated for years; it was common to take pasted-up pages to H&H for the camera and platemaking work and then Quinn’s would take over for the print run.

    Better luck next time.

  6. SJK says:

    Fantastic news! Will Apple or Facebook now follow Google’s lead?

  7. TS says:

    It would be nice if the three blogs that cover this stuff, would actually do even a simple layman’s education on today’s economics. If you could focus on the Repub/Dem pumping of this speculative bubble even in one sentence that would be productive. But everyone from the fake left Rebecca Solnit to this MOR blog, has to harp on three or so companies and their workers. Yes I hate the leaders of most these tech companies. For evasion of taxes, then denial their very wealth is completely dependent on the Fed pumping 80 billion a month into the equity sector. Most of their support for privatization, charter schools etc. But it does no good to pit us all against the tech workers. Half of them, at the least, will be out of work in five years. There is no serious discussion counter to that among economists outside the Chicago School/Obama/Rubin/Greenspan/Bush/Clinton world.
    China is in a panic trying to regulate their huge shadow massive loan bubble, half the EU is tanking under austerity chicago school squeezing, the so called emerging markets are getting a currency run (remember the ‘asian crisis’ of the late 90′s?), and profit to earnings ratios are lower than in 2007. Then there is margin buying. And buy backs of stock to pump up prices.
    This is a bust that will spiral. Meanwhile. God Solnit did another article on Google. And they bought a building. Oh I am scared. There is a cabal of huge real estate speculators in the bay area, now aided by chinese capital. And hedge funds. And PE. And it’s a fucking derivative fueled bust. If you have even inkling of what a real depression is gonna look like, you wouldn’t bother with this building shot.

  8. dan says:

    Now I understand why that commercial building on 18th sold for almost $18 million.

  9. AAY says:

    This is one block from my apartment and I can already hear the protestors chants should Google actually move in.

  10. Tanya says:

    This is where I used to get our collateral printed. H&H moved across the street and was still in business a few months ago.

  11. Troll says:

    Yeah, apparently news stories are now saying they are NOT moving to the Mission. Maybe Google will open up a new third floor bar at Elbo Room?

  12. Ian MacKaye says:

    Jumping the gun, commenting on a false phantom ‘story’ Yay for the internet.

  13. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    I honestly don’t see why people freaking out about this. It’s not like they’re tearing down housing or evicting a current business to move in.

    • um says:

      Because if a company that fairly compensates it’s employees moves into the neighborhood, it’s unfair for all the people already living there who are under-compensated and have to compete for the same goods. These folks would never turn the issue on their benevolent masters and ask why they aren’t compensated more fairly, they need to demonize those that are getting a little more than themselves.

  14. scum says:

    If you think Dear Mom is a douche fest now, just wait.

    • Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

      I always thought of it more as hipster central. Either way, It’s not my scene.