Silicon Valley Has a Firefighter Problem

[KamaAina]

http://fortune.com/2016/03/28/silicon-valley-housing-crisis-firefighters/

But one local fire chief in Menlo Park says the trend of skyrocketing, multi-million dollar home prices has gotten so bad lately that he’s started giving out monthly stipends ranging from $100 to $2,000 hoping to lure his staff to move closer to work, as the Wall Street Journal first reported....

“In the old days, if I saw someone sleeping in a chair, I would have thought they were getting divorced. Now it’s because they have to travel further to get to work,” Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman told the Journal. Today, 15 of his firefighters live 100 miles or more from the station....

In neighboring Palo Alto, city officials are considering a new kind of middle class housing subsidy for people making under $250,000 a year as locals complain rising home prices in the city are pushing out longtime residents, firefighters, teachers, doctors, and government employees....

One San Francisco dweller just built himself a wooden pod so he can camp out in someone else’s living room for $400 a month, Business Insider reports. Then there’s the $600 per month apartment in a truck (without plumbing) that’s been available for rent on Craigslist. Both are a bargain compared to $3,500 you could expect to pay for a typical one bedroom apartment in the City by the Bay, according to real estate site Zumper.

Mmmmkay. So will these people be able to get here after the Big One hits? And by the way, firefighters make a hell of a lot more than I do, or anyone in this office except maybe the director.

[ghostsinthemachine]

1. Firefighters pay in Menlo Park

http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Firefighter-l-Menlo-Park,-CA.html Probably not as much as you think.

[KamaAina]

2. Holy $#!*!

Still more than I get, but not by much. And I thought San Jose was cheap with its public safety employees!

That figure appears to be for the whole area. San Jose and Palo Alto return the same figure.

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. now look up BART cops pay

and see a huge disparity....

[KamaAina]

5. Well, BART cops get special training in how to use Tasers

[Auggie]

4. I'm surprised were not further along on subsidized housing plans

Seems like a no-brainer.

[KamaAina]

6. But for people making a quarter-million, as in "Shallow Alto"'s plan?

What about the rest of us?

[TeamPooka]

7. I say we let the 1% put out their own fires and pick up their own trash. nt