On pages 186/190 of his book Tools and weapons, The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age, Brad explains that it is when attending a meeting of the group Challenge Seattle in June 2018 that he and Satya Nadella took the measure of the 'affordable housing crisis', agreeing somehow that was a negative externality of Microsoft and other high tech (and highly discriminatory) companies.While he was shocked by the long commute inflicted on the bellevue Chief of Police he did not seem to realize (does he today?) how many of the temps, suppliers employees of Microsoft had a very long commute with a much lower income., including very probably the receptionists laid off and outsourced by Bob Herbold in ... 1997.(page 251 in No Logo by Naomi Klein)
"The increase in housing prices meant that new Bellevue police officers could no longer afford to buy a home in the city they patrolled. Even the chief of police endured a commute of an hour each way to work' (page 187)."... ", Back in Redmond we put a data science team to work so we could better understand the problem" The insights were eye opening...
Really?
The region now (since how many years?) ranked among the worst in the country for the percentage of people enduring daily commutes in excess of 90 minutes. (page 188)
We decided that something needed to be done to increase the supply of low and middle income housing. We spent months consulting with people and groups across the region and learning everything we could across the country and around the world... In January 2019, we announced Microsoft would commit $500 million in a combination of loans, investments and philanthropic donations to address the issue. (page 189)
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