7
2003
Well, well, well. It’s looking as though San Francisco's next mayor is in for an easier time – economically – that current conditions might lead you to believe.
Things are slowly getting better in Silicon Valley. And make no mistake, those people drive this city’s health.
First indication: Bumper-to-bumper traffic, three lanes across on Thursday evening coming into the city on U.S. 280, just north of the U.S. 380 merge, again at the 92 merge and again at Sand Hill and Woodside Roads.
Haven’t seen that since oh, baby, since 2001.
Second indication: The smart stuff Netscape boy wonder Marc Andresseen has to say in his one-on-one in Sunday’s Chron. Andreessen dishes a little on AOL, talks about the psychology of your average Silicon Valley start-up guy and picks out the valley’s simmering hot spots. Low and behold, much of what he’s eyeing is all consumer-oriented stuff: Music, movies, photography, home entertainment.
Third indication: Saturday’s stories on the nation’s employment rate, particularly a piece in the New York Times about the difficulty finding and counting the self-employed (Over here!). Here, as Andrew Sullivan likes to say, is the money quote:
“John Vail, a senior strategist of Mizuho Securities USA, disagreed. 'This is quite a strong employment report,' he said. 'Nonfarm payrolls were disappointing, but when combining with the rise in self-employed, which include many Internet-based entrepreneurs, the number was very healthy.' "
If you live in San Francisco – which is a nice way of saying if you didn’t leave San Francisco after the crash – you probably don’t know anyone with a “job.” You know lots of people with gigs. But you don’t know anyone with a “job.” And that’s no coincidence.
Which is one reason why I'm still thinking about what Schwab CEO Dave Pottruck, told the New Democratic Network about the importance of small business and it's viability as a political touchstone.