Own Reality

In April 2013 while at a national planning conference, I attended a session on traffic management.  Traffic is a word that a planner will always hear regarding a proposed development or redevelopment.  And, the comments always focus on there being too much.  Human nature is, down to its core, somewhat selfish.  Self-preservation has been part of the human race since early humans ran around with lions, and tigers and bears.  Many wish to be the last one in the door, so to speak.  This is particularly true, it seems, in suburban and exurban areas, where (as an example) a person who has the house in the woods wants to be the last house in the woods.  There are many different aspects to human behavior, but people and groups form their own reality.

Row houses in Pullman

On that cool weekend day that April that I found myself stuffed three levels below street grade in a non-descript ball room of the conference hotel listening to the session on traffic management.  I had expected to hear about varied methods of transportation demand management, and other strategies that may assist with the ever seemingly congested Fish Hatchery Road.  I knew the speakers came from California, and I figured what better state than car clogged California to present on traffic management.  One speaker focused on how some counties in California will allow businesses to grow, provided they do not increase their traffic above a certain amount.  Stanford University is one example where they are now building housing for professors on campus in order to reduce the number of external car trips associated with their growth. Under this scenario, the nation may start redeveloping the company towns of old—think Pullman in Chicago, or Coalwood in the movie “October Sky.”

High Tech Company Genentech bus

Getting people around has been a mainstay of community development.  Early humans likely used animal trails, and of course the Romans are famous for street construction.  Hence, connectivity is important to any community.  The most interesting speaker at this session, however, focused on bus transportation.  I know, buses are that often overlooked form of transportation.  A dislike for buses and the thought that they are for the lower masses, has places where they look like a trolley, or even bus rapid transit is made to look like a train.  The presenter did not talk above municipal bus systems, but rather private buses.   Not privately owned systems for public use, but systems for a particular employer.  He noted that many technology firms in the area of and around Silicon Valley have found that providing their own bus system to get employees to and from work is better than building large parking ramps, and it also allows more building construction on property already owned—densification.  They have found the in-building  infrastructure is often too great a cost which would limit movement to a new site.  In other words, they prefer their current location, but need to add office space.  Offices, instead of large surface parking benefits the community too.  The private buses provide certain amenities public buses do not.  Besides keeping the new high-tech patrician stock from mingling with the plebeians, they also provide wi-fi.  Keeping the millennials connected without them having to use their data is smart for business.  During the drive time they are not viewing Facebook or checking the performance of their fantasy sports team.  The companies, the speaker reported, have increased productivity because the drive time is now used more for work production, over private purposes.  Check your email, schedule meetings, and review documents all from the seat of your company bus while going to and from work.  More productivity without the hassle of having to pay.   Socially the riders are clumped together with others of like business interests. It becomes their tribe.

Genentech bus stop sign
Some say near riots have occurred with private buses using public stops

The self-identity of tech employees at these large companies is perhaps best manifested in their large self-contained buildings.  One writer has noted that many have levels of security that would make the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv jealous.  These places are often self-contained.  As one described it they have three full organic meals a day, can get everything from a haircut to doggie day care.  Oh wait, but for the housing they are a company town.  These new company towns create their own reality.  Research Park Triangle, one of the first high-tech agglomerations in the nation located in Raleigh, NC, has realized that millennials do not want a traditional corporate setting so they are looking at ways to ramp up company life as human life.  Breathe and die for the company.  Sounds like the corporations of old.  Millennials are used to being coddled, after all it was their parents from whom the descriptor helicopter parent derived.  Although, Allison Arieff, writing in “Architecture Boston” with an article titled “Company Town, 2.0”  notes that perhaps it is not so much a company town as it is a more of a post-college campus.  New York City’s “WeLive” provides furnished housing on a month-to-month basis.  What better way to recognize that the millennials that are 25-34 tend to only work three to five years in the same place.  Tech companies want the best and the brightest even if it takes coddling and creation of their own reality.

"Trolley" bus in Madison, WI
An attempt to make bus travel more likable

Employment, whether coddled or not, is often provided as a way to get public subsidy for a company.  Most often used is Tax Increment District (TID) financing, which takes the added property assessed value and pours it back in as a subsidy to the business.  But, TID should be used to create more than a Disney-esque place.  In the past, TID’s often counted on spin off effects from the business; for example, the local restaurants, service businesses (think haircuts) hotels and office supply would benefit.  The economy of scale would help the community.   It is this spin off effect that is used to justify a billion dollars for a new sport stadium, even for a season with only ten home games.  Let me provide two examples of TID used for private businesses without much gain to other businesses in the community.  First, Twitter received TID money from the city of San Francisco to place offices near downtown.  Following the trends of other large technology giants—Apple, Google and others, Twitter created an almost self-contained building, and as one urbanist living in the area has said, that few employees venture beyond their headquarters.  Twitterverse may like the money from the city, but the small shops and shop owners sighting of a twitter employee will be as rare as a sighting of a Scarlet Tanager in my backyard (and yes, it is a bird found in Wisconsin).  They do little for the local economy.

New Apple Headquarters

The second example, is in Dane County, WI.  One large technology firm was provided millions in TID incentives by the city of Verona, but anecdotal evidence would point to little boom to the restaurants and shops of Verona.  The local spillover effect has not been as great as what those businesses hoped.  While I hear they have great food at Epic (I havae aq brother-in-law who is one of the chefs at Epic), that is probably not what the Verona restaurants want to hear. Epic even seldom uses local hotels in Verona.  The economy of scale is not necessarily at work in the world of high technology office buildings.  Epic does contract with the local public bus company, but it is a route that is predominantly geared to Epic employees, so they do not have to worry about the plebeians getting in the way.  Of course, some aspects are self-inflicted.  Verona limits multi-family housing to 150 units per year, and it is said most Epic employees live in apartments.  The knowledge and high-tech economy is one of mobility, and home ownership is, in the long-run, is not consistent with mobility.  Recall how short millennials stay in one place of employment. 

Headquarters of a giant

The cultural world in which we live is changing.  We have companies that create their own reality to manage mployee lives almost as much as the former company towns.  The reasons may be different, but the outcome is similar.  In the end, the small shops and service businesses have a difficult time competing with massive Amazon, and have even a greater difficulty seeing any measurable spin off from the business assisted by TID financing.  What this will mean in the long run for our neighborhoods and communities is yet to be seen.  The intensification of offices is better than sprawl, and running their own buses is better than more cars clogging California highways.  Culture affects planning, and that session on traffic management provided insights into the workings of large technology companies.  Some large corporate headquarter buildings, like Apple, and Epic seem to work counter to the ideas of encounter and engagement the company says they value.  They may encounter their own high tech patrician, but not the everday plebs that may provide a different outlook and values.  Showing an inconsistency, the current trend in planning is to form the ability to provide encounters with varied housing, and uses in a neighborhood.  We all have our own reality. How much we create of it ourselves, may not be fully in our grasp.