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It's hard to ignore the impact that Internetentrepreneurship has made on San Francisco. The skyline is pepperedwith billboards for dot.com-everything-under-the-sun. Thetwentysomething crowd cruises around town in sportscars, chattingon their cell phones. And hot topics of conversation have movedaway from local politics and free love and toward stock options andretirement at age 40.
As the rest of the nation is just starting to see the effects ofthe tech climate on city cultures, everyone's keeping a closeeye on the Bay area-for good reason. Perhaps nowhere else has theimpact of the Internet been demonstrated so clearly, and soquickly. South of Market (SOMA) and Mission districts, once lightindustrial and manufacturing centers, now contain a slew of new Webstart-ups, including LookSmart, USWeb/CKS and Spinner."Multimedia Gulch" is filled with warehouses convertedinto trendy offices outfitted with high-speed Net access and steelbeams. Pricey restaurants are popping up, lunch lines are long andthe cyberprofessional crowd has arrived, seemingly overnight. Inmany ways, it's a brand new day for the city by the Bay.
"It's an interesting phenomenon," observes MarkQuinn, district director of the San Francisco SBA and a SanFrancisco resident of 15 years. "Up until a few years ago, youdidn't notice much of an impact on San Francisco from high-techventures. But the Multimedia Gulch phenomenon has really changedparts of the city."
Exactly how much the Internet has affected the city'scharacteristic charms is unclear. However, there's no denyingthat the preponderance of Internet companies has clearly influencednew housing developments, traffic patterns and property values,making the gentrification of San Francisco by the "Internetpeople" a topic of much-heated conversation. It also has manylocal residents worried about their city's future.
Historically, San Francisco's banking community and largeindustries have made long-term investments in the city and itsneighborhoods. However, people don't expect that kind ofbehavior from Internet start-ups, which have a reputation for aget-rich-quick mentality.
"It has made sense for [traditional San Francisco]businesses to work hand-in-hand with the community," saysQuinn. "Now many wonder whether small start-up Internetbusinesses have the same level of invest-ment in thecommunity."
Not everyone is comfortable with the bad rap thatcyberprofessionals are getting, though. "It's noteasy" to be an Internet entrepreneur, says Soon-Chart Yu, the34-year-old CEO of Gazoontite.com, an onlinehealth-product store based in SOMA. "I'm acutely aware ofthe issues we face socially and politically as well as inbusiness."
Yu, a resident of San Francisco for 12 years, insists that heand his business are here to stay. "I visit all the localrestaurants, and live in the neighborhood so I have a real interestin the community," he says. "I'm not only concernedfor a few months to ride this great wave, but [I want] to run mybusiness on a long-term basis. I want to stay in SanFrancisco."
Yu believes open communication is the only way to resolve issueslike congestion and parking availability that stem from such rapidgrowth. "There has to be an attitude that people will workwith us," says Yu, "so [residents] can protect theintegrity of [their communities], while we can still allow forproactive growth."
This past year, Yu helped form the Information Tech-nologyCoalition, a San Francisco organization dedi-cated to bringinghigh-tech businesses and the community together. "We have someof the most creative people in the Internet sector," he says,"and we can work together to resolve some of theseissues."
Quinn agrees that there's a solution. But rather thanviewing the wave of Internet businesses moving in as something new,Quinn prefers to look at it as part of an evolution, pointing outthat the Internet is attracting a lot of talented people to thecity. "Historically, San Francisco has always embraced newkinds of people moving into its city, whether it was the beatniksin the '50s or hippies in the '60s," he says."The energy and talent that come from creative people in thiscity is one reason why San Francisco has always been successfullyahead of trends, and that's the case here, too."
Heather Alter, former Entrepreneur technology editorcurrently lives in the Bay area.
Growing Pains
The dramatic business growth in San Francisco doesn't showany signs of slowing down. In fact, in the future, there will bemore job growth within San Francisco's city limits than in anyother Bay-area city. A recent study by the Association of Bay AreaGovernments projects that by 2020, San Francisco will gain the mostnew jobs of any city in the region-102,800-followed closely by SanJose, Santa Rosa and Fremont.
States On The Superhighway
How adept are the individual states at adopting technology? Arecent study by Forrester Research considered fivefactors-technology optimism, PC use at work, home PC ownership, Netadoption and online purchasing-to place each of the 48 contiguousstates in one of three tech zones. Check out whether your state isin the fast lane, middle of the road or slow lane.
