alt.certification.mcse - SF Area MCSEs In Trouble

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SF Area MCSEs In Trouble

Eddie

2003-06-16, 5:25 pm

'Dot Bomb' Still Causing Bay Area Pain
San Francisco Awaits Economic Upturn Years After Tech Bubble Burst

By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 15, 2003; Page A03

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even small signs of economic recovery would thrill
Adam Marks these days. Bigger tips at the restaurant where he works.
Crowded tables. Customers waiting for seats. Anything, he says, that
would suggest this city's long and punishing slump may be over.

"People still aren't spending much," said Marks, 29, who has been a
waiter here for nearly 10 years. "I sure hope it starts picking up
soon. A lot of people can't take much more of this."

Tim Cannon, who owns a property management company, has the same
worries. He can hardly remember a time when so many local businesses
have been disappearing and so many offices and apartments were vacant.

"You have whole floors on some new buildings filled with desk
cubicles, but no people," said Cannon, president of the San Francisco
Association of Realtors. "And I still don't think what we're going
through has leveled off yet."

The bust is beginning to feel as long as the boom once was in the San
Francisco Bay Area. More than any other region in the country, it
stoked and defined the nation's robust economic growth in the late
1990s, when all the talk was of the seemingly limitless possibilities
of tech stocks. No other place benefited more from it, either. But
today, with the economy here still in a tailspin, that era is loudly
derided as the "dot bomb," as much of a curse now as it was a blessing
then.

There is no clear end in sight to the extreme reversal of fortune the
region has felt for more than two years. And residents across the
economic spectrum who are struggling to endure the downturn are
sounding ever more weary and despondent.

More than 80 restaurants have closed in San Francisco this year.
Moving companies here and along the tech corridor that straddles
Highway 101 to nearby Silicon Valley are reporting brisk new business
from families tired of waiting for good times to return and packing up
for other states.

Employment counselors in the region are deluged with pleas for jobs
from out-of-work or underemployed professionals desperate for medical
benefits or getting close to defaulting on their mortgages. Last year,
counselors say, many unemployed workers were still holding out for
good positions. Now, many are saying they will take anything.

The vacancy rate for industrial buildings in Silicon Valley recently
reached its highest level in nearly a decade; more than 40 million
square feet of space is not being used. The unemployment rate in the
valley tops 8 percent, and layoffs are continuing. One local computer
hardware company announced 400 job cuts a few days ago.

In an April survey conducted by the Field Poll, nearly 90 percent of
Bay Area residents complained of economic duress, one of the highest
levels of dismay ever recorded in California on that subject.

But those results did not shock pollster Mark DiCamillo. He notes the
region's plight in other stark ways. He said that his wife, who works
for a software company, recently posted a job opening for accounting
work. Within a few days, she had received nearly 2,000 résumés, many
from people overqualified for the position.

"The response was just unbelievable," DiCamillo said. "It really
showed how bad things still are."

In a feature this spring, the San Francisco Chronicle asked its
readers what they missed most about the long-gone gold rush.

"You thought you could retire at a much younger age," wrote one
resident, Lucy Wang, who also lamented the loss of lavish launch
parties for countless dot-com companies. "There was so much hope and,
yes, irrational exuberance in those days."

Now in dot-com graveyards around the city, there are only sad signs
still blowing in the wind: "LEASE SPACE AVAILABLE."

One recent night outside San Francisco's Pacific Bell Park, a baseball
stadium built at the end of the boom, Steve Williams pointed to
gleaming but empty new office buildings and condominium towers across
the street that were supposed to be bustling with affluent young
professionals by now.

"You see these edifices all the way from here to Silicon Valley," said
Williams, 50, who works part time as a career counselor and lives in
the suburb of Mountain View. "They're all practically vacant.
Everybody is either out of money or still afraid to spend it."

He said that he sensed a foul new mood rippling across the region this
spring. At first, he said, the tech bust and the nation's economic
malaise startled people. Then they hunkered down, cut back spending
and vowed to ride it out. "But now many people who do not have jobs
are giving up hope that they'll find a good one," Williams said.
"Everyone is looking for the next big thing, but no one can see it on
the horizon."

The lingering bust is not all bad. Plunging rents have given some
tenants and small-business owners who were practically forced out of
town during the boom new bargaining power with increasingly desperate
property owners. The cost of commercial real estate in downtown San
Francisco declined for the ninth consecutive quarter this spring. But
those capitalizing on the discounts available now in the battered
market may not be able to laugh for long.

The dormant economy here is largely responsible for saddling
California with a budget deficit that exceeds $38 billion, a shortfall
so immense that higher taxes and fees affecting nearly every
California resident are likely on the way soon. And San Francisco's
budget situation looks so bleak that officials are planning to fire
several hundred city workers, raise numerous fees and cut funding for
public health programs. Last month, there was even talk in the city's
parking enforcement bureau of trying to write 40,000 tickets in 45
days to raise more money -- a move Mayor Willie L. Brown quickly
quashed.

Economists caution that some of the anxiety in the Bay Area is
overstated. Some businesses and some workers who reaped immense
rewards during the boom, they say, are now simply victims of the
outrageous economic expectations that life inside that bubble created.
There are also faint signs of a rebound in the region. Sales of some
of the tech products produced here are increasing.

But more hardships may be on the way. "I don't see any turnaround in
jobs or salaries for at least a year," said Stephen Levy, director of
the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, "and even
then it will be slow. The losses here have been astronomical. It will
take a long time to recover from that, especially with the shape the
national economy is in."

For many here, the wait for a return to any semblance of prosperity
already has gone on too long.

Kathy Parsons, a manager at Allcare Moving Co. in San Jose, said she
is doing more business this year than last -- and that most of her
work is coming from people leaving the area in search of better lives
in Colorado, Oregon and Arizona.

"Everyone's really getting out," she said. "It's just too expensive,
and a lot of people are out of work. Jobs are pretty hard to come by."

Marks, the waiter, said that in recent months several friends moved
back home to their families in the Midwest because the strong
confidence they once had in an economic rebound had finally faded.

"They went back to try to find jobs they can count on," he said.
"What's going on with the economy is filtering down to everybody here,
not just people who were in charge of tech companies."

In a report last month, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association said
that San Francisco suffered a net loss of 168 restaurants in the past
two years. The rate of failure also appears to be increasing. In the
first two months of this year, 83 restaurants in the city closed.

Patricia Breslin, executive director of the association, which has 600
members, said the badly weakened local economy has forced many
restaurants to fire workers, cut back their serving hours, revamp
their menus with items that can be bought and prepared cheaply, and
slash prices.

And many restaurants, she said, are still fighting to survive.

"We've been tightening our belts as much as we can for the past two
years. There are no more steps to take," she said, "but to close."

Ida Wanna

2003-06-17, 10:25 am

As long as business owners are trying to become independently wealthy on
every sale, the slump will continue. I do my own car repairs because most
of the reputable garages in my area charge $125-$150 an hour to work on your
car after they tack on a $60 fee to diagnose the problem. My
father-in-law's K-Mart cut back staff so that he is one of only a few
Assistant Managers who are now working 60-80 hr weeks (on salary, so no
overtime) and had their bonuses cancelled and 401k's dissolved as part of
the bankrupcy filing, yet the store manager still received his $4000
quarterly bonus. What do you think the execs got? I look at my phone bill
and see a $16 charge for phone service and a $10 charge for connecting my
phone to their network (isn't that the same thing?). One charge for 911
service, one 911 tax (isn't that the same thing?). When the FCC ordered a
stop on the phone co charging you for the priveledge of having a long
distance company other than that of the phone co, they issued a new charge
for the balance if your LD calls didn't meet their minimum for using a LD co
other than the phone company's (isn't that the same thing?). My wife and I
went to Lowe's to buy a new front door for our house. The install
charge...$275! To hang a door in a frame. The door was only $150! And
they justify it by saying that they're not really making any money on it.
Sure, after you pay the install guy his $10, then pay the execs their $265,
I'm sure the company doesn't make any money! The ex-CEO of GE, Jack Welch
retired recently. As part of his severence: he remains a "consultant" for
the company...at a salary of nearly $80,000 a year! Why? Because he made
the company "over $150,000,000,000 during his tenure". But he did this by
"laying off over 81,000 people during his first five years" alone. And if
they made $150 billion dolars, why do I have to pay $4-$5 for a freakin
lightbulb? Companies need to stop cutting costs on the bottom rung of the
ladder and look to the costs at the top to save and quit using the economy
as an excuse to raise prices and cut jobs just to continue lining their
pockets with more and more money. I've heard too many times that the cuts
are for the good of the company. They are for the good of the execs who
want to make sure they don't lose any of their $150,000 to $200,000 a year
salaries.
I'm Bart Simpson.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2001/09/07/companies/welch/
http://www.cnn.com/2002/BUSINESS/09/17/welch/index.html
"Eddie" <asdasd@asdfasd.xcom> wrote in message
news:g3rHa.242$u23.124@fe08.atl2.webusenet.com...
>
> 'Dot Bomb' Still Causing Bay Area Pain
> San Francisco Awaits Economic Upturn Years After Tech Bubble Burst
>
> By Rene Sanchez
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Sunday, June 15, 2003; Page A03
>
>
> SAN FRANCISCO -- Even small signs of economic recovery would thrill
> Adam Marks these days. Bigger tips at the restaurant where he works.
> Crowded tables. Customers waiting for seats. Anything, he says, that
> would suggest this city's long and punishing slump may be over.
>
> "People still aren't spending much," said Marks, 29, who has been a
> waiter here for nearly 10 years. "I sure hope it starts picking up
> soon. A lot of people can't take much more of this."
>
> Tim Cannon, who owns a property management company, has the same
> worries. He can hardly remember a time when so many local businesses
> have been disappearing and so many offices and apartments were vacant.
>
> "You have whole floors on some new buildings filled with desk
> cubicles, but no people," said Cannon, president of the San Francisco
> Association of Realtors. "And I still don't think what we're going
> through has leveled off yet."
>
> The bust is beginning to feel as long as the boom once was in the San
> Francisco Bay Area. More than any other region in the country, it
> stoked and defined the nation's robust economic growth in the late
> 1990s, when all the talk was of the seemingly limitless possibilities
> of tech stocks. No other place benefited more from it, either. But
> today, with the economy here still in a tailspin, that era is loudly
> derided as the "dot bomb," as much of a curse now as it was a blessing
> then.
>
> There is no clear end in sight to the extreme reversal of fortune the
> region has felt for more than two years. And residents across the
> economic spectrum who are struggling to endure the downturn are
> sounding ever more weary and despondent.
>
> More than 80 restaurants have closed in San Francisco this year.
> Moving companies here and along the tech corridor that straddles
> Highway 101 to nearby Silicon Valley are reporting brisk new business
> from families tired of waiting for good times to return and packing up
> for other states.
>
> Employment counselors in the region are deluged with pleas for jobs
> from out-of-work or underemployed professionals desperate for medical
> benefits or getting close to defaulting on their mortgages. Last year,
> counselors say, many unemployed workers were still holding out for
> good positions. Now, many are saying they will take anything.
>
> The vacancy rate for industrial buildings in Silicon Valley recently
> reached its highest level in nearly a decade; more than 40 million
> square feet of space is not being used. The unemployment rate in the
> valley tops 8 percent, and layoffs are continuing. One local computer
> hardware company announced 400 job cuts a few days ago.
>
> In an April survey conducted by the Field Poll, nearly 90 percent of
> Bay Area residents complained of economic duress, one of the highest
> levels of dismay ever recorded in California on that subject.
>
> But those results did not shock pollster Mark DiCamillo. He notes the
> region's plight in other stark ways. He said that his wife, who works
> for a software company, recently posted a job opening for accounting
> work. Within a few days, she had received nearly 2,000 résumés, many
> from people overqualified for the position.
>
> "The response was just unbelievable," DiCamillo said. "It really
> showed how bad things still are."
>
> In a feature this spring, the San Francisco Chronicle asked its
> readers what they missed most about the long-gone gold rush.
>
> "You thought you could retire at a much younger age," wrote one
> resident, Lucy Wang, who also lamented the loss of lavish launch
> parties for countless dot-com companies. "There was so much hope and,
> yes, irrational exuberance in those days."
>
> Now in dot-com graveyards around the city, there are only sad signs
> still blowing in the wind: "LEASE SPACE AVAILABLE."
>
> One recent night outside San Francisco's Pacific Bell Park, a baseball
> stadium built at the end of the boom, Steve Williams pointed to
> gleaming but empty new office buildings and condominium towers across
> the street that were supposed to be bustling with affluent young
> professionals by now.
>
> "You see these edifices all the way from here to Silicon Valley," said
> Williams, 50, who works part time as a career counselor and lives in
> the suburb of Mountain View. "They're all practically vacant.
> Everybody is either out of money or still afraid to spend it."
>
> He said that he sensed a foul new mood rippling across the region this
> spring. At first, he said, the tech bust and the nation's economic
> malaise startled people. Then they hunkered down, cut back spending
> and vowed to ride it out. "But now many people who do not have jobs
> are giving up hope that they'll find a good one," Williams said.
> "Everyone is looking for the next big thing, but no one can see it on
> the horizon."
>
> The lingering bust is not all bad. Plunging rents have given some
> tenants and small-business owners who were practically forced out of
> town during the boom new bargaining power with increasingly desperate
> property owners. The cost of commercial real estate in downtown San
> Francisco declined for the ninth consecutive quarter this spring. But
> those capitalizing on the discounts available now in the battered
> market may not be able to laugh for long.
>
> The dormant economy here is largely responsible for saddling
> California with a budget deficit that exceeds $38 billion, a shortfall
> so immense that higher taxes and fees affecting nearly every
> California resident are likely on the way soon. And San Francisco's
> budget situation looks so bleak that officials are planning to fire
> several hundred city workers, raise numerous fees and cut funding for
> public health programs. Last month, there was even talk in the city's
> parking enforcement bureau of trying to write 40,000 tickets in 45
> days to raise more money -- a move Mayor Willie L. Brown quickly
> quashed.
>
> Economists caution that some of the anxiety in the Bay Area is
> overstated. Some businesses and some workers who reaped immense
> rewards during the boom, they say, are now simply victims of the
> outrageous economic expectations that life inside that bubble created.
> There are also faint signs of a rebound in the region. Sales of some
> of the tech products produced here are increasing.
>
> But more hardships may be on the way. "I don't see any turnaround in
> jobs or salaries for at least a year," said Stephen Levy, director of
> the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, "and even
> then it will be slow. The losses here have been astronomical. It will
> take a long time to recover from that, especially with the shape the
> national economy is in."
>
> For many here, the wait for a return to any semblance of prosperity
> already has gone on too long.
>
> Kathy Parsons, a manager at Allcare Moving Co. in San Jose, said she
> is doing more business this year than last -- and that most of her
> work is coming from people leaving the area in search of better lives
> in Colorado, Oregon and Arizona.
>
> "Everyone's really getting out," she said. "It's just too expensive,
> and a lot of people are out of work. Jobs are pretty hard to come by."
>
> Marks, the waiter, said that in recent months several friends moved
> back home to their families in the Midwest because the strong
> confidence they once had in an economic rebound had finally faded.
>
> "They went back to try to find jobs they can count on," he said.
> "What's going on with the economy is filtering down to everybody here,
> not just people who were in charge of tech companies."
>
> In a report last month, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association said
> that San Francisco suffered a net loss of 168 restaurants in the past
> two years. The rate of failure also appears to be increasing. In the
> first two months of this year, 83 restaurants in the city closed.
>
> Patricia Breslin, executive director of the association, which has 600
> members, said the badly weakened local economy has forced many
> restaurants to fire workers, cut back their serving hours, revamp
> their menus with items that can be bought and prepared cheaply, and
> slash prices.
>
> And many restaurants, she said, are still fighting to survive.
>
> "We've been tightening our belts as much as we can for the past two
> years. There are no more steps to take," she said, "but to close."
>
>
>
>

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