That squares with my experience. I've been in engineering in Silicon Valley for 35 years, through multiple ups and downs, and NEVER saw a job market to match the late '90s. And unemployment in the valley was never below 2% before. There were non-tech businesses (and some tech, I suppose) that simply shut down because they could not afford the cost of reliable labor and could not live with what they could get for what they could pay. Suzanne's Muffins was one.
mv-voice.com
And I just found that article via google; I originally got this story from Suzanne herself in late 2000.
Epstein said also that her landlord, Jack Dymond Associates of Los Altos, had raised her rent more than 500 percent.
As that indicates, rents also went berserk and that killed other businesses. A small grocery in Mountain View that had been in business serving its neighborhood for decades shut down because of a huge rent increase.
"Fifteen months ago my baking supervisor, who had been here for 10 years, moved to Sacramento ... The employees who want to raise their families here have to leave the area to be able to buy a house," Epstein said.
This is one of lizzie's favorite complaints. She wants to blame it all on Prop 13. Apparently she discounts supply and demand. Prop 13 has been with us since 1978. There have been a number of cycles since then. In boomtimes, landlords raise rents skyhigh; in bust, they beg for tenants, lower rents, pay moving expenses, and give a month or two free to get tenants. But it's all Prop 13's fault.
Last I heard, Suzanne was still baking, but selling through retail groceries rather than her own stores. |
