Bracy's first message to the packed crowd was that we shouldn't blame techies for the housing crisis. She said she'd had to overcome her own prejudices to make that realization. When Uber announced they were buying the historic Sears Building in Oakland, where Bracy lives, she said she had to struggle not to get angry. She worried that her neighborhood would be less brown and that there would be a wave of housing displacement like what San Francisco has already experienced. But after years of working on civic-minded tech projects like Code for America and founding nonprofit TechEquity several years ago, she's come to a new understanding.
First, Bracy said, she realized that we couldn't solve problems with housing and income inequality by writing apps or coding. There was no tech solution for this problem. That's why she pivoted TechEquity's mission to focus on changing local and state laws. Right now, TechEquity is focused on laws that would mitigate the effects of gentrification, as well as projects that provide funds for people who have been evicted. The problem goes beyond the Bay Area to the state level, she said. Eviction and affordable housing laws need reform.
So far, TechEquity's efforts have focused on getting tech workers involved in local programs and activist campaigns that will make housing available to people on all levels of the economic ladder. She also works to place tech workers on the boards of nonprofits that deal with these issues, to bring activists and local community members into contact with techies. The whole idea is to bridge the gap between groups who live right alongside one another, but feel as if they are worlds apart.
When we asked Bracy where she'd like to see Oakland in 30 years, she said she'd like locals to celebrate the arrival of a tech company. This would mean changing rules around affordable housing and housing density, so that new companies don't mean housing displacement for lower-income people. But it would also mean encouraging tech companies to hire locally. Maybe tech companies would create programs to train recent high school grads in coding, or they would hire local vendors to supply lunch, cleaning services, and Q/A task work that is currently outsourced online. Tech companies would benefit the communities where they are located, as well as bringing in employees from outside.
Bracy said that TechEquity has already worked with a number of tech companies. She said that the Oakland tech scene tends to be dominated by smaller companies, and that makes the problems they face very different from a city like San Francisco or Palo Alto. Still, she said, Oakland provides a good model for how tech companies can be good citizens. She said the city of Seattle has done a good job as well.
Though obviously many problems remain, Bracy said she's optimistic about the future. As long as tech workers are willing to get involved in local government and civic projects, we are on the right path.
For more from Bracy, check out the full interview above in either video or audio form. And don't forget to come to the next Ars Technica Live at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland, California, on September 18. Our guest will be UC Berkeley professor Aaron Streets, who is going to tell us how microfluidics are about to change the way we do science. You can also follow Ars Technica Live on Facebook.
The Ars Technica Live podcast can always be accessed in these fine places:
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https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ars-technicast/id522504024?mt=2
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http://arstechnica.libsyn.com/rss
Stitcher
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ars-technicast/the-ars-technicast
Libsyn:
http://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/arstechnica
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/arstechnica/sets/ars-technica-live
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