Report and photos Florian Guillemin.
Half a century after the Summer of Lovea whiff of freedom still wafts through the streets of Paris. San Francisco. And it's not just because California legalised recreational marijuana in 2016... The bobos-geeks have replaced the hippies, rock concerts have given way to "keynotes business, but the excitement is still there. The high-tech sector, once confined to the Silicon ValleyThe web giants are aiming to attract young talent by offering them a livelier living environment.
One district is the epitome of this trend: SoMawhich stands for South of Market StreetIn recent years, the area has undergone a veritable renaissance. Long marginalised - or even left to decay - this area of warehouses populated by the homeless is now emerging as San Francisco's up-and-coming district. Visit start-up are flourishing in the shadow of the headquarters inaugurated by all the web giants. Gentrification may be underway, but it is not yet complete. So the atmosphere is a mixed bag. Depending on the street and the time of day, you quickly go from "bobo" to "hobo", the nickname given to the many homeless people you come across in San Francisco. Eventually, the food trucks and spaces coworking are set to replace the areas left fallow.
Once uninviting, the SoMa is now unaffordable...
The district's boom has not been without collateral damage. Traffic has reached saturation point, rents for homes and offices have soared, and Frisco has even overtaken Manhattan as the most expensive place in the US to set up a business. Once uninhabitable, SoMa is now unaffordable... To keep up with demand, the district is expanding northwards, nibbling away at the Financial District. Underground, the metro project called Central Subway is designed to improve connectivity and relieve traffic congestion. On the surface, skyscrapers are rising to increase the number of homes and offices.
As a symbol, the city's tallest building - 326 metres - will be inaugurated in a few months' time in SoMa: the Salesforce Tour. To the glory of a key player in the digital age, of course.
SoMa, the new high-tech epicentre
Today, the SoMa is perhaps the best place on earth to get close to a herd of "unicornsThese are companies whose value has reached the symbolic billion-dollar mark. Over the last few years, these companies have gathered in San Francisco's new business district. From west to east, there is a succession of offices of Twitter, Yahoo, Uber, Slack and Google. Facebook will soon join this list, which is starting to look like a Hollywood Boulevard 2.0. In particular, its managers would like to relocate the employees of Instagram, the famous photography application acquired in 2012.
But the real icon of the neighbourhood is Airbnb. The collaborative hosting giant has just moved to 999 Brannan Street, right in the heart of SoMa, adding almost 15,000 sq m to its neighbouring offices at number 888 on the same street. This is further proof of its loyalty to the neighbourhood in which it was born. It was here that the site's founders rented out their first airbed, launching the concept of collaborative accommodation and, more generally, the sharing economy... While the idea has spread across the planet, Airbnb's address remains - almost - unchanged.
The price of success
SoMa's appeal to digital giants contributes to the prosperity of the whole city. "San Francisco is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth"said in March Mario AliotoChairman of the Board of Directors of Chamber of Commerce. This dynamic development is not without its constraints. Visit Mecca of the collaborative economy has logically adopted the lifestyle inspired by Airbnb and Uber. As a result, rentals between individuals have exploded, contributing to a surge in rents. This is particularly true in SoMa. A To such an extent that the comfortable salaries paid by the digital giants to their skilled employees no longer allow them to find accommodation close to their place of work. As for the the proliferation of Uber and Lyft vehiclesIn addition, it has exacerbated traffic congestion. In 2016, motorists spent 82.6 h in traffic jams in San Francisco, compared with 56 h in 2014. According to specialist consultancy Inrix, this is the 3rd highest number of hours worked in a single day.e America's most congested city. The two VTC giants account for more than 20 % of vehicles on the road...
These two factors combined - traffic congestion and soaring rents - are threatening San Francisco's position on the high-tech scene. The big names in the sector are beginning to desert the city. Moscone Center conference centre - in the process of being renovated - for less expensive and more accessible destinations. Facebook and Apple have left San Francisco to hold their events at the McEnery conference centre in San José...
San Francisco in figures
N°1
San Francisco leads the Global Cities Outlook 2017 ranking published by A.T. Kearney. The American auditing firm believes that "Frisco" is the destination with the greatest potential to attract investment, people and new ideas over the next few years.
2/10
2 of the world's top 10 universities in San Francisco: Stanford and UC Berkeley.
+14%
In 2015, San Francisco overtook Manhattan as the top US destination for the highest office rents, according to property specialist CBRE. Rates rose by 14%.
288 $
This is the average price of a double room according to the Bloomberg World Hotel Index 2017. San Francisco was named as the most expensive of the 100 destinations analysed. It came in at 4e place for Airbnb rentals.
3 396 $
That's the average rent for a one-bedroom flat in SoMa. This is equivalent to 54 % of an Airbnb senior executive's salary (Source: Redpad).
Special report - San Francisco: SoMa, Silicon Valley in the city centre
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