The Dark Side Of Growth In Silicon Valley

"This is the dark side of regional success in the New Economy. Along with tremendous wealth have come severe problems: astronomically high housing prices, suburban sprawl, traffic, income inequality and economic volatility...While thousands of people became millionaires in building big-name Silicon Valley companies...there was nowhere near enough housing to accommodate the workers those companies attracted. As businesses sprawled south along the suburban peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose, the freeways and mass transit systems quickly proved inadequate. Eventually dot-com workers pushed long-time residents out of San Francisco itself... In an earlier era of American history, when heavy manufacturing was the cutting-edge industry, the problems of economic success were pollution and dangerous factory working conditions. Now they are housing shortages and suburban sprawl."