We constantly hear about a desperate shortage of software engineers from tech companies, as well as talk of "six figure" salaries. But the median price for housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a family, trying to buy a SFH or 3br apartment, even in the remaining unfashionable and mildly blighted areas south of 280 (not really unsafe, but a bit depressing in spots, lots of dumping, garbage, paved over front yards with abandoned cars), even that you'll be lucky to get in for much less thank 900k unless the house needs a lot of work or is very small with no expansion possibilities. A shortage of young people who are willing to work for salaries too low to put down real roots is not a shortage of workers, it's a wage vs cost of living problem.
SF needs to build (certainly the bay area needs to build), but I don't see construction in the bay area as more than part of the solution. We will eventually have to accept that it isn't desirable or possible to cram all the programmers into a 7x7 grid and a narrow corridor down the peninsula.
Truth is, there are a lot of interesting old cities in the US that are pretty much neglected.
I thought Patti Smyth said it best:
"The Godmother of Punk recalled coming to New York in 1967 when she was broke and the city was "'down and out,' and you could get a cheap apartment and 'build a whole community of transvestites or artists or writers.'" But today, she says, "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city."
I don't think that it's realistic to expect a coordinated effort from the tech "industry", which doesn't really speak with one voice or have one opinion. Market forces may eventually create the change we'd like to see, but for now, the tech industry really has obtained a subsidy in the form of control over the immigration system that prevents these market forces from working as they should. The first step is to stop taking claims of a worker shortage seriously, and don't give tech companies a crutch that allows them to avoid making the adjustments that will help everyone in the long run (in other words, don't allow tech companies to control visas that force workers to work in San Francisco or the valley, make sure all members of the workforce are free to chose their job, field, educational and career path, and where they live, in response to market signals).
Just to be clear, as I have in the past, I feel positively about general immigration, I believe that immigrants must be free to choose their own path in live, including what they study, where they live, who they will work for.