San Francisco Real Estate - Janice Lee

When U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the White House-hosted Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh last week, he closed with a rather apt nod to Silicon Valley types. The President reminded the entrepreneurial tech enthusiasts in the room that government doesn’t work like a startup — on purpose. That’s because the government has to be accountable to everyone, with diverse needs and competing interests in tow. And that’s way more complicated than serving an app’s user base. Obama continued to push back against those inclined to “blow up the system, or create this parallel society and culture because government is inherently wrecked,” noting that the government isn’t broken, but rather that caring for everyone isn’t an easy task. It takes time and patience and a sense of responsibility to people who continue to depend on existing systems and can’t afford to change quickly. Here’s the relevant section of Obama’s speech: (as highlighted on Twitter by Kim-Mai Cutler and Drew Olanoff )...

Tesla is working on a battery that can power your home and even help large-scale utilities store energy more efficiently, according to company chief executive Elon Musk. On an investor call Wednesday, Musk said the designs for a home or business battery are already complete and will likely be unveiled to the public "in the next month or two." Production could be as little as six months away, he added. "It's really great. I'm really excited about it," said Musk. While there's no word yet on price, Tesla's battery and charging technology could ultimately wind up saving you money on your electric bill. Although many of today's homes draw energy directly from the electricity grid, the spread of cheap solar panels means it's never been easier to generate some of your own energy. Storing renewables efficiently has been a big bottleneck for consumers and for utilities alike, but if Tesla's stationary battery takes off, it could change ...

A decade ago, billionaire entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Elon Musk decided to take booming start-up PayPal public from a small coffee shop along Palo Alto's University Avenue. The street, the epicenter of Silicon Valley high tech, also helped incubate such now-established giants as Facebook and Google. But today, Thiel has seemingly left the Valley behind. The venture capital funds he runs are based 30 miles north, in a San Francisco building with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. A number of highly publicized start-ups like Twitter, Square, and Pinterest are also located in the heart of urban San Francisco. As Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey tweeted last February from his new headquarters in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood, "I love the idea of an urban corporate campus with all the energy and variety that provides." To what extent have clusters of venture capital and start-ups shifted from their traditional locations in suburban nerdistans to urban tech in bigger ci...