• John and Matine Yuksel moved from San Francisco to the Midwest in 2020.

• The brothers and business partners lived in Iowa and Cincinnati while founding their startup.

• Sometimes they miss living in California, but love the friendly people and affordable prices of Cincinnati.

This essay is based on a conversation with John Yuksel, 33, and Matine Yuksel, 29, two brothers who moved from San Francisco to Dubuque, Iowa, in 2020 to start Beltways, an accelerated pavement company. The brothers then moved to Cincinnati in 2022. Their company is based nearby in Northern Kentucky.

John: We are children of immigrant parents who grew up in southern Arizona.

I always knew I wanted to be close to my brother. He's my only sibling. After college, we lived in San Diego for a few years and then moved to San Francisco in 2018.

Death: San Francisco is incredible. I've never seen such a diverse environment there and it's a world-class environment for companies, especially in technology.

John: Matine worked for Walmart e-commerce and later got a job at Apple. I worked as a lawyer.

We paid an incredibly high rent, but had the best view of the Pacific and saw the sunset outside our windows every night.

But San Francisco was in the apocalypse. During COVID, the streets were empty. It felt unsafe. My car was broken into several times.

Death: COVID helped us rethink and reprioritize things. Instead of working on bringing the next generation iPhone to market, I wanted to build a new product that few people have ever heard of.

John: Beltways is actually our father's dream. Forty years ago, he lived in Istanbul and realized that today's forms of mobility were not moving people efficiently. He came up with a modular design to make pedestrian routes ten times faster.

John and Matine Yuksel with their parents.Courtesy of John and Matine Yuksel

My brother and I always wanted to do something together and years after our father came up with the idea, we started looking into it.

Death: We founded Beltways in July 2020. We quickly realized we had to move out of San Francisco. It would have been far too expensive to do what we needed to do there.

John: It wasn't the right place for our startup. We're a large hardware manufacturing startup. It made much more sense to be near industrial technology clusters. We wanted to be in the Midwest, where manufacturing is still profitable.

Death: John met someone with experience in the sidewalk business and he offered us a deal in Iowa.

We moved to Dubuque, Iowa in 2020

John: It was a very small town in the middle of the cornfields, an hour and a half from any airport. Dubuque is a beautiful, quiet town on the Mississippi. We could drive anywhere in the city in two minutes.

We practically lived in a mansion. We had a three-story, four-bedroom house for half the price of our condo in San Francisco.

Death: The snow was definitely a change. We got our share of physical activity by shoveling snow.

It was a different way of life. We had to be focused and Iowa was good because we didn't have too many distractions. The two years we spent in Iowa flew by.

The brothers said they had to adjust to small-town life after moving to Dubuque, Iowa.Courtesy of John and Matine Yuksel

John: We built the prototype for the fastest walkway in the world when we lived there. It was a thirty-meter-long system and earned us our first VC check.

This was a huge milestone for us. We put all our money into this company. We quit our regular jobs. We refinanced our house. There was nothing more fulfilling than turning our father's invention into a commercial venture.

Death: It was a surreal day when he came out and rode the system for the first time. It was the icing on the cake to see his enthusiasm for something he dreamt up so many years ago.

John: We had to look for a new location for our company. The next step was to pilot our walkway. We were invited by several airports to do a pilot demo of our system.

We knew that CVG Airport in Cincinnati had a real track record of innovation and startup support. The area was also beneficial for manufacturing. It's super cheap. The facility we're currently in is just a little more expensive than my rent in San Francisco and is 20,000 square feet.

We moved to Cincinnati in 2022

John: We even moved our parents here. We wanted our father to work with us and be a part of the company personally. Our parents live three floors below us in our building in the Mount Adams neighborhood.

When we moved to Cincinnati, we felt like we were back in a big city after two years in Iowa. We have big sports teams and a big major airport. The climate is much more temperate.

The winters have been pretty mild so far. The spring is lush and green. You can kayak down the rivers and there are great hiking trails nearby. The air quality is great. And the summers aren't 120 degrees like Arizona.

I met my partner and now I have a child who was born here in Cincinnati. The city has become home for us. The company is here, the whole family is here.

John and Matine Yuksel enjoy a football game in Cincinnati.Courtesy of John and Matine Yuksel

Sometimes we miss living on the coast. California is a beautiful place. We love the climate and the diversity of the people. San Francisco is where technology starts and flows out. It really is the birthplace of many amazing things.

Death: But the tech scene in Cincinnati has also been very good to us. It's growing. It's a tight-knit startup community. From the moment we got here, the community was so welcoming.

John: And it's much cheaper here.

Bringing our father's dream to life was incredible

Death: We started Beltways in a modest garage in Tucson, where my brother built prototypes himself. Now we're in a 20,000-square-foot facility here in Northern Kentucky, right next to our first airport customer. And we manufacture in the USA.

John: Our goal is to become an official partner of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and to provide temporary high-speed transportation.

Cincinnati is a great place to raise a family and run a business, and we can see ourselves staying there for the foreseeable future.

But our ultimate goal is to make our sidewalks commonplace and to spread this technology around the world. Wherever we need to go to make that possible, we will. This is bigger than us.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post We’re millennial brothers and enterprise companions who left San Francisco’s tech bubble for the Midwest manufacturing scene. We by no means would have been capable of afford to launch our startup in California. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Real estate is changing … again.

he post-pandemic world is a volatile one, and the real estate industry is just as susceptible to volatility as any other sector. Real estate has long been a “hedge asset,” one that is somewhat insulated from economic pressures and declines. As a result, investors often believe their strategic decisions are insulated from economic pressures.

However, four trends began emerging this summer that will affect your returns as soon as third quarter 2023 (if they are not already doing so), so be alert and be aware.

1. The “Free Money Fountain” Has Been Shut Off

There are more houses being listed every day, and although most markets are still quite “tight,”you will start to see “healthier” inventories with multiple months’ worth of homes listed.

This will dramatically affect how you should calculate your returns, holding costs, and even the amount of time and capital you dedicate to repairs. So, carefully monitor your local market conditions and watch those “days on market” metrics closely. Remember, as more listings appear and fewer people are comfortable borrowing at a 6% or 7% interest rate, it is going to take longer to sell your properties, even if sales prices remain high. Extremely low interest rates have made buyers extra sensitive to any rise in rates, and it will take a while for today’s historically low interest rates to feel anything other than painful.

2. Airbnb Won’t Win Them All

In the midst of the pandemic-era remote-work melee, it seemed like Airbnb investments and other short-term rental assets were essentially guaranteed wins for most investors. Now, that could be changing.

Airbnb posted a near 50% decline in revenues according to data from AllTheRooms, with Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, leading the pack for lost income despite an 18% increase in listings year over year. Interestingly, Airbnb pushed back on this report, stating simply that the data presented “is not consistent with our own data.” The company declared there are more bookings than ever, although it did not directly address how much revenue those bookings were generating. Airbnb faces multiple complicating factors when it comes to generating predictable returns in this sector.

First, post-pandemic employer demands are sending many workers back to the physical office. This means less time for travel and less flexibility while doing so.

Second, inflation is hitting everyone in the country, and that means the dollars to spend on vacations do not go as far. Further, as a property owner, your dollars will not go as far when it comes to maintenance and marketing of those properties. You must plan for your money to continue to be worth less, just as your guests must plan for the same.

Finally, Airbnb competitors like Booking Holding and Expedia had great first quarter performances, which means the short-term rental market and travel markets are becoming increasingly saturated and institutional players are beginning to jump in. This affects how much competition you will see for your rentals, regardless of what Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says about it. Chesky continues to insist no competitor can touch Airbnb, but the company’s growth is slowing just as others are accelerating.

3. The Apartment Market Is Shifting

Although the market for apartments is still certainly competitive, you can see early signs of shifting conditions in previously white-hot cities like Las Vegas, Nevada; Riverside, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and San Francisco, California. According to data from Realtor.com, these metro areas were the “hottest destinations” just a year ago, but now rent prices are pulling back the quickest in these municipal areas. For example, during 2020 and 2021, Las Vegas posted 40% gains in rents. In the past year, however, those rates have fallen 6%. Riverside and Phoenix are experiencing similar rental rate declines, and the trajectory appears unlikely to change at this point.

You should note that Phoenix is also facing another complicating factor in its housing situation: Arizona’s governor recently announced that new development must show access to 100 years’ worth of water, not including groundwater. This is going to force multifamily and infill development in areas that already are cleared for development and interfere with single-family rental (SFR) developments on the outskirts of the metro area. As a result, short-term rental owners may soon be looking to sell or switch to longer-term leases to accommodate this shift.

4. The Median Age of American Adults Is Rising

According to Statista, the median age of adults in the U.S. has risen more than 10 years since 1970. This trend is not unique to the U.S.. The global median age has risen dramatically as well.

In the U.S., the rising age of adults has, not surprisingly, been accompanied by delays in other milestones associated with aging. Americans are waiting longer to get married, have children, and buy their own homes. In the meantime, they are spending more money (and going into more debt) on education, which means you should expect renters and buyers to have more restrictive borrowing situations than you may have gotten used to during the past decade. Although fearmongers like Elon Musk (who predicted a month ago that the commercial real estate sector would “melt down fast” and that residential housing would be the next to go) may be jumping the gun, an aging population will create a need for more housing to accommodate it.

Interestingly, baby boomers recently ousted millennials as the largest home-buying population in the country. This means that although most analysts 10 years ago would have told you that boomers would, today, be looking to sell off their homes, far more than projected are actually buying.

Although senior housing has long been a staple of the responsible investor’s portfolio, making minor adjustments to the ways in which you renovate your fix-and-flip or rehab-to-rent properties could serve you well also. For example, wider doorways, grab bars, and step-in showers all make living alone as an older adult easier and make your properties more attractive to this powerful buying demographic that has age, wisdom, and money to spend—unlike its younger counterparts.

As you can see, access to accurate data about your specific markets is more important than ever before. You must carefully monitor this data and draw your own conclusions about local trends in your target markets. If you ignore emerging trends, you do so at your own peril.

The post 4 Business Tendencies You Can’t Afford to Ignore appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• A San Franciscan making $80,000 said he doesn’t think he could afford to live alone in the city.
• He said he pays $1,200 a month to share a four-bedroom house with three roommates.
• While the cost of living is high, he feels safe and accepted and plans to stay in San Francisco.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with a building manager. He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being reprimanded at his job, as he’s not authorized to talk to journalists. Insider has verified his salary, address, and employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m a 36-year-old building manager, and I’ve lived in San Francisco for almost 13 years; I moved here in August 2010. I love the city, but the cost of living is so high that I don’t think I could afford to retire here.

I live in Hayes Valley, which is a cool, upscale neighborhood. I’m lucky to be able to pay only $1,200 a month to share a four-bedroom house with three roommates, who are also in their 30s.

I make an annual salary of $80,000, which is pretty high, but I don’t think I could afford to live on my own in the city given the high cost of renting an apartment, paying for food, and socializing.

I’ve viewed other apartments with only two bedrooms, and they cost north of $2,500.

Sometimes we joke about how much a salad costs. When we go out for lunch, it’s $20 for ingredients we used to be able to buy for half the price.

I don’t think I can go out in San Francisco without dropping several hundred dollars in a weekend. It’s hard to have savings here if you have a robust social network.

I don’t have a car, which helps keep my cost of living down, but I have to pay for the Muni service, which is the city’s transit system.

There’s a general feeling here that the return on how much money you pay for things is going down.

Still, there’s a vibrant culture, and I don’t plan to move out of the city anytime soon. Here’s two reasons why.

San Francisco is in flux, but there’s a lot to enjoy

I think San Francisco is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, although the city is in a constant state of flux and things have changed a lot in recent years.

The activity level has noticeably gone down in the city. The streets are definitely quieter, and a lot of the places we used to go have closed down.

However, there’s still a spark of joy in this city if you know where to go — the neighborhoods are where the magic of San Francisco is.

Some things to see include the scenic Marina District, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, and Alcatraz. Valencia Street has amazing bars, restaurants, and shops, while Mission Street has a very vibrant Latino community. There’s amazing food, tons of people out on the streets, and great events throughout the year.

In my opinion, reports of crime are incredibly overhyped and conflated with the visibility of poverty here. I’ve seen petty robberies and shoplifting, but I’m not going to stop somebody who’s clearly in poverty from taking food. 

I understand I’m male and there’s some privilege behind that, but I generally feel safe and can walk around with my headphones on without paying attention to my surroundings. I’ve never been impacted by anything serious.

I don’t trust Elon Musk’s comment that “downtown SF looks like a Zombie apocalypse,” because he clearly has an agenda. This discussion is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and a doom loop that discourages people from investing in San Francisco. 

I feel safe and accepted in San Francisco

I’m a gay man, and with the current climate in the US, I want to live somewhere I feel safe — and I feel safe in San Francisco.

You wouldn’t catch me dead in Florida or Texas. I would rather be poor in San Francisco than rich in Florida.

I have such a high standard of living in the city, even today. Even if the cost of living is high and some of the things you’re getting back for the increased cost might not be what you’d want them to be, I still feel like if I could afford to retire here, I’d never move.

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Many cannabis companies may think of HVAC systems as simple heaters or air conditioners, but the reality is very different.

HVAC is a highly complex system of interconnected devices that must work in harmony to create the exact temperature, humidity, and air quality conditions that marijuana plants need to thrive.

A lack of comprehensive HVAC planning in both new and re-commissioned facilities, as well as infrequent maintenance, can lead to a myriad of problems in these complex systems.

Even small changes in temperature, humidity and air filtration can significantly affect product quality and consistency, resulting in significant lost time, production and sales.

In today’s highly competitive cannabis industry, businesses simply cannot afford to neglect regular preventative maintenance at the risk of significant revenue losses.

It is vitally important that marijuana business owners consider their HVAC systems a key element in the success of their business.

Prioritizing regular preventive HVAC maintenance is the best way to ensure systems are operating at peak performance and to prevent problems before they can occur.

Preventative maintenance can even save money by reducing energy costs and helping to avoid costly repairs or equipment failure.

Spring is an ideal time for growers to ensure their HVAC systems are effectively regulating the indoor growing environment despite varying weather conditions outside.

Here are six steps of a preventative maintenance process to ensure your system is running efficiently:

1. Clean condenser coils

Without regular maintenance, dust and dirt can accumulate on the condenser coils.

Over time, this buildup can cause your device to work harder and run longer, resulting in reduced system efficiency and higher energy bills.

It’s especially important to keep the coils clean in the spring, as airborne plant debris can attach to your coils and clog them.

If neglected for an extended period of time, dirty coils can eventually corrode, causing refrigerant leaks and even causing a system failure.

2. Clean and test cooling towers and water tower filtration systems

Although cooling towers are an essential part of many commercial HVAC systems, they are often overlooked.

Regular cleaning and inspection of cooling towers is crucial after periods of non-use during the winter months as they can become breeding grounds for bacteria.

In addition, cooling tower efficiency can drop by up to 40-50% if the tower is not properly maintained.

3. Flush cooling water systems and reheat hot water systems

Even a small problem with a chilled water or post-heating hot water system can significantly reduce efficiency and increase operating costs.

Over time, chilled water system plumbing can accumulate contaminants such as minerals, scale, and sludge.

In hot water systems, rust and scale can clog control valves.

It is important to regularly remove this debris to ensure consistent flow and proper temperature and humidity control.

4. Check the systems for refrigerant leaks

To ensure your ventilation and chilled water systems can effectively cool your environment, it is important to maintain refrigerant levels as specified by the manufacturer.

When the refrigerant level drops, the compressor works harder to compensate.

Refrigerant leaks not only affect system efficiency and stress the compressor, but are also subject to strict environmental regulations.

5. Check economizer function

Economizers are particularly valuable in the spring as they use the outside air to ‘free cool’ your building when the temperature and humidity are appropriate.

Without preventative maintenance, sensors will go out of calibration, dampers will stick, linkages will break, seals will fail and actuators will stop working properly.

When economizers work properly, they effectively reduce energy costs, often on the order of hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.

6. Change filter and belt

Dirty or clogged filters can lead to underperforming HVAC systems and poor air quality.

Over time, fan belts can become worn and loose, affecting the proper operation of the air conditioner.

Belts should be checked at every preventative maintenance and generally need to be replaced once or twice a year.

These six steps provide a basic guide to preventive maintenance of HVAC systems.

Of course, every building’s HVAC system is unique, which means that no two approaches to preventative maintenance are exactly the same.

Working with a commercial HVAC professional with experience in mission-critical environments on a customized preventive maintenance plan can give cannabis business owners peace of mind that their system is operating at peak performance while providing a safe environment for plants to thrive.

Peter McGrath oversees technical sales, equipment replacement and design/engineering at Mechanical Service Corp. based in Whippany, NJ. He can be reached at marketing@mscnj.com.

To be considered for publication as a guest columnist, please submit your request here.

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LLater this year, San Francisco regulators will consider an ambitious plan to bring reparations to black residents to compensate them for the lingering effects of slavery and recent discriminatory public policies. While other Cato scholars have commented more generally on national and San Francisco reparations, here I will focus on the fiscal implications and the local economic impact.

An analysis of the plan by the Hoover Institute estimates its cost at $200 billion, with most of the cost attributable to the recommended $5 million cash payment to each eligible person. Since the recommendations have not yet been fully finalized, Hoover’s estimate is necessarily speculative, but appears to be the best available. The San Francisco Reparations Committee has yet to produce a financial analysis, stating that “it is not its job to determine how San Francisco’s atonement and repairs are to be funded.”

Assuming the cost is around $200 billion, can the city and county governments fund the reparations plan? This is only possible through a combination of large-scale borrowing and tax increases.

In 2022-23, San Francisco’s overall fund budget is $6.8 billion. The rest of the government’s total $14 billion fiscal footprint comes from self-sustaining businesses like San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and the municipal water system. There may be an opportunity to increase user fees to fund these businesses, but a large increase could hamper the competitiveness of services (like SFO) that have alternatives (like nearby airports).

Much of San Francisco’s general fund income comes from non-tax income, primarily from state and federal aid. Tax revenue accounts for just $4.4 billion of the fund’s general income. Funding a $200 billion reparations program in one year would result in a more than forty-fold increase in taxes.

A more realistic approach would be to issue bonds to cover the cost of reparations spread over 30 years. However, such borrowing faces two major obstacles. First, general promissory notes issued by the city and county must be approved by two-thirds of local voters. Second, the California Constitution limits the purpose of such bonds to the “acquisition and improvement of real estate.” simple majority.

If reparations advocates could overcome these hurdles. The San Francisco government could then fund the program and pay the debt service by imposing an additional $285 billion property tax on San Francisco taxable property. Assuming the bonds mature over 30 years and pay a coupon of 4%, and assuming that the appraised values ​​increase by 4% per year, the additional tax burden should be around 2.4% of the appraised value.

This additional levy would roughly triple ad valorem property taxes citywide. It is reasonable to expect that this higher tax rate would put significant downward pressure on property values, potentially breaking the assumption made above of a 4% compound annual property appreciation rate. In this case, the tax rate would have to rise even further.

In fact, the effect of such a large tax increase could be to send the city’s economy into a “fate loop” recently described in the San Francisco Chronicle as follows:

Connected forces catch the city in economic freefall: workers mostly stay away; offices are empty; company roller shutter; Mass transit is severely restricted or even bankrupt, making it even more difficult for low- and middle-wage workers who enable restaurants and small businesses to operate, resulting in large budget shortfalls from falling tax revenues that jeopardize numerous city services and trigger mass layoffs of city workers and rip apart the social safety net, causing more people to leave.

In the week after the Chronicle mentioned the possibility of a Doom loop, the risk of that scenario seemed to increase with the assassination of a high-profile tech executive downtown, the bludgeoning of a former fire commissioner in the Marina district, and the news about the city The commercial property vacancy rate had reached a record 29.5%.

A big tax hike could be the last straw. While there has been much talk of Californians moving to other states, there has also been a lot of movement within the state. Bay Area residents have moved to the Sacramento area to lower their cost of living, while San Francisco residents are moving to suburbs with more space and better schools.

Even those who like California’s liberal politics and are willing to pay higher income and sales taxes to live in the Golden State have options. And since San Francisco covers just 47 square miles, residents and businesses wouldn’t have to move far to avoid reparations policies and the additional property taxes that would be required.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT RESTORING AMERICA

This article originally appeared on the Cato at Liberty blog and is reprinted with permission from the Cato Institute.

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In ihrem ersten Jahr als Lehramtsstudentin lieferte Gina Gray auch Lebensmittel für Instacart aus. Sie war bestrebt, der Stadt, in der sie aufgewachsen war, etwas zurückzugeben, brauchte aber auch Hilfe bei den Rechnungen und der Miete.

Jetzt übernimmt Gray, eine schwarze Englischlehrerin an der High School des Middle College in Los Angeles, zusätzliche Arbeiten im Bezirk, wie das Unterrichten von Sommer- und Samstagsschulen, und pendelt täglich eine Stunde von ihrer Mietwohnung in Norwalk-La Mirada, einem Bezirk in der Nähe von Los Angeles .

„Ein neuer Lehrer mit einem Einstiegsgehalt in [Los Angeles unified school district] kann sich keine Miete leisten“, sagt Grey. „Das sind nur die Fakten. Wenn Sie kommen und wissen, dass Sie es sich nicht leisten können, alleine zu leben, ist das ein wichtiger Grund, warum Sie sich für eine andere Karriere entscheiden würden. Wir reden noch nicht einmal über Wohneigentum. Wir reden hier nur von komfortablen Mietunterkünften.“

In Kalifornien und im ganzen Land bewegen sich Lehrer auf einem schwierigen Terrain: Sie müssen genug Geld verdienen, um sich das Leben in den Bezirken leisten zu können, in denen sie dienen. Untersuchungen von Sylvia Allegretto vom Economic Policy Institute ergaben, dass Lehrer an öffentlichen Schulen landesweit fast 24 % weniger wöchentlich verdienen als Hochschulabsolventen mit ähnlichen Qualifikationen in anderen Bereichen. Wenn Leistungen wie Gesundheitsversorgung berücksichtigt wurden, betrug die Gesamtentschädigung 14 %, die größte Lücke seit 1979.

Die sogenannte „Lohnstrafe“ erschwert es Lehrern zunehmend, in denselben Gemeinden wie ihre Schüler zu leben, zwingt sie, weite Entfernungen zur und von der Schule zu pendeln, Zimmer von den Eltern zu mieten, Nebenjobs anzunehmen und im Schulbezirk zu leben. betriebenes Gehäuse.

Gina Gray, Englischlehrerin an der High School des Middle College in Los Angeles, bereitet sich auf ihren langen Arbeitsweg vor. Foto: Mark Abramson/für The Guardian

„Pädagogen bilden Astronauten, Physiker, Ärzte, Anwälte, Bauarbeiter, Klempner, Elektriker aus“, sagt Cecily Myart-Cruz, die Präsidentin von United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). „Allerdings verdienen Erzieher mit zwei, drei und vier Abschlüssen nicht genug oder mehr als alle Berufe, die ich vorgestellt habe.“

Im Dezember schlug UTLA neben anderen Forderungen wie kleineren Klassengrößen eine Gehaltserhöhung von 20 % in den nächsten zwei Jahren vor. In Los Angeles verdient ein Lehrer im ersten Jahr fast 49.000 US-Dollar, während die durchschnittliche Wohnungsmiete zwischen 2.247 und 3.826 US-Dollar liegt, was bedeutet, dass er jedes Jahr mindestens die Hälfte seines Gehalts an Miete zahlen würde.

Die laufenden Verhandlungen zwischen Lehrergewerkschaften und Schulbezirken in Chicago, Los Angeles und anderswo konzentrierten sich in den letzten Jahren zunehmend darauf, die Bezirke dazu zu bewegen, die Herausforderungen der Erschwinglichkeit von Wohnraum anzugehen, mit denen ihre Mitarbeiter über die Anhebung von Gehältern und die Aufstockung von Sozialleistungen hinaus konfrontiert sind.

In Kalifornien verdienen Lehrer laut dem Economic Policy Institute wöchentlich fast 18 % weniger als vergleichbare Hochschulabsolventen. Gray sagt, dass Ungleichheit eine „zusätzliche Steuer“ für Farblehrer darstellt, die mit mehr Schulden in den Beruf kommen. Sie macht die mangelnde Diversität unter den Lehrern auf magere Löhne und Sozialleistungen zurück, die durch die Erschwinglichkeit von Wohnraum und die Herausforderungen bei der Kinderbetreuung noch verschlimmert werden.

Gray verlässt ihre Wohnung extra früh, um ihre Tochter in einer Kindertagesstätte abzusetzen, bevor sie ihren langen Arbeitsweg antritt. Foto: Mark Abramson/The Guardian

Ihre Tochter, die in die zweite Klasse geht, geht dort zur Schule, was sie dank Grays langen Arbeitswegen zum ersten Kind macht, das abgesetzt und als letztes abgeholt wird. Für Gray ist es eine „ernüchternde“ Realität: Freunde sind in andere Bezirke gezogen, wo die Bezahlung höher ist, und sie wusste von Lehrern, insbesondere Junglehrern, die den Beruf wegen der unterschiedlichen Vergütungen ganz aufgegeben hatten.

Die Pandemie verdeutlichte die Unterschiede innerhalb des Bildungssystems für Schüler und Lehrer weiter und zwang die Distrikte, zu rechnen, welche Investitionen in Gehälter und darüber hinaus getätigt werden müssen. Und da ein landesweiter Lehrermangel anhält, schafft der Mangel an schwarzen und lateinamerikanischen Lehrern, insbesondere in verschiedenen, verarmten Schulbezirken wie Los Angeles, eine Lücke zwischen den Schülern mit marginalisiertem Hintergrund.

„Die Pandemie hat ein Licht auf die Unterfinanzierung des Bildungssystems insgesamt geworfen. Es hob die Auswirkungen auf unsere Familien und unsere Gemeinschaften hervor. Und jetzt, wo wir darüber hinausgehen, sehen wir, dass in all diese Dienste investiert werden muss“, sagt Gray. „Das Wohnen wirkt sich auf unsere Schüler, unsere Familien, unsere Gemeinschaften und unsere Lehrer aus. Es ist eine großartige Sache, wenn Lehrer in den Gemeinden leben, denen sie dienen. Aber wir sehen nicht viel davon.“

Suche nach Lösungen

Die Distrikte haben auf kreative Lösungen zurückgegriffen, um die Wohnlast der Lehrer zu verringern. In Kalifornien unterzeichnete Gouverneur Gavin Newsom im vergangenen Oktober ein Gesetz, das es den Distrikten erleichtern würde, ab Januar 2024 Wohnungen speziell für Lehrer und Schulangestellte auf landeseigenen Grundstücken zu bauen.

Janice Armas, links, Marlon Villaver, Minerva Gado und Corazon Gatbonton, Lehrer und Bewohner des neu eröffneten Apartmentgebäudes für Lehrer und Angestellte der Jefferson Union High School District. Foto: Constanza Hevia H/The Guardian

In Daly City, im teuren Bezirk San Mateo, wo die durchschnittliche Miete zwischen 2.100 und fast 3.300 US-Dollar pro Monat liegt, eröffnete der Highschool-Distrikt der Jefferson Union ein Wohnhaus mit 122 Wohneinheiten, in dem Lehrer und Bezirksangestellte leben können, eines von wenigen Wohnsiedlungen für Lehrer in Kalifornien. Eine mit dem Guardian geteilte Distriktpräsentation zeigt, dass Lehrer im Schulbezirk bei 53.000 US-Dollar beginnen und bei fast 94.000 US-Dollar enden. Im Vergleich dazu beginnen Lehrer im nahe gelegenen Highschool-Distrikt San Mateo Union bei fast 76.000 US-Dollar und können bis zu 139.000 US-Dollar verdienen. In einem Bericht des CityLab der UCLA und des Center for Cities and Schools sowie des Terner Center for Housing Innovation an der UC Berkeley wurde festgestellt, dass mehr als 40 Distrikte ähnliche Projekte in Betracht ziehen.

Austin Worden, Direktor für Kommunikation und Personalunterkünfte des Distrikts, sagte, das Bildungswohnungsprojekt habe bei der Rekrutierung von Lehrern in dem Distrikt geholfen, der normalerweise eine jährliche Fluktuation von 25% bei Lehrern verzeichnet, und fügte hinzu, dass andere Distrikte sich nach ihrem Modell erkundigt hätten. Auf die Frage, warum der Distrikt die Lehrergehälter nicht erhöht habe, anstatt Wohnungen zu bauen, stellte Worden fest, dass die für den Bau der Wohnanlage verwendeten Anleihefonds speziell für den Bau bestimmt seien und nicht für Gehaltserhöhungen verwendet werden könnten.

Als Corazon Gatbonton, eine Mathematiklehrerin an der Jefferson Union High School, im Oktober 2019 von den Philippinen wegzog, teilte sie sich mit zwei anderen Lehrern eine Wohnung mit einem Schlafzimmer. Sie war es nicht gewohnt, mit anderen Menschen als ihren Verwandten zusammenzuleben. Während sie 2.400 Dollar im Monat für ein Schlafzimmer mit zwei anderen Personen aufteilte, schickte sie Geld an ihre Familie auf den Philippinen.

Im vergangenen Mai zog sie in eine 2-Zimmer-Wohnung in der kreiseigenen Wohnanlage, wo sie ihre drei Kinder aus dem Ausland zu sich nachholen konnte. Gatbonton hat das gemeinschaftliche Umfeld in der Wohnanlage als hilfreich empfunden, um Kollegen mit unterschiedlichen Erfahrungen innerhalb desselben Schulbezirks zu treffen.

Corazon Gatbonton, eine Mathematiklehrerin der Jefferson Union High School in der vom Distrikt betriebenen Wohnung, in die sie letzten Mai gezogen ist. Foto: Constanza Hevia H/The Guardian

Gray sieht den Wert von vom Bezirk betriebenen Wohnungen als „großartigen Ausgangspunkt“, insbesondere um neuere Lehrer anzuziehen und zu halten, die mit niedrigen Löhnen zu kämpfen haben. Dennoch argumentieren sie und andere Lehrer, dass die kurzfristigen Lösungen für die Wohnbeihilfe nur begrenzt reichen.

Beamte des einheitlichen Schulbezirks Milpitas, mehr als 70 Meilen südöstlich von San Francisco, forderten die Eltern auf, Lehrern und Schulangestellten Zimmer zur Miete anzubieten. Scott Forstner, ein Kommunikationsspezialist für Milpitas Unified, stellte fest, dass der Bezirk etwa 80 Einträge hatte, die von Zimmern bis zu Einfamilienhäusern reichten. Die Präsidentin der Milpitas Teachers Association, Diana Orlando, sagte in einer Erklärung, dass der Distrikt die Lehrer „für ihre harte Arbeit besser mit Gehältern entschädigen müsse, die es ihnen ermöglichen, angemessen in den Gemeinden zu leben, denen sie dienen“.

„Obwohl wir die Dutzende von Eltern, die aufgrund der jüngsten Anfrage des Bezirks Lehrkräften Zimmer zur Miete angeboten haben, wirklich zu schätzen wissen, werden Sympathie und kurzfristige Lösungen diese Herausforderungen nicht lösen“, fügte Orlando hinzu. „Wir brauchen langfristige, nachhaltige Lösungen, die Pädagogen als die geschätzten Fachleute anerkennen, die sie sind.“

Gatbonton sagt, dass sie und ihre Familie nur fünf Jahre im Apartmentkomplex der Jefferson Union High School bleiben können, was die schwierige Aussicht aufwirft, herauszufinden, wie sie die Unterkunft bezahlen soll, um ihre Kinder unterzubringen, wenn sie erwachsen werden. Es zwingt sie, darüber nachzudenken, was es bedeuten würde, in einem anderen Distrikt zu unterrichten. Sie bleibt wegen ihrer Beziehung zum Bezirk und wegen ihrer Wohnungsstabilität.

„Das hat große Auswirkungen auf unser Leben“, sagt Gatbonton. „Wir wissen, dass wir sichere Wohnungen haben. Wir können bequem leben. Das gab uns die Chance, zusammen zu leben.“

Corazon Gatbonton, eine Mathematiklehrerin an der Jefferson Union High School, verbringt viel Zeit mit ihren Töchtern. Foto: Constanza Hevia H/The Guardian

Als Studentin und Lehrerin lebte Halle Youngblood vor Jahren mit ihrer Mutter in Antioch, Kalifornien. Sie fuhr fast eine Stunde mit dem Zug, um zu der Grundschule in Oaklands Chinatown zu gelangen, an der sie arbeitete. Sie verdiente in ihrem ersten Jahr etwa 30.000 US-Dollar, aber die einstündige Fahrt mit dem Bay Area Rapid Transit-Zug nach Oakland war anstrengend.

Während der Pandemie, als sie für ihre Lehrbefähigung studierte, erzählte eine Abteilungsleiterin Youngblood von Teachers Rooted in Oakland (Trio), einem von der Stadt betriebenen Programm, das darauf abzielt, farbige Lehrer in Oakland zu rekrutieren und zu halten, indem sie Mentoring- und Wohnhilfestipendien für neue bereitstellen Lehrer.

„Ehrlich gesagt glaube ich nicht, dass ich Lehrerin geworden wäre, wenn es dieses Programm nicht gegeben hätte“, sagt Youngblood. Wenn sie wie die meisten ihrer Kollegen eine andere Richtung eingeschlagen hätte, wäre Youngblood als Lehramtsstudentin unbezahlt geblieben, als sie Kurse für ihre Lehrberechtigung belegte, und hätte dann mit einem unterdurchschnittlichen Gehalt in einem Schulbezirk mit überwiegend Schwarzen und Latinos begonnen, der sich in einem von befindet die teuersten Regionen des Landes. Youngblood wollte in ihre Heimatstadt zurückkehren und das Programm gab ihr die Chance.

Youngblood, der als Inklusionslehrer der dritten und fünften Klasse an der Emerson-Grundschule in Oakland arbeitet, stimmt zu, dass im Grunde höhere Gehälter erforderlich sind, um die Lehrer in den Distrikten zu halten, denen sie dienen. Sie dachte an einen ihrer Kollegen, der jeden Tag mehr als 70 Meilen von Stockton nach Oakland pendelt.

Jetzt befindet sie sich in einer ähnlichen Situation: Dank der Wohnbeihilfe hat sie im Laufe der Jahre genug Geld von ihrer reduzierten Miete gespart, um eine Eigentumswohnung im nahe gelegenen Pleasant Hill zu kaufen, 17 Meilen von der Schule entfernt. Es ist nicht annähernd so weit wie die ausgedehnten Fahrten mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln, die sie in ihrer frühen Karriere vom Haus ihrer Mutter in Antiochia aus unternahm. Aber Youngblood wird, wie viele ihrer Kollegen, wieder in den Bezirk pendeln, in dem sie tätig ist, wenn auch diesmal als Eigentümerin einer Eigentumswohnung.

„Pendeln ist scheiße, aber ich schaue auf die hellere Seite“, sagt Youngblood. „Ich wünschte, ich könnte mir Oakland leisten, aber es ist einfach zu teuer.“