It's sad seeing all the Facebook employees walking along Castro St, past a bunch of empty restaurants at lunchtime, while holding their little trays of free food. Instead of building retail spaces, the city council decided to allow new developments in downtown be entire office buildings, for which they get much more tax money. The city's coffers are filling up at the expense of local retail and restaurants.

Don't get me wrong; free food and private cafeterias make a LOT of sense if your office is in an industrial park, far away from viable lunch options. But if your office building is LITERALLY in a vibrant downtown area? Then the free food is just rewarding already-entitled tech workers at the expense of the community.

How do you feel about people working downtown who bring their own lunch? Are you upset some businesses offer free doughnuts some days? What about office vending machines when there is a local 7-11 next door?

Also, I hear some downtown offices even provide free coffee in their fancy breakrooms when they are literally surrounded by independent coffee shops!!!!
It's free coffee for their precious entitled employees at the expense of local businesses.
Man...it's really something when you really think about it isn't it?

Why don't they just cut a few deals with existing or new restaurant operators in the San Antonio Shopping Center? Facebook employees could have a card that gets them anything they want, and the general public could also buy food there.

We could use a couple of 24-hour restaurants or diners in that area. I often work late and then go exercise. It's hard to find a decent restaurant near there that is open past 10pm (e.g. Veggie Grill, La Salsa or Saag).

I'm confused. Didn't the former mayor turned consultant champion these very food restrictions when approving San Antonio Phase 2? On the ground that the main reason to have office there (vs. housing) was to sustain local retail environment and restaurants?

I eat in restaurants 2-3 times a week. I eat at the office when I have too much work. I'm also not atypical in my office and I usually eat w/ 3 others. Just a data point to bust any stereotypes.

Something else to think about: If I had to drive to the San Antonio area at lunch, I think I'd be OK without all the throngs of employees spilling out onto the roads every day and adding to the already crowded lunch spots in the area.

I think we'll all survive this, really.

Why all the complaints here about Castro Street? This building is miles away. We should applaud the city for keeping a big office building outside of the downtown retail district, at least this time.

You think those who work at the FB office are employees but they are contractors and get paid much less. So don't think every one who works at an office is entitled and making so much... The Bay Area is already so expensive.... Btw, I'm a local, I was born in MTV and barely making 40K a year at these tech companies.

Many who work in the office rely on the free food when their rent takes up almost half of their paycheck. People will splurge and get drinks and food in downtown.

If they put all these restrictions on buildings they will end up empty. That would not benefit anyone. I guess we could open them as a winter shelter for the homeless.

@patiobear, can I come over with my chair and sleeping bag and we can just hangout on your patio? Do you provide free food of I can do little work for you?

"Residents First" Councilman John - keep the course please on some of the more logical ideas you have had in the past. (workers/corporations are also very welcome - but, you just come second)

2000 Facebook employees at San Antonio center new building? How are they going to deal with the traffic. This area is already packed with cars, pedestrian, bicycles during commute hours. The living quality of neighborhood will be compromised by corporate expansion. Is city council going to collect neighbors to comments in this case?

@Sophie - Facebook is not building a new building. The office building is already finished and the article does not say Facebook is asking for any zoning changes. The time to complain about traffic is before the building is built and while zoning and occupancy issues are still being negotiated with the city.

Let's just keep building more and more office spaces, add more and more traffic, and increase density more and more. What could go wrong?

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I eat free lunch from Google cafes daily. If I had to eat lunch from restaurants instead, I'd probably be overweight, at risk for a heart attack, and have to work longer hours to get my work done, thus have less time with my family.

These company cafes offer healthy options, let you take as little or as much as you want, and let you get your food quickly. At a restaurant, typically food comes in one (giant) size, is packed with excess calories (see what it congeals to if you take home leftovers!), and there's no way to get a little bit of salad or a little bit of dessert. I avoid eating out and avoid taking my family out frequently for these reasons.

Until the restaurant industry offers healthy food and reasonable, flexible portions, companies will have huge incentives to feed their workers. But profits and tradition dictate the current restaurant approach.

If you want to wipe out the reason to live in a town or a culture of a local town, this is how you do it. Good job guys.. no sales tax on free meals and no reason to help the dwindling local establishments. Yeah.. MV is just another campus for these corporate entities.. It used to be cool and fun, now just traffic and no place to eat. When your kids are unemployed and still living in your house, don't ask why.

"When your kids are unemployed and still living in your house, don't ask why."

With the near sub 4% unemployment rate in this area, even if my kids are living with me, if they won't/can't get a job in this area, I have lots of questions for them, LOL.

I don't see how the city can interfere with a company's benefits. If Facebook wants to offer free food to its employees, great. Another cheaper option is for employees to bring their own lunch from home. Is Mountain View going to regulate this too? If Mountain View sold the idea of more office space based on the idea that employees will boost the local economy, MV might have made a promise it can't keep.

The only thing that is certain is the traffic on San Antonio is gong to be a nightmare, which will reduce the quality of life for those who need to use San Antonio to get in and around Mountain View.

I was under the impression that WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, was already in Mountain View.

As all these social media and apps become more popular it is understandable that there will be more workers employed by these companies. If you think WhatsApp is not very important then ask someone who travels overseas or has family overseas. It is the main method of communication outside north America.

Regarding the comments about restaurants serving sizes being too large...

A friend of mine owns a sit down full service restaurant in the south bay - he told me a few years ago he has to get a minimum of $15 per lunch and $20-25 per dinner per customer or he can't cover his rent/utility/employee expenses. He then said to get that amount, the portion size can't be too small or his customer will feel like they're not getting good value. He solves this by serving a larger portion vegetable and/or starch to the main entree (usually meat which is most of his cost of the dinner). The additional portion costs him about $0.50.

That is probably why the portions are larger in restaurants in this area....

Yes, WhatsApp is already in Mountain View, so this may just be yet another expansion for them. They have 900 Villa Street and 250 Bryant Street, about 100,000 sq ft.
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