If you’re wondering why people are protesting you, how we got to this housing crisis, why rent control exists or why tech is even shifting to San Francisco in the first place, this is meant to provide some common points of understanding.

This is a complex problem, and I’m not going to distill it into young, rich tech douchebags-versus-helpless old ladies facing eviction. There are many other places where you can read that story.

It does us all no justice.

How Burrowing Owls Lead To Vomiting Anarchists (Or SF’s Housing Crisis Explained). No: it isn’t just the fault of the tech world, but a combination of a highly-restricted housing supply, plus rising demand, plus a volatile local economy prone to booms and busts, plus strict rent control without vacancy control, and entrenched interests which is almost never aligned.