Disrupting Community

Zuckerberg Is An Awful Neighbor, And He Hasn't Even Moved In Yet

When we first learned that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had purchased a home in the Mission District—and was attempting to rebrand himself as a “Mission Hipster”—we couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Dropping ten-plus million on a weekend home in a neighborhood many feel Zuckerberg is already helping to gentrify one shuttle bus at a time, only to spend his nights putting back drinks in local dives, seemed like adding insult to injury.

Like, can’t you at least leave us our dive bars? Do you have to ruin those too?

But that was just the drunken lament of the broke Mission dirt bag, quietly sipping a Cutty Bang and pondering his/her own irrelevance. Surely, the wealthy residents of the Mission would welcome this new neighbor with open, smart watch-adorned arms.

Well, it turns out, not so much. Apparently Zuckerberg’s 17 month (and counting) non-stop renovation of his Mission District home has irked some of the neighbors.

SF Gate reports:

Welcome to Fort Zuckerberg — the $10 million Dolores Heights “fixer-upper” that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have turned into a massive construction encampment that has some neighbors feeling under siege by the Facebook founder.

Their problem goes beyond the rash of “no parking” signs on 21st Street near Dolores Street that have kept them from parking outside their own homes these past 17 months.

Dozens of construction workers, using backhoes and jackhammers, are busy installing everything from a new kitchen to bathrooms and decks — and tearing up the sidewalks for new fiber-optic cables that will connect to the home. […]

A man in a hardhat identifying himself as the prime contractor, but who wouldn’t give his name, acknowledged that there have been 40 to 50 workers on the job daily since work began in April 2013.

While living in the city naturally entails dealing with construction and its associated nuisances, we can’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for those forced to endure the increasingly absurd additions to this member of the tech elite’s pied-à-terre.

We get it Mark. You’re young, rich, and don’t give a fuck if the construction of your “basement garage, complete with a turntable pad” upsets your neighbors. But do you have to be such a dick about it?

Comments (20)

Why IS it taking this long? Is Zuck not bribing the right officials at the Building Department? Hasn’t he figured out that if you don’t pass the cash, they’ll delay each and every step?

Jealous punks.

^ Douch shithead sympathizing for another douche shithead. Color me shocked!

Haters gonna hate.

Trolls gonna troll.

Seriously though, if you’re gonna troll, at least try and be funny. You’re just boring.

I’m deeply sorry my trolling bores you. I will try harder.

Yep, and assholes gonna be assholes. I’m sure you have many friends!

When are you coming home mom?

Zucky, is that you?

Wouldn’t surprise me if he reads this blog.  I do think it’s rude to do what he is doing.  I remember when my friend complained about a rich guy moving near him in Bushwick, buying up a building and converting it into a mansion effectively.  A new york magazine talked to him and he said he ‘loves the area, loves the energy, loves the youth that live here’ something like that.  Not that the Mission is Bushwick, not at these prices.

His rich ass neighbors are pissed? Waah! I’m sure he also meticulously planned every minute of it.

How about the dickheads that put up those Christmas decorations every year and cause a traffic fucking NIGHTMARE. Oh right, his next door neighbor too.

I feel soooooooo bad for everyone.

Not just a content-free comment, but also incorrect. You are going off of really old reports that Zuck bought a home on 21st St in the Castro. This place is in the Mission, just east of Dolores.

I lived there (21st and Fair Oaks) for 5+ years and I wasn’t rich but I sure was annoyed.  It was obvious some complete dickhead had bought the place, we only found out later that it was the Zuck.

All this for a guy who just made a more efficient Friendster…

Right.

*All this for a guy who CHANGED THE WORLD?

He’s going to need a phalynx of bodyguards whenever he takes a walk through the mission.

Can’t wait to see the pad that the Ello founders are gonna move into.

You really need to do some better reporting than concluding Zuck’s ‘being a dick’ because…he’s the 100th rich person in recent years to tear a house down to the studs and re-build? Big effing deal. This house is completely out of the way of traffic so he’s not even disrupting all the yahoos who drive into the neighborhood to go to the park. Basically, neighbors are complaining about two things:

(1) noise–which is legitimate but this kind of thing does happen in a city from time to time. Wouldn’t be surprised if Zuck offers neighbors cash or another peacemaking gesture later.

(2) parking–yeah, cry me a river. Seriously. City residents need to get over their entitlement to public street space for car storage. 

Fuck you.