What’s next for America’s emptiest downtown

For the optimized office worker looking for a quick, healthy and filling trio, nothing beats a pile of veggies and some condiments swirled with tofu or grilled chicken. Unfortunately, the desire to make a salad is often dashed by the difficulty of making a truly delicious one. Ingredients come from all corners of the supermarket, and if not combined in the correct proportions, or if made too early in advance, every bite is a drag.

Mrs. Silverglide, the 42-year-old Mixt chief executive, has tried to solve the problem with a setup in which customers walk up to the counter and call out toppings like grilled chicken and roasted Brussels sprouts, while specifying what they want to eat. How much seasoning. She said opponents at the time told her there weren’t enough salad eaters to keep her company going, or that only women would eat there.

Instead, there were long lines and Yelp users gave the company three and a half stars. People like Mike Ghaffary have discovered a healthier lunch in restaurants that encourage customization.

gentlemen. Ghaffary, a former Yelp executive and series optimizer, went to Mixt to find high-protein, low-sugar vegan meals. His salad of lentils, chickpeas and quinoa is served with greens and a cilantro chipotle dressing.

Over the next few years, as Yelp grew and went public, Mixt flourished, adding a dozen locations in downtown and other urban neighborhoods. gentlemen. Ghaffary became something of a Mixt evangelist (“He was very proud of the hummus salad he invented,” Mr. Stoppelman says) and ordered his vegetable mix so frequently that the salad was added to the permanent menu and still sits Named “Be Well” on the board.

In the city, however, happiness has taken a hit.

The tech companies that San Francisco once struggled to attract are now the target of regular protests, some of which began blocking Google and other commuter buses in late 2013 to express their anger over current rents. Median or $3,600. It was the opening statement of an ongoing debate about gentrification and the impact of tech companies on cities — a debate that has unfolded amid debates over homeless encampments, votes to halt development and countless protests.

All of this stems from the cost of housing, which has been expensive for decades but has turned into a disaster. A local government that all but begged tech companies to set up shop there is now pushing a slew of new taxes in response to its rising affordable housing and homelessness problems. 2017, the year Salesforce Tower overtook the Transamerica Pyramid as the tallest skyscraper in the city, sir. Florida published another book. It’s called the “New Urban Crisis”.

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