Entering into the new Daily Kos office.
Today marks another watershed in Daily Kos history, as we're now officially an Oakland-based company.
We spend 3-4 years in our Berkeley office, just blocks from my house. It was a nice transitional period, getting me used to the idea of working in an office once again, as opposed to lying in bed all day, laptop on my lap. The space we had was great, beautiful, open. In fact, it was the very space in which SSL was invented, so I always loved that little bit of internet history.
But as we continued to grow, it was clear the space wasn't serving us much anymore. That open floor plan wasn't conducive to devs trying to concentrate on their work, and the location was both unnecessarily hard to get to, and in a place that was a bit dead.
So after a year of looking (and watching commercial real estate prices skyrocket), we found a great place in Oakland, around the 12th Street BART station. Oakland is in the midst of a renaissance, and the comparison to Brooklyn a decade ago truly fits. It is THE place to be in the Bay Area, and now we are here, surrounded by progressive allies and friends and incredible energy.
Now things are still a bit of a mess as we're still waiting to unpack much of our stuff, and not all our furniture has arrived. But I'll provide pictures (and better quality ones) as things start taking shape. (Sometime in September, hopefully)
So goodbye Berkeley! You are still my personal home, but Daily Kos is now a very proud Oakland company. This is where we belong.
One of the views from our office windows, out to Lake Merritt and the Oakland Hills.