Area’s population of 23,000 developers, 47 cold brew vendors, and one confused pigeon vote unanimously
By Cyndi Himmelstiere | Shoreditch. Present since before it was cool and somehow still here after.
Sources: Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
Independence Is Declared
Following the arrival of OpenAI in London and the concurrent Texas office announcement, residents of Shoreditch have, in a pub on Bethnal Green Road, voted to declare the area a sovereign tech republic and apply for borough status within the Greater Silicon Valley metropolitan area.
The motion was passed on a show of hands and several very enthusiastic laptop screens. A manifesto has been written. It is seventeen pages long, includes a section on “ethical disruption,” and was produced on a MacBook Air by someone wearing trousers that cost two hundred and forty pounds and have no pockets. This is the revolution. This is what it looks like.
The New Constitution
Under the new Shoreditch Constitutional Framework, all residents must declare a “side hustle” upon entry. Acceptable side hustles include: app development, specialty ceramics, podcast hosting, artisan pickling, and “consulting.” Unacceptable side hustles include: anything that cannot be explained in thirty seconds to a venture capitalist who has already lost interest.
The BBC’s London desk has not yet covered this development because it only happened in my head, but I maintain it is more coherent than several actual policy announcements made this week.
The Reality
The reality is that Shoreditch is an extraordinary place: genuinely creative, genuinely innovative, and genuinely unaffordable for the people whose creativity and innovation made it worth anything. As Britain manages its broader decline, Shoreditch somehow manages its growth, which turns out to be almost equally exhausting from the inside. Progress, like gentrification, is something that happens to you. You just try to keep your rent-controlled flat and your dignity, in that order.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/openai-opens-london-office/
Tech republic coverage also at NewsThump
