Rents are definitely artificially high here. I think it goes beyond the demand for space, and is largely due to the fact that brokers completely own the marketplace and have an incentive to price as high as possible (they take 8-12% commissions). Renters don't have a good way to understand real market prices.
Back to the topic of lack of engineers, I've always thought it'd be a good idea for multiple companies/hackers to get a large space together and share talent to work on lots of ideas simultaneously. It'd go beyond a co-working/incubator style space, and would be a way for young companies to offset the risk of early stage hiring.
Right now in NYC we need lots of companies with good sized exits for the future health of the eco-system, sharing our talent with each other is probably a good way to get to that point.
Back to the topic of lack of engineers, I've always thought it'd be a good idea for multiple companies/hackers to get a large space together and share talent to work on lots of ideas simultaneously. It'd go beyond a co-working/incubator style space, and would be a way for young companies to offset the risk of early stage hiring.
Right now in NYC we need lots of companies with good sized exits for the future health of the eco-system, sharing our talent with each other is probably a good way to get to that point.