Google Bus Vandalized During Protest

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This story lacks fire hoses, riot shields and pepper spray...but someone did break a bus window. :rolleyes:

Activists blocked three buses carrying Bay Area tech workers to their Silicon Valley jobs on Friday, breaking a window of one of the vehicles. It was the second demonstration this month targeting the buses, which are rapidly becoming a symbol of the surging animosity between the tech world and everyone else in the Bay Area.
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Palestine 2.0!
Pretty sure it won't be long before some "poor folk" throws a rock then gets cut down by a geek with a pocket protector and an uzi.
There will be CNN and Fox coverage, project people crying "Oh lordy not my son! Not my boy!" and a bitter line between the lower and middle class with be drawn.
 
What exactly are they protesting? The story didn't clarify that enough for me.
 
GilmourD said:
What exactly are they protesting? The story didn't clarify that enough for me.
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My understanding is that the people protesting are upset because "tech workers" like to live in their fine cities, and this increased demand for housing (and office space) brings about higher real estate values which is seen in higher rents, higher sales prices, and evictions from rent controlled apartments so the units can be converted to condos/tenancy in commons. Google/Apple commuter buses are a symbol of the tech industry.

That sounds a lot more sane when I type it like that, but protesting the buses is pretty stupid. Each of those buses probably takes 30 cars off the road; if the buses are stopped because of the protests, the tech employees aren't likely to move. Some of them might switch to CalTrain (local commuter rail), but most will just get in their personal cars and drive every day. The commute time on one of those buses is still an hour each way, so there's something about their cities that is attractive to people, it's not like they're living in SF/Oakland because it's convenient.

(rant mode) In my opinion, you couldn't pay me enough to live in SF or Oakland, unless I worked there too, but that's not likely either; maybe I'm addicted to car culture from growing up in southern california, but I want to be able to have people come visit me and not worry about where they're parking; it's also super cool if i can't reach out my window and touch my neighbor's house. If people want to live somewhere where the rent doesn't go up, and isn't likely to go up in the future, I hear Detroit has a lot of room. If you go with rent vs buy, you often have lower current costs and certainly lower capital requirements, but since most people have at most a 1 year lease, neither the lessor or the lessee have a long term commitment.
 
The bus driver should have run over the trash. Worthless excuses for humans.
 
toast0 said:
My understanding is that the people protesting are upset because "tech workers" like to live in their fine cities, and this increased demand for housing (and office space) brings about higher real estate values which is seen in higher rents, higher sales prices, and evictions from rent controlled apartments so the units can be converted to condos/tenancy in commons. Google/Apple commuter buses are a symbol of the tech industry.

That sounds a lot more sane when I type it like that, but protesting the buses is pretty stupid. Each of those buses probably takes 30 cars off the road; if the buses are stopped because of the protests, the tech employees aren't likely to move. Some of them might switch to CalTrain (local commuter rail), but most will just get in their personal cars and drive every day. The commute time on one of those buses is still an hour each way, so there's something about their cities that is attractive to people, it's not like they're living in SF/Oakland because it's convenient.

(rant mode) In my opinion, you couldn't pay me enough to live in SF or Oakland, unless I worked there too, but that's not likely either; maybe I'm addicted to car culture from growing up in southern california, but I want to be able to have people come visit me and not worry about where they're parking; it's also super cool if i can't reach out my window and touch my neighbor's house. If people want to live somewhere where the rent doesn't go up, and isn't likely to go up in the future, I hear Detroit has a lot of room. If you go with rent vs buy, you often have lower current costs and certainly lower capital requirements, but since most people have at most a 1 year lease, neither the lessor or the lessee have a long term commitment.
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Sounds like a pretty typical protest against "gentrification" which happens in all cities as their economies grow.

IMHO, "gentrification" has it's positives and its negatives. On one hand, neighborhoods become less stabby, cleaner and you see fewer hypodermic needles on the streets, all good things :p

On the other hand, people who lived their whole lives in an area are slowly priced out of living there, and it's not difficult to see why people might be upset about that.

Makes me think of this article I saw recently.
 
Ducman69 said:
Class warfare presumably. I blame violent video games and the movie Elysium.
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That's silly.

"Class Warfare" is a stupid Fox News term for people getting fed up and pushing back at having the cards stacked against them by the wealthy who bankroll politicians to push their ideals, further stacking the cards...


I don't necessarily agree with the people protesting gentrification (as I see it gentrification brings a lot of good things, including urban renewal) but at the same time it's not difficult to understand why people might be pissed off about gradually being priced out of neighborhoods and cities they have lived in their whole lives...
 
So...they are protesting the "Improvement" of their city because of the money being brought in? And protesting something that removes cars off the road, reducing traffic, smog and noise pollution.....

Soooo...yeaaa. Thanks for reinforcing the stereotype that protesters as a rule are retarded.
 
San Francisco is such a smelly shithole. It boggles me as to why people are operating their startups in that piss-smelling hell hole and not in Silicon Valley (aka Santa Clara County).
 
shade91 said:
San Francisco is such a smelly shithole. It boggles me as to why people are operating their startups in that piss-smelling hell hole and not in Silicon Valley (aka Santa Clara County).
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Its the Jersey of the West coast!
 
SGA76 said:
Its the Jersey of the West coast!
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There was a blog post written by some up and coming startup CEO who pondered this question similarly. He pointed out the homeless who more or less dominated the streets, the smell of urine throughout many of the streets, the trash, the vagrants who like to call themselves "street performers", etc. He was bashed badly by west coast liberals calling him a "tech elitist" to the point he removed the article and posted an apology. Supporters responded to his apology basically saying "Why'd you remove the posting? It's the truth!".
 
shade91 said:
San Francisco is such a smelly shithole. It boggles me as to why people are operating their startups in that piss-smelling hell hole and not in Silicon Valley (aka Santa Clara County).
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Its simple.

The tech industry thrives on young highly educated talent, and people like that generally want to live in cities and prefer not to have to commute out of them.

The closer you are to downtowb San Francisco the easier time you will have recruiting young highly educated talent!
 
GilmourD said:
Except we aren't self-righteous pricks who sniff our own farts. We just drop the dead bodies of people we don't like in the Passaic River. :D
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lmao!
Good one.
Seriously, there's a reason so many companies are fleeing to Texas and its not just the smell!
Forrest fires, power outages, high cost of living, higher taxes, bankrupt everything and Cox Cable....
 
shade91 said:
San Francisco is such a smelly shithole. It boggles me as to why people are operating their startups in that piss-smelling hell hole and not in Silicon Valley (aka Santa Clara County).
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Why would they even operate in Santa Clara county? Why not start up in Iowa where rent for business space is probably 1/4 to 1/10th the cost? Hell they could out right just buy a building to protect themselves from rent increases if it turns into a baby Silicon Valley!

And Google IS in Silicon Vallley, the people want to live in San Francisco, which is why the GoogleBus picks them up from SF and buses them to Google HQ. I see the same thing with Genetech with their buses, usually around the BART (subway) stations.
 
toast0 said:
My understanding is that the people protesting are upset because "tech workers" like to live in their fine cities, and this increased demand for housing (and office space) brings about higher real estate values which is seen in higher rents, higher sales prices, and evictions from rent controlled apartments so the units can be converted to condos/tenancy in commons. Google/Apple commuter buses are a symbol of the tech industry.

That sounds a lot more sane when I type it like that, but protesting the buses is pretty stupid. Each of those buses probably takes 30 cars off the road; if the buses are stopped because of the protests, the tech employees aren't likely to move. Some of them might switch to CalTrain (local commuter rail), but most will just get in their personal cars and drive every day. The commute time on one of those buses is still an hour each way, so there's something about their cities that is attractive to people, it's not like they're living in SF/Oakland because it's convenient.
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To a point yes, there's not a lot of condo transfer from rent controlled places, which IIRC there's a lottery to see who can do it. The reason they attacked the buses from what I understand (local story on the news) is that every place near a Google bus stop location has had rent increase on average 20%. Now rent controlled places this isn't an issue but newer buildings this is a huge issue, and people are getting priced out simply because the Google bus stops near by. The same can't be said for a Muni bus stop, while there might be a slight increase it's not any where as close to dramatic as 20%





(rant mode) In my opinion, you couldn't pay me enough to live in SF or Oakland, unless I worked there too, but that's not likely either; maybe I'm addicted to car culture from growing up in southern california, but I want to be able to have people come visit me and not worry about where they're parking; it's also super cool if i can't reach out my window and touch my neighbor's house. If people want to live somewhere where the rent doesn't go up, and isn't likely to go up in the future, I hear Detroit has a lot of room. If you go with rent vs buy, you often have lower current costs and certainly lower capital requirements, but since most people have at most a 1 year lease, neither the lessor or the lessee have a long term commitment.[/QUOTE]
 
We should go protest the protestors!

I've always wanted to stand out in front of the crazy old ladies protesting abortion clinics with their, "god is right, abortion is wrong" signs, with a sign that says something completely contradictory.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Why would they even operate in Santa Clara county? Why not start up in Iowa where rent for business space is probably 1/4 to 1/10th the cost? Hell they could out right just buy a building to protect themselves from rent increases if it turns into a baby Silicon Valley!

And Google IS in Silicon Vallley, the people want to live in San Francisco, which is why the GoogleBus picks them up from SF and buses them to Google HQ. I see the same thing with Genetech with their buses, usually around the BART (subway) stations.
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I get your point however I'm also going to throw this in: they probably couldn't afford homes in surrounding cities (i.e. Mountain View, Redwood City, Sunnyvale) where prices go for $1MM+ and are regularly bid up to $2MM. Google doesn't exactly pay their software devs high salaries. it is typically only the executives who make the big money.
 
If the bus drivers weren't such assholes about where they park, how they park, and how long they stay parked, then there would me much less people who have a problem with the Google buses.

You don't see these same issues with the AC Transit buses.
 
[H]ecklerKoc[H];1040488594 said:
If the bus drivers weren't such assholes about where they park, how they park, and how long they stay parked, then there would me much less people who have a problem with the Google buses.

You don't see these same issues with the AC Transit buses.
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VTA drivers are far far worse.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040486348 said:
On the other hand, people who lived their whole lives in an area are slowly priced out of living there, and it's not difficult to see why people might be upset about that.

Makes me think of this article I saw recently.
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"Wah, people who are smarter than me are pricing me out of my shithole."

What a big fucking shame that is. Oakland in particular could use all the gentrification it can get. The only losers in that deal are what few sane people still remain in Stockton.
 
shade91 said:
VTA drivers are far far worse.
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I saw a moron in a VTA bus straddling both lanes of King Road for half a mile today. Years ago a moron in a stretch bus nearly killed me on my motorcycle by swerving into my lane without signaling, on a road with no traffic.
 
shade91 said:
I get your point however I'm also going to throw this in: they probably couldn't afford homes in surrounding cities (i.e. Mountain View, Redwood City, Sunnyvale) where prices go for $1MM+ and are regularly bid up to $2MM. Google doesn't exactly pay their software devs high salaries. it is typically only the executives who make the big money.
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True they couldn't afford to buy homes in those other cities, but I doubt they could afford homes in San Francisco either. They could get cheaper rent elsewhere too, Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Hayward, etc.. but they want to live in San Francisco why? Because it's San Francisco, that's why. You want to hit up authentic Mexican, Chinese, or any other culture? You're in the right city to hop on a bus and get there, other cities? You got Chipotle, Panda Express, Subway as your most probably locations and you need to drive there. Not saying those other places don't have real restaurants too, they just don't have the numbers nor the variety. Mexican restaurants sure, Cuban, Brazilian, Peruvian, etc... probably not.

A shit ton of people don't live in New York City because it's cheap, because the streets are always clean, there's no homeless, you feel safe, the subways and streets are urine free :D etc. They live in NYC because it's NYC, and they have access to just about everything in their own city. Now true some people prefer the suburban lifestyle, where they have front AND back yards, the only directions you have neighbors is in horizontal directions not vertical, and there's nothing wrong with that (hell I prefer that lifestyle too).
 
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