Gentrification "Counterforce" Blocks Microsoft Shuttle Bus in Seattle

[Newsjock]

Source: The Stranger

At 8:15 this morning, four masked activists blocked a Microsoft Connector shuttle bus at the intersection of 23rd and Madison for forty minutes, stretching "Gentrification Stops Here" banners across the front and back of the vehicle. The driver nudged forward, bumping one of them once, then killed the engine and got on the phone. After a few minutes, several passengers—apparently tired of waiting—got off the bus and hurried off. I caught up with one, a Microsoft employee who didn't want to give his name, and asked him what he thought. "I see both sides of the issue," he said, still walking away. "I don't hate them." When a police car approached, the activists walked off and the shuttle vehicle pulled away.

This is the third time masked activists have targeted local tech companies—first it was a Microsoft bus on Capitol Hill, then a tram servicing Amazon's employees in South Lake Union. Again, the activists claiming responsibliity only identified themselves as "The Counterforce."

"You can either become reactionary and indignant (an utterly typical move) or you can take all this seriously and begin thinking of ways to address what you and your peers have done to the Central District," the flyer they handed out today says. "We hope you make the right choice and join the struggle against capitalism and the ravages it brings."

One of the masked protesters identified himself as a 28-year-old, born and raised in the Central District. "We're putting a spotlight on gentrification and the displacement of people," he said. According to census data, the African-American population of the historically black Central District has plummeted by thirty percentage points over roughly the past two decades. "Microsoft is directly involved. They were one of the first corporations to penetrate the CD, starting in Madison Valley and working its way south." I asked what Microsoft and its employees should do differently. "At the very least," he said, "they should take public buses instead of relying on their own private system. Microsoft, mind you, like other big corporations, is an expert tax dodger.

Read more: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/04/23/gentrification-counterforce-blocks-central-district-microsoft-shuttle-bus

[clarice]

1. Ok...what are these people bitchin' about? nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. There goes the neighborhood?

Keep the white hipsters out of central Seattle.

I always thought that racial diversity in neighborhoods was a good thing.

[dilby]

3. It's not, when you pump wealth into poor neighborhoods it increases the cost of living.

Poor people are forced out because they can't afford rent or property taxes anymore and soon all you are left with is a rich white neighborhood. We have neighborhoods in Portland that were largely African American 20 years ago and now it's just rich white people.

[StandingInLeftField]

4. When diversity can be a bad thing.

People don't understand the negative ramifications of gentrification. Come to my current hometown of Charleston SC if you want a primer.

edited for addition/clarification/snarkiness

[ManiacJoe]

5. Given that the bus are usually mostly full,

there were plenty of folks available to gently move the protesters out of the way.

[Nye Bevan]

6. How DARE these "tech companies" create good jobs that pay decent wages,

and help the environment by providing shuttle buses so that their employees do not have to drive to work. This "gentrification" is just horrible. We need a "povertication" movement to counter it.