San Francisco's guerrilla protest at Google buses swells into revolt

[Redfairen]

Google's corporate mantra may be to do no evil, but to a determined band of activists in San Francisco the company could just be the devil incarnate.

Corporate buses that Google and other tech companies lay on to ferry their workers from the city to Silicon Valley, 30 or 40 miles to the south, are being targeted by an increasingly assertive guerrilla campaign of disruption. Over the last two months, a groundswell of discontent over the privatisation of the Bay Area's transport system has erupted into open revolt.

Well organised protesters have blocked buses, unfurled banners and distributed flyers to tech commuters who have seemed either nonplussed, embarrassed or downright terrified. And this could be just the beginning.

"We're in the planning process for the next protest," one of the organisers, Erin McElroy, told the Observer. "We're trying to stay creative with each one, not just repeat over and over."

Just before Christmas, a window was smashed on a Google bus in Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay. Last week, protesters doorstepped a Google engineer who they claimed was involved in working with the government to develop eavesdropping techniques and "war robots" for the military. "Anthony Levandowski is building an unconscionable world of surveillance, control and automation," they wrote on flyers left near his house. "He is also your neighbour."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/25/google-bus-protest-swells-to-revolt-san-francisco

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Why, again, are we protesting tech workers? They seem to not exactly be the high-point of the

income inequality problem. The IT guy is not the enemy.

[Ed Suspicious]

3. Got it. I should read before I comment. Thank you.

[JDPriestly]

4. Actually, I was wrong. They are apparently protesting because they think that Google and Silicon

Valley has pushed up the price of housing. The increase of wealthier people who work in Silicon Valley may have raised housing prices, but I'm not sure that protesting will change the situation.

Supply and demand.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. First world problems.

I think they're just having a hard time getting over last Sunday.

[Mz Pip]

6. No buses would be better?

Then everyone has to drive. More cars on the road doesn't seem like a preferable alternative.

It would be good if there were more companies that provided transportation for their workers.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Without the free, lux private coaches, many of the Googlers would live nearer their work

rather than in the City. Anyone concerned about traffic congestion should live as close to their employment as possible, so the Google folks should live near Google if congestion is a question, they are only taking the limo into the City because they like the City. They have no actual need to live there. They want to live there, but also not drive or use public transportation because, well, it's public and yuck!!!!!

[NutmegYankee]

10. Where I live a major employer has old school buses as a shuttle.

People still use it because it goes straight to their workplace and they don't have to fight for parking.

[whistler162]

11. Still makes no sense.....

now Tea Partyites, I assume that since Democrats and Liberals would never be that dumb, are trying to tell people where to live!

[Mz Pip]

12. People should be able to live where they want

I don't get the hostility for people who want to live in San Francisco, or for people who've obtained some financial success.

If people are pissed about the rising cost of housing, blame the landlords not the people who work at Google.

[okaawhatever]

17. The protests are oer privatizing the bay area transportation system. Here is an older article

on the transportation privatization movement:

http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/whats-driving-privatization-public-transit-18826

[okaawhatever]

15. It's a protest over the privatization of the towns transportation system. I guess the city buses are

now Corporation X buses. Google probably campaigned for privatization and that's why they're being targeted. Let's face it, Google gave up on not being evil a long time ago.

[seattledo]

7. I'm waiting on this to happen in Seattle

Microsoft doesn't have many stops (I only know of three), but they are annoying and obstruct public transit.

[brooklynite]

9. If GM was sending buses into Detroit to pick up Union workers, who here would be complaining?

[former9thward]

13. No one.

It would be saluted as a good thing.

[Springslips]

14. I don't know what side to take here.

Save for the vandalism which is obviously wrong.

But here is the process of gentrification that I observe:

A run down urban neighborhood starts attracting creative types, artist, students, and people that like the urban scene. They open small mom and pops, galleries, bookstores, Indy coffee house and the like; the neighborhood starts attracting business because of it sense of authenticity. Then young professionals move in. They attract developers and money from the city. This money helps the neighborhood to bloom, become popular, become hip. But then another level, Yuppies, who originate from suburbs come. They Jack rents up, attract higher money developers and bang! They run out all the original creative types out, make rent too expensive for the mom- and-pops. Finally, here comes the Starbucks, the Victorian Secrets, the chain book stores, the chain bars...and everyone gets bored and looks to move were the original artist move too, and start the process all over again.

Too bad we can't have neighborhoods with a deverse class structure. It would be healthier.

[okaawhatever]

16. "A groundswell of discontent over the privatization of the Bay Area's transport system has erupted

into open revolt." It's about privatization people. Specifically of the Bay Area's transport system. I imagine that's why they're targeting buses.

[hack89]

18. So why are they picketing people's homes? Nt

Last edited Mon Jan 27, 2014, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)