(EDIT: Trigger warning for Blasphemy)
I’m sure it’s really sour grapes on my part (at least to some degree) but I kind of feel that way about Austin.
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Who, where?
Look, if they have to play off a sockpuppet, there are some problems with their methodology of protest. This wasn’t “theatre”, theatre goers know that the area in front of them is a stage, and the people on the stage are actors. This was deceptive as hell. These folks just flushed their credibility down the shitter. Not a good way to represent their issue.
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Growing social and economic divides are a big problem, and we need to do a lot more to protect the access of the disadvantaged in our society to good housing and education.
But:
- Fnck that prick for staging a hoax to fraudulently convey his preferred message. Really stupid, and far more likely to harm the movement he supports than to help it.
- Beyond that: why decide the Google Bus is the enemy? Yes, it’s using public streets, and pausing at the curbside - but so do taxis and private cars - so, so what? The alternatives to the Google Bus would be more Google employees driving in their individual cars, or fewer people with good jobs in Mountain View able to live in a vibrant city, and spend money there, contributing to a hollowing-out of the urban core that does no-one any good.
I think the wealthy should be more heavily taxed, probably including some of the people on that bus, and that some of the money should go to stronger social programs that would help to insulate the locals from gentrification. But: the problem isn’t gentrification, its the abandonment of the people left behind as gentrification occurs around them. These people are shouting about the right things, but they’re shouting at the wrong people.
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The protest itself mentioned specific issues (over and above the distraction of the fake google guy):
And:
Sounds pretty specific to me–they aren’t even talking about the 1% vs. the 99%. They are talking about a specific issue of gentrification, displacement, and how working and middle class people are being underserved by public transit, while the city seeks to underwrite a specific group of already privileged people. I’m sure their solutions are what you might imagine–that the city use its resources to help the least among them, and to try and curb displacement of working and middle class families from the city.
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Thanks for explaining that. I had no idea what the actual conflict was from the post.
Serious question: Why is gentrification the fault of employees choosing the best jobs, services, and homes available to them, instead of the fault of the landlords who jack up the rent 'til locals can’t afford it?
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Therein lies the problem. I know at least one person who would agree with what the alleged Google employee is saying, and who himself was fond of saying, “People are only poor because they choose to be,” but who would not debate the issue. He’d shut up and say, “It’s just my opinion.”
He was stupid enough to state his opinion as though he believed it was correct but smart enough that he didn’t want to be challenged on it. Go figure.
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From the edited story:
When asked if he intentiionally intended to deceive media, he replied “People are talking all over the country about what’s happening in San Francisco (referring to evictions and displacement). That’s the debate we need to have here. The more we talk about it, the more we think about it, the more we’re going to see the tech companies need to contribute.”
Alper said that he did not intend to engage in theater before going to the protest, but when there made the decision, “spontaneously,” to stage the argument. When he maintained his story that this was political theater, we again asked why he did not verify his name at the protest itself – and only after the story blew up in national and local media.
“This was improv political theater,” he said.
Christ What An Asshole staging a Christ What An Asshole moment. It’s assholes all the way down.
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Can you provide an example of gentrification where the poor weren’t disproportionately pushed out of city centers to make way for people with money?
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East Palo Alto is bracing for the time when all of the facebookers and googleheads get tired of taking the bus and want to buy a house. They estimate that this will happen in about four years.
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Why is Feudalism so popular in the Bay Area?
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Gentrification isn’t a social evil. Neighborhoods getting nicer/fancier is not a problem. Landlords increasing rents (legally) is not a problem.
What is evil is the lack of standardized living wages, the immorality of our social system with regard to nutrition and health care, and the ongoing exponential growth of income-inequality.
Even if you see gentrification as a social evil, its really just a symptom of other conditions, not a cause itself…
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I maybe think it’s less about blaming these employees and more about bringing it to their attention, as they might be in a position to help out?
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Fair enough on that point–I can’t disgree that it is a symptom of other things. But is there a case where gentrification led to a rising tide that lifted all boats? I can’t think of one–certainly not where I am. You’re seeing a renaissance of the city at the expense of middle and working class families. While we certainly have affordable housing in comparision to San Fran or NYC, it is getting less so in some key areas around town.
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G-DDAMMIT. Aren’t things bad enough without trying to Potemkin-Village it?
Start faking confrontations, and next thing you know people will be verbing proper nouns.
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Remember, this is a city that can’t find any money to fix potholes but has no problem spending money for any number of obscure pet-projects.
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Looks fake to me. He doesn’t seem to be really angry and his words feel forced and contrived.
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And yet. . . the fact that the city spends money unwisely doesn’t mean that they should be underwriting google’s transit system. I’m pretty sure google could afford to kick in for the use of the transit stops. Hopefully having an attention-whoring asshole on their side won’t detract too much from the fact that the protestors seem to have a legitimate grievance here. I mean, they seem to have a couple grievances, but the one about city regulations being unenforced for google buses seems pretty clearcut
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Maybe they’re also false flags planted by Google to show that their opponents are clueless? It would be like the showdown of the straw men.
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I’m annoyed he was a plant, but that attitude is not far from the truth around here. However: faking it so everyone on the side of the protesters can feel self-righteous sort of undermines the message completely. And housing is a serious problem in most parts of the city–practically everyone has a story about finding a nice (relatively) affordable place that they were about to get when someone swooped in and offered $300/500/1000 more a month for it.
And for all of you saying “yeah, but think of how many cars it keeps off the road”, consider your lack of social responsibility by choosing to live in a much more expensive city 40 miles from your place of work.
Really, and this is going to sting them a bit, all these hypervalued companies should really take some of their money and instead of buying dozens of plush buses for their cosseted employees, work with city/county/state to help fund a workable mass transit system down the peninsula. I mean, you can pay 23-year-olds 6-figure bonuses all you want, but the infrastructure you could help make a reality would actually survive beyond whichever bubble you’re currently perched atop.
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