I’m sure there’s at least the occasional delay—you can’t have two bus systems using the same stops without one occasionally arriving while people are embarking or disembarking from the other. It may not be a big disruption, but the public frustration comes from Google getting a free pass where other individuals or corporations wouldn’t.
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This dude couldn’t have fucked up worse than if he declared he loved Hitler while throwing dead bald eagles through the window of the mayor’s window. You do not shoot your agenda in the foot by playing dirty politics without being on the national level because then people will not take you seriously. They might even think you’re an asshole, because you’re an asshole. You have to be part of congress to get away with lying like this.
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When negotiations are done and Google is paying a fee for rights to the bus stops, a lot of complaining about buses is probably not going to evaporate, even though the complaint has evaporated. I think a semi-legitimate complaint is being used as cover for a feeling of “I’m not getting anything like that - fuck you guys!”, which in turn is (I think) a big part of what is driving poverty here - when unions strike to get better conditions, a huge part of the public response is less the “hell yes - it helps raise the bar, which helps move us to a better new normal!” as it was in previous generations, and more “I’m not getting anything like that - fuck you guys!” and try to sabotage the attempt to gain ground instead.
I get that it’s a very human feeling to not want people getting more than you when you deserve it no less than they, but the ugly form this attitude is taking is socially and self-sabotaging.
In order:
They are in the way of the municipal buses, and they sit there for some time.
Yes.
I’m sure they know, but they don’t move.
See above my comment above about the idea of not voluntarily living in a city 40 miles from your place of work and the relative responsibility of that versus just assuming they’ll all get in the car and drive (assuming that even 50% of them own cars–I have 6 gchat windows open with local friends, and after a quick survey, including me, there is one car owner [and he lives in Oakland]). Not that all Google/FB/eBay/Genentech employees should just fuck off and live in San Mateo/Belmont/MV/Cupertino, but there is a middle ground in between “I want to live in the Mission and still work at my cool company without actually having to deal with the problems this causes me and the community surrounding me, which is the reason it’s cool to live in the Mission in the first place.”
That particular stop in the video is where I get on my bus to get home at night when I’m too lazy to walk. There’s really not enough room for a double-decker luxury barge to park and still allow the two routes that use the stop (every 8-12 minutes in the morning) efficiently.
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Through the window of his window? I HATE THIS MAN ALL OF A SUDDEN
You mean a national audience might find it slightly ironic that a left coast union leader was caught pants on fire whilst picketing a bus? … for a company you’d wish had a bigger presence in your neighborhood? I’m sure the red states feeling a need for immediate action. You would think this was the onion or something.
The Dils classic “I Hate the Rich” comes to mind.
That suggests to me the fallout would be even worse - a whole heap of people in SF who don’t own cars would start buying them, so not only does traffic congestion increase because more are driving to work, but parking congestion increases (because no-one has garages), which means traffic congestion increases even further because EVERYONE in the city spends extra time driving around the city adding to traffic (looking for an open parking spot.)
Your idea about how they should take personal responsibility for living close to work instead of where they want to live seems irrelevant and ugly to me - I’m sure you’re right that some would move if their life was made sufficiently miserable, but it sounds like an excuse for hate without actually advancing any kind of solution. Some people street-park their car, some people own SUVs, some people eat meat, some people leave the lights on. Everyone improves their lifestyle in ways that matter to them that will inconvenience or rub somebody else the wrong way.
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First off, there’s simply not room enough in the city for another few thousand cars. Maybe if you cleaned all the junk out of every garage and everyone bought a Smart Car, maybe then. And there would be amazing deals at all the thrift stores, I guess, which would drive some positive economic activity for seekers of kitsch.
Second, why the fuck is it MY problem? Surely some blame should fall on the irresponsibility of these companies for not locating in the city where their employees have chosen to live, unless leaving buses idling all over town is a devilishly complex and expensive scheme to squeeze the city for further tax breaks as incentive to move, coupled with the selfish entitlement of their employees for basically forcing their bosses to do the right thing and take cars off the road. Seems like fingers are being pointed everywhere but at the actual cause.
I guess I’m lucky, since I don’t live near one of these stops. But not by choice–proximity to a “Google Stop” has driven rent prices to insane extremes in those neighborhoods. Lucky me!
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Lexington, KY. I’ve been vaguely considering relocating, but it sounds like I should stay the fuck away from the west coast.
You’re doing serious damage to InvisibleMonkey’s thesis that SF landlords aren’t assholes.
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Where are you? I was shocked to find that the real estate market in the Bay Area is so cutthroat. Back in MA, if you had good credit and a job with seemingly sufficient wages, you’d be fine. I moved here and found that I was expected to make 2.5 times my rent in gross earnings, and people would snipe you out of apartments by offering twice the rent per month. Thunderdome with parking spaces.
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Virtual Light was about gentrification of SF as I recall.
But anyway, screw these guys for faking footage. Wastes everyone’s time.
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People show up with cash, checks, muffins, pictures of puppies, flowers, you name it. I once went to an open house for a really well-priced studio once in a great neighborhood. It was a depressingly average place with thick, old dark green carpet throughout. There were at least 25 people already there, 4-5 of whom were hurriedly filling out rental applications.
I heard a story from a friend: She went to look at a place that she really loved from the Craigslist ad, and after the winnowing process it was down to her and another person. Rather than offer an increased deposit or higher rent, she pledged $500 to the charity of their choice. That, as opposed to appealing to their greed, got her the place.
The landlord used the money to take their children’s class to the museum where their new tenant worked at the time, so they did get a little personally out of it but AWWWWWWW.
You win.
SF already couldn’t fit another thousand cars several thousand cars ago.
I think you have it backwards - the company sets up shop first, and the employees decide where they will live. If Google moved to SF, you would not see a decrease in congestion, you would see a huge increase as far more of the workers would move to SF.
Why are you even looking for people to blame? Cities (packing people tightly into scarce space) don’t have a perfect solution where no-one is inconvenienced. In some places, those problems are crime, in some places, high rent, or congestion, or pollution, etc. The person ultimately to blame for the problems of dense city living is the person (such as you) who chooses to live in a dense city, thus making themselves part of the problem - and part of the magic! Google buses are good solution, possibly even the best solution. There is no perfect solution.
My suspicion is that one of the reasons the city has been slow to crack down on these buses is that people tasked with transport problems recognize it as a good solution.
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THIS.
These stupid fucks protesting have a basic lack of understanding how transit and traffic works. If the google busses block public transit busses then perhaps the stops need to be renovated to reflect current demand. Google et al bring a shitload of money to the city in taxes and public infrastructure is the job of the city. These guys’ anger is misplaced.
I appreciate the way you excised only the most unreasonable part of my previous post, but really–a majority of the comments I’m seeing on this today (not just here) are blaming sensitive SF residents and no one is looking at the fact that we have scads of people basically doing the reverse of the 50s Platonic ideal of commuting–people are living in the dirty filthy city and commuting to the 'burbs. Those are the facts, and they’re not good or evil or indifferent or purple or striped or lemon-scented.
Next fact: because of the physical locations of the employees and their work-hives, they have to be transported there somehow as the (imaginary) Pendulum of Telecommuting Favorableness has swung in the other direction momentarily. There are a ton of solutions to this problem, and since teleportation doesn’t exist yet (thanks Obama) all of them suck in some way.
The buses, the spiking rents, the gentrification, the angry beardy guy that turned out to be fake-angry, all of these are corollary problems to the root issues. So let’s strip away the various levels of class warfare we’ve all applied via our varied perspectives and fix the problem already.
But I’ll step out now because a hot-beverage dispenser has declared me a “stupid fuck”. I am merely a humble lower primate with a translucency problem. Pouring things is way above my pay grade.
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I’ve lived here all my life and have a pretty good grasp of the players and the machinations in our latest little gentrifi-feud.
The Google buses are incredibly big…and compared with (slowest in the Nation!) MUNI…look really comfortable. I can understand the jealousy…and seeing them pulling into MUNI stops is aggrieving: but as mentioned above, the free ride will not last for much longer. (Anything the City can charge for that is being given away freely is merely an oversight.)
But this protest is a result of not just the changing face of San Francisco and the influx of new wealth and changing skyline; but how fast it’s happening: a combination of envy (where’s MY millions!?) and fear (pleasedontevictmepleasedontevictme) is a heady brew indeed.
But the rhetoric is extreme: “The City is being RUINED, it’s being DESTROYED…” Save it. This place is bigger than them…and bigger than you or I.
50+ years ago the same type of local was complaining about the dirty, drug using free love hippies. 40+ years ago…“the gays” with their hideous man-sex and leather chaps and lisping.
Then the clannish Asians with their funny talk and business acumen: ‘how dare they turn the Richmond and Sunset into Chinatown West!’ Not to mention ‘those people’ from South Of The Border with their youth gangs and useful labor…It’s the same old story.
I was born here. I live and work here. When I was younger I sincerely felt this was MY town, everyone else was just living in it. Now I’m older and I see, naturally, it’s not just MINE…it never was. This city belongs to all of us: like it or not. It’s changing. It is changing fast…I put my hand to heart in solidarity with the old guard: yeah, it’s scary, yes, the precious buses ARE too damn big…agreed many new restaurants are opening that I have little interest in visiting while some of my old favorites are shutting down. But don’t blame this new group for ‘Making San Francisco unaffordable’…sure; it’s ridiculous now: but anyplace you might want to rent or buy in SF has been damn expensive for the past 30 years!
I like ‘techies’ because they work hard, pay taxes and don’t take parking spots. Plus; memories are short: South of Market was a scary No-Mans-Land 20 years ago; and if Mid Market is ever to recover from its terrible blight…tech money and tech jobs will be the catalyst.
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Google (and Apple) run buses all over the Bay Area. It seems that only San Franciscans get their noses out of joint about them.
