Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#21

Post by cinquemb » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:20 PM UTC

"While this is taking place, the City of Oakland and Federal law enforcement are attempting to spread a surveillance network called the Domain Awareness Center throughout Oakland. Intended to secure the Port of Oakland against terrorist attacks and labor struggle, this surveillance network will actually monitor the entirety of Oakland through over 800 cameras. The authorities want to monitor the crazy and uncontrollable city that is pressed right up against the Port of Oakland."

Would be interesting to get the coords of the cameras when they go up on iSee[0], so people can take the necessary action to avoid them. It would be interesting in general if someone made a mobile app where people can stand where cameras are (and take a photo of it for some spacial awareness) and submit the coords to a public database where people can take the data and plot their own paths away from a central server.

[0]: http://66.93.183.118:8080/isee/s1

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#22

Post by mnml_ » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:20 PM UTC

so ?

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#23

Post by PeterisP » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:20 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #15

jrockway wrote: post #4

It would be much better to have 100 more cars on the road during rush hour, right?

It would be much better to have affordable housing for all instead of the wealthy pricing out the ordinary.

Correction, 'affordable housing for some not all' is what's implied here - there's not enough housing for all, and the only way it's going to stay affordable, given the current housing policy, is if all the googlers get kicked out of the place for good.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#24

Post by gojomo » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:21 PM UTC

Now we know where Google can deploy Boston Dynamics!

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#25

Post by k-mcgrady » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:21 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #4

It would be much better to have 100 more cars on the road during rush hour, right?

By providing free transportation from SF Google employees are encouraged to live there. Why not live closer to work? It would probably result in a few more cars on the road but a lot of the employees would move closer to Google freeing up apartments for people who actually work at businesses in SF and HAVE to live there.

NB: I have no stake in this, I like in Ireland.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#26

Post by Pxtl » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:22 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #15

jrockway wrote: post #4

It would be much better to have 100 more cars on the road during rush hour, right?

It would be much better to have affordable housing for all instead of the wealthy pricing out the ordinary.

In that case they should be smashing windows at City Hall (or not anywhere, preferably). The municipality must be up to its gills in property tax cash and is the only people who can properly manage the response to this skyrocketing demand for housing. This isn't Vancouver or Tokyo or Manhattan, there's room to build more housing and drive down the supply/demand imbalance, and money to be made doing it... but without the municipality leading the way on intensification, it's not going to get better.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#27

Post by davevil » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:22 PM UTC

Suddenly, Google's purchase of military robot manufacturer Boston Dynamics makes more sense.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#28

Post by anextio » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:23 PM UTC

altero wrote: post #9

Technicaly the bus is place of work, so there are interesting implications for Google as employer.

No, the bus is owned by a third party contractor. That does not count as Google's workplace.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#29

Post by semiel » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:23 PM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #23

minikites wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be much better to have affordable housing for all instead of the wealthy pricing out the ordinary.

Correction, 'affordable housing for some not all' is what's implied here - there's not enough housing for all, and the only way it's going to stay affordable, given the current housing policy, is if all the googlers get kicked out of the place for good.

The fact that there is not enough housing is a convention, not a domain constraint.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#30

Post by jaibot » Fri, Dec 20, 2013, 8:23 PM UTC

angersock wrote: post #3

First against the wall, it would appear. All of us doing tech work should be paying very, very close attention to this sentiment. That said, why can't these folks find more constructive ways of trying to change the system and address their grievances?

Pain and fear do not tend to lead to rational approaches to complex problems. People's lives are getting worse, and they're not thinking through the problem fully - just lashing out at the most visible, proximate cause.

It's the same pattern one sees in anti-immigration efforts - outsiders competing for a limited resource (jobs, housing) reduces the consumer surplus of the in-group. The traditional response to this throughout most of human history is along the lines of "attack the encroaching tribe", so we're actually doing better than the historical baseline.

Of course, the much-better-response - "let's respond to an increase in demand with an increase in supply by lifting zoning restrictions and allowing for more housing" - isn't intuitive enough or emotionally evocative enough to get a crowd.