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Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

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Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#241

Post by heurist »

bluedino wrote: post #94
null_ptr wrote: post #58

Gotta love “TECHIES: Your World Is Not Welcome Here” I find it hard to sympathize with a bunch of lazy thugs who do nothing to improve their situation. Engineering and white collar jobs in general have always paid well. Industries who are in demand even more so, and for just reason. Did similar protests happen in Detroit 50 years ago during the auto boom? Did unskilled rubes that do nothing all day put up banners say…

>> Did unskilled rubes that do nothing all day put up banners saying "Auto boys not welcome"? 'Auto boys' are/were unskilled rubes. Whites weren't holding up signs saying 'blacks not welcome'. They just left. It was 50 years ago, after all. edit: They were, up to a point.

Some more information on what happened in Detroit during the great migration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Race_Riot_(1943)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#242

Post by firstOrder »

defen wrote: post #41

As if the real problem with Oakland is that there are too many Google employees living there. Let's be honest - the only reason they do this is that Google employees sitting in a bus are a "soft" target. There is essentially zero chance of reprisal or consequence, at least if it's done as a one-off thing. You get to feel self-righteous for fighting "the man" without any risk. Let's say they win this quixotic crusade…

"a soft target. There is essentially zero chance of reprisal or consequence."

Yes, because people are looking for hard targets. Cops don't carry guns because if they confront someone they want the odds to be "even steven". The US doesn't use drones and bombers and machine guns in Afghanistan, because they want it to be a fair fight between the soldiers and the native population.

Wow, you figured out that they did something where they wouldn't all be immediately arrested and tossed in jail, that's a brilliant observation. Now explain how the people who would arrest them, with their guns and radios and SWAT teams and helicopters don't work things so that they don't go after soft targets as well?

Fact is these people all have much more massive balls than 90% of the effete whiners and snivelers here and everyone knows it. I'd love to see rich liberatarian fairies like Keith Rabois or Peter Thiel go to Oakland public housing and get up in people's faces and tell them what they think should be done with them.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#243

Post by gress »

simoncion wrote: post #237
gress wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - people shouldn't complain - they should just shut up and get a job that pays them a 6 figure salary and provides an air conditioned luxury coach to take them to work.

Edit: Oh, heh. I mis-read your statement. Regardless, I'll keep my original comment below. Do with it what you will. _________________ 1) 6-figures is middle-of-the-road when it comes to meeting living expenses in SV. You will never own an urban house (and will likely not own a suburban house) on that salary in the area. 2) Have you, like, ever ridden in a big bus before? They're pretty nausea-inducing and tend to ge…

I'm not really sure what to make of this!

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#244

Post by nknighthb »

gress wrote: post #230
nknighthb wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like smash bus windows? There are other ways to solve problems. I help with some of them. Do you assume I don't, or do you just think violence is always the answer?

What are your suggestions?

None that will satisfy anyone who thinks smashing a bus window is a valid suggestion.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#246

Post by hcurtiss »

blhack wrote: post #235
jessedhillon wrote: post #48

West Oakland is a traditionally black neighborhood that surrounds the Port of Oakland. It has been heavily gentrified, developed, and restructured over the past three decades. Now there is an upper class enclave that has been established near the West Oakland BART station, in Jack London, and in the city of Emeryville. Oh fuck you and your dreadlocks. There are only two photos on that page, so I don't definitively kn…

>These are Burning Man hippies, self-styled artists, people who graduated from great schools with useless majors This is such a stupid position to take. First of all, do you realize that those "Burning Man Hippies" are, uh, literally the people who started google? Do you realize that google has made enormous donations to those "burning man hippies"? And yes, "uesless degrees". History, art, literature, these are all…

I think by "useless," he meant, "useless for purposes of making money."

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#247

Post by raldi »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #153
jessedhillon wrote: post #48

West Oakland is a traditionally black neighborhood that surrounds the Port of Oakland. It has been heavily gentrified, developed, and restructured over the past three decades. Now there is an upper class enclave that has been established near the West Oakland BART station, in Jack London, and in the city of Emeryville. Oh fuck you and your dreadlocks. There are only two photos on that page, so I don't definitively kn…

Fun writeup. Wrong attitude. Silicon Valley technology, this is Manhattan finance with a word of advice. We know the roots of the problem are housing supply restrictions and a lack of mass transit. In essence, City Hall problems. So why are they able to pin the blame on you? Because you're painting a target on your back. Ducking your heads makes you a low-risk scapegoat. Scoffing at the less fortunate, regardless of…

Could you rephrase that with fewer metaphors? I'm having trouble understanding what actual thing it is that you think techies should be doing.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#248

Post by manicbovine »

dannypgh wrote: post #240
manicbovine wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the taxes don't have to do with anything. Nobody deserves to have their daily commute violently disrupted.

I don't think people deserve to be displaced from their homes in massive numbers. I don't think today's action will magically end the displacement, but I think people should have some compassion and show several orders of magnitude more concern for groups like the elderly on fixed income and the working poor facing Ellis Act evictions than for a group of techies who will be OK even after a disrupted commute. The issu…

I completely agree with you, but the action was violent, or at least scary to the people on the bus. Plenty of marginalized people have managed to assert their dignity without intentionally scaring people. My main point, however, was simply that the tax bracket of these passengers has no bearing on whether the protest was acceptable.

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#249

Post by blhack »

rexreed wrote: post #245

Time for Google, et. al to switch to Uber / Lyft / etc? Not as eco or commute friendly, but a lot less noticeable. Or maybe time to subsidize publicly accessible commuter bus lines?

>Or maybe time to subsidize publicly accessible commuter bus lines?

They could call it a tax!

Re: Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland

#250

Post by simoncion »

cbhl wrote: post #108
PeterisP wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I recall, the power to decide how things should be rests with all the people, not just the landlords. The renters outnumber them, and they have the ability, the rights and the reason to achieve cheaper rents by allowing to build apartment complexes.

True, but a renter is also disincentivized to vote for allowing people to build apartment complexes because of NIMBYism -- they don't want to be kicked out of their current living arrangements so that someone can spend 6 months building a new apartment complex in its place that might have lower rent. The people who would unabashedly vote for the repeal such laws would likely be the people who don't live in SF yet but…

If the existing tenants scream loudly enough, they can get a deal hammered out: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Deal-pro...

I'm not sure what those several hundred people who were living there were doing for housing while construction was underway, though. Maybe the "moving expenses" that the landlord covered included assistance with locating new temporary places to live?

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