In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry
"GOOGLE BUS": A synecdoche for “money flaunting Tech 2.0 oppressors” * USA
* California - SF’S Tech bus problem isn´t about buses: IT’S ABOUT HOUSING !!
-- Last week, the corporate commuter buses of San Francisco started making news again. You’ve probably heard of these luxury—more commonly referred to as “Google Buses”—that ferry tech sector employees from their cushy homes in the city to their cushy jobs in Silicon Valley. They’re provided by companies like Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Genentech, and, yeah, Google, and are the frequent target of heated (and colorful) protests... The opposition turned out again last week to temporarily block some buses in the city’s Mission neighborhood. This latest flame up was sparked by a review of the shuttles’ operating agreement by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which was determining how best to go forward with the program while abating the concerns of locals who are outraged at what the buses represent. See, this isn’t just a matter of logistics... The real problem—the reason the protests won’t stop for good anytime soon—is that to many, these private shuttles are the rolling symbol of a class war pitting young, cash-rich tech workers against long-time San Franciscans who are being pushed out of their homes by evictions and out of the city altogether by astronomical rent prices... Unfortunately, it seems the only way to truly resolve the dispute around the shuttle buses is to fix the entire housing/cost of living crisis in San Francisco. Since that’s not going to happen any time soon, the battle for the soul of the city will continue to be fought on many fronts, perhaps nowhere more acrimoniously than the one involving a bunch of WiFi-enabled buses toting scads of tech employees to work every day...
(Photo by ARIEL ZAMBELICH/WIRED - A Google shuttle bus near the corner of 18th Street and Dolores Street in San Francisco) -- San Francisco, CAL, USA - wired - 17 Feb 2016Labels: neighboring complains
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