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Google Co-Opts Whale-Watching Boat To Ferry Employees
theodp writes "Purportedly intended to defuse tensions over gentrification that have led to blockades and vandalism of Google's ubiquitous shuttles (video), which make use of public San Francisco bus stops (map), Wired reports that Google is now chartering a ferry to take its workers from SF to Silicon Valley. 'We certainly don't want to cause any inconvenience to SF residents, and we're trying alternative ways to get Googlers to work,' Google explained. Inconveniencing whale-seeking visitors to The Aquarium of the Pacific, however, is apparently not considered evil. After learning that Google had co-opted the $4 million, 83-foot, 150-passenger whale-watching catamaran MV/Triumphant to ferry as few as 30-40 Googlers to work, some expressed concerns on Facebook that Google would be The Grinch That Stole Whale Watching Season (not to worry; the boat's slated to make its 'triumphant' return to Long Beach after Google's '30-day trial')."
Google shills out in full-force. The residents don't want you assholes driving up their rents and driving down salaries, plain and simple. Google has the money, why don't you all petition your employer to relocate out in the Central Valley and create a planned community of McMansions for you all? That way, you don't have to deal with "depressing" poor people who should go be poor somewhere else, and you can spend the rest of your boring lives working 120 hours a week in peace and quiet.
If you continue to displace people from their homes, you will have to hire your own police force to guard your buses and ferries, or else there will be kidnappings and firebombings. California's economy ain't gettin' any prettier, and you'd be surprised what a 60 year-old woman could be driven to after she's evicted from her apartment of 20 years because some overpaid asshole kid from Ohio needed a place to stay.
-- Ethanol-fueled
Google is being purposefully obtuse here. The buses themselves aren't the problem. The problem is that the cheapest 1brs in SF cost $2800/month. it used to be that gentrification kicked out the poor. Now SF is becoming a city for the 1%, and the 99% can no longer afford to be there. an especially visible target are google and twitter kids in mission who turn a vibrant ethnic neighborhood into Sharon Green in palo alto.