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Apple and Google Are Rerouting Their Employee Buses as Attacks Resume (mashable.com)
Slashdot reader sqorbit writes:
Apple runs shuttle buses for it's employees in San Francisco. It seems someone who is not happy with Apple has decided to take out their anger on these buses. In an email obtained by Mashable, Apple states "Due to recent incidents of broken windows along the commute route, specifically on highway 280, we're re-routing coaches for the time being. This change in routes could mean an additional 30-45 minutes of commute time in each direction for some riders." It has been reported that at least four buses have had windows broken, some speculating that it might caused by rubber bullets.
"Around four years ago, people started attacking the shuttle buses that took Google employees to and from work, as a way of protesting the tech-company-driven gentrification taking place around San Francisco," remembers Fortune, adding "it seems to be happening again."
At least one Google bus was also attacked, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which adds that the buses "were not marked with company logos, and the perpetrators are suspected of broadly targeting technology shuttle buses rather than a specific company."
"Around four years ago, people started attacking the shuttle buses that took Google employees to and from work, as a way of protesting the tech-company-driven gentrification taking place around San Francisco," remembers Fortune, adding "it seems to be happening again."
At least one Google bus was also attacked, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which adds that the buses "were not marked with company logos, and the perpetrators are suspected of broadly targeting technology shuttle buses rather than a specific company."
Reminds me of that isolate tribe of people on a remote island who throws spears at helicopters.
After all, San Francisco was a quiet, inexpensive little town to live in - right up until Apple and Google moved into the area. In fact, no one had even heard of the place until around 2000.
#DeleteChrome
that's not rubber bullets, these are old unusable iPhones.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It reminds me that my grandfather with a high school degree could buy a house in my town, my parents with college degrees could, but even with a Master's I am hard-pressed to do so.
Maybe if we encouraged density over NIMBYism we wouldn't be held in regulatory capture by today's feudal landlording class.
You are making a bad joke at the expanse of those folk living there... But the reality is that *inflation adjusted* rent and house price are insane. e.g. https://medium.com/@mccannatro...
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*MdPAr5dt5AH73H1mO_NahQ.jpeg
It is CPI adjusted so reflects indeed an appreciation/gentrification rather than inflation.
Even if you are house owner you can easily understand what this means : imagine your house which had a monthly cost of 600$-700$ (inflation adjusted cost) now has a monthly average cost of 4000$. Would you be able to keep it ? no ? Well that is what is happening to some people, and those with the weakest salaries are pushed further and further away meaning their cost increase both in time cost (travel time) and in transportation cost, or go in worst neighborhood if you can.
Basically I forsee a wall coming to SF bay area, something will have to break.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Seriously? So you think if you have an issue with a corporation you should take it out on the ordinary people who work for it, have little no say in company decisions and probably earn 1/20th what the directors are on? You are fucking idiot.
Which Windows? 7 10 XP?
Some problems are solvable by telecommuting, some problems aren't.
Stuff that involves hardware (which hey, Apple does a lot of) really cannot be done by telecommuting until you get full telepresence robots (and even then, some things really require you to be there - engineer's knack, for example). Expensive test equipment may be utilized, or even just general tools like oscilloscopes. And then there's physical hardware that requires transportation, Apple's already secretive enough that new hardware has to be locked up and multiple layered security (so fat chance bringing it home).
There's also a lot of value in bringing the team together - collaboration can be much faster. Perhaps you come up with a cool idea, but then instead of just walking down the hall and presenting it, you have to type it up in an email or worse yet, the company IRC-like chat room (slack, whatever) and everyone misunderstands you so you spend another hour re-describing it. And heaven forbid you need to draw something...
Never lived in SF, but I grew up somewhere a megacorp set up shop.
At first, everyone was really excited, because there were going to be all these jobs! Hooray! There were some construction jobs whilst it was being built; folks bought new houses, new trucks. It was pretty nice. Unfortunately when it was done, the only jobs that the locals were qualified for were janitorial, canteen and security. Not surprising; Rural Nowhere doesn't have a massive stock of biotech scientists and chemical engineers just sat waiting for a pharma plant to be built.
But at least the area was going to get rich off the taxes, right? Well, see, to get the plant, the state and municipality had cut a special deal for "innovating job creators", so the firm was basically getting paid to be here. 90% of property taxes go to the state, so even though property tax revenues would be higher, the local services wouldn't see much of it.
As people moved in from out of state (mostly existing employees of the company from plants they'd shut down, but some new hires), a few people in town made what they thought was a pretty penny selling property to them. Of course, the house prices in Nowhere were pretty low, so when they tried to use the money to buy elsewhere, they couldn't get as much house as they'd sold. When house prices started to rocket, rents got jacked up, and any locals who were renting was basically SOL. No way you could work at the gas station and pay rent on a one-bed apartment, so you'd better get real friendly with someone real fast or move back in with your folks.
The company knew they were sending their employees out to Nowhere, so they'd planned ahead. Subsidised employee daycare, canteen, gym, even a subsidised laundry and convenience store on site. Outside the fence, the local shops and services had to either compete with the subsidised prices or accept that most of the company folk weren't ever going to come in.
The local schools got swamped with new kids; rich and poor kids mixing there was about the only good thing to come out of it. Of course, there wasn't a lot of extra money to deal with it, and the huge wealth disparity definitely caused some problems. Suddenly parents were demanding more AP classes, more after-school clubs and activities and generally expecting higher standards. Some of that was good - I wouldn't have got where I am without it - but the budget-strapped school spending resources on activities that only a few could afford to do created a lot of tension. We had a new swimming pool and textbooks that were falling apart; of course company kids had shiny new ones their parents had ordered for them.
After ten years, the house prices had increased from about 25% below to 50% above the state average; about half the existing population had been forced out by rising property prices and rents, many local businesses had been empty for years due to the loss of trade and the competition from subsidised on-site businesses. I've just graduated with a relevant STEM degree (I actually got a small bursary from the company and the offer of an interview if I maintained a 3.5 GPA), and the company has decided to shut down the plant. They've come up with a new way to make the thing they were producing, and it's cheaper to build a new plant in a new town (with new tax breaks, of course) than to update their existing plant. So in a few months they will be gone, as will half of the town's population. Anyone who struggled to buy a house there or took out a second mortgage to exploit the rising value will be underwater, and we'll be left with really nice school and no kids to fill it, and thus no money to maintain it.
The company attached itself to our town like a parasite; they used the existing public infrastructure for their own benefit without without paying a dime. They broke the local economy, made it depend on them, and then cast it aside when it was no longer convenient, leaving behind a dying husk of what used to be a small but pleasant town. The worst part is that the best and brightest of the local kids are now working for the company, and excited to move to this new picturesque little town across the state where the new plant is being built... myself included.
I was economically ejected from the place I grew up in and which I love the most in the world. So on behalf of all of us middle class folk who don't work for a mega IT corporation, fuck Apple, fuck Google, and fuck all the rest of the corporate slave masters too.
I and my children cannot live there because we were not born into walth, and in my chosen profession one must live like a slave if they stay in the SF bay, with horrendous commutes, insane living costs and crushing mortgages.
To all of you who have not suffered through poverty until forced out of the SF region, fuck you too. You do not understand why we are so enraged, and should shut up with your defense of these soulless corporate monsters. I earned good money, had a good career, and it wasn't enough to ever buy a home or have a comfortable life.
AAAARRRRGGGHHH! It pisses me off.
Google Street View cams and self driving car tech might be able to catch who is attacking the busses. Or just a video camera?
Or, you know, people using their computers to work remotely.
For those fond of the way things were, you could leave a heavy weight with built-in heat-pad on a chair at their office and work remotely.
Requiem for the American Dream
What is it with drawing indeed? It's XXI century and there are no tools that can replace good old scribbling on a whiteboard with the same efficiency.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Sure but it reduces the number of people living close and commuting. Just because it doesn’t work for everyone, doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I don't believe there's any "right to evict" people who were already living in an area. Being a programmer doesn't give you the right to seize people's homes because you feel more deserving of the weather or the landscape - regardless of how big your ego is, regardless of whether you do it personally or through a multitude of proxies, regardless of the current legality of those processes.
Besides that, rents are increasing vs. wages all across the United States. Considering that you can't make your employer move with you... this is a problem from which you can run, but you can't hide.
This is a basic supply issue on the housing market. However I don't see an easy solution. (There are simple solutions but implementing them would be really hard).
The area seems to vote against their longer term interest for small gains in short time. Cities roll over each other to get more tech jobs -- look at what's happening with Amazon HQ2 -- however almost none in the Bay Area want to host the employees of these tech companies in their boundaries. They enact all kinds of barriers against entry, yet what this ultimately causes is pain to existing residents.
The market is about 99% saturated. Any house that goes onto market for rent or sale is gobbled up in about a week or so, and I read that there was only 12 days of rolling supply. If buyers dot not bit ridiculously high prices for buying, or renters want basic amenities to be fixed (like broken sewer system), they lose to the competition. It is a race to the bottom.
The simple solution would be improving the supply. This can be done by updating zoning laws, changing parking limits, and repealing Prop 13 to improve schools, and re-balance economy. However all of them, while simple, affects existing residents in a very bad way, and there is little to no hope of ever getting any of them thru. People have looted their 401k, and went into significant debt to buy falling apart shacks at million dollar prices, and they would not want to wake up to a reality that their property is not actually worth that much.
So basically no solution in the short term.
Err...where is it that anyone is coming in there, seeing a house they want and confiscating it from the current tenant or owner?
I've heard of no programmers coming into the area, seeing a house they want and somehow "evicting" the person within...?
However, a landlord has the right (depending on current in-force lease) to raise rents as they wish, and if current tenant doesn't have the ability to pay increased rent, then they have to move on to other places to live that are more affordable.
Are you saying a landlord has NO right to rent his property out for whatever price he wishes?
I don't hear of people owning their homes having them "seized" by private individuals, nor even with govt eminent domain from them...if this is happening, please link to it, I'd be VERY interested in reading on that. I would definitely protest that myself.
But you seem to be arguing against the free market and what people that own property can do as far as rental rates or what they wish to sell them for to other people.
I mean, that's as American as apple pie....if you own property, you should be able to do as you wish with it and set your own prices as the market will bear.
Who are you to tell the property owners what they can and cannot rent/sell for?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........