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Protesters Say "Block The Tech Commute" Was A Bust
Vocativ ^ | May 1, 2015 | James King

Posted on 05/02/2015 6:11:30 AM PDT by Mellonkronos

[Ha, ha! These Luddites don't like it that people who make money rather than spending their lives complaining move into their neighborhoods. I bet rent control has kept new housing low in this part of California, so the leftists probably created the problem they complain about!]

Protesters Say "Block The Tech Commute" Was A Bust By James King

A May Day protest intended to shut down the shuttle system that transports employees for tech companies like Facebook, Apple and Google from the Bay Area to their offices in Silicon Valley was a bit of a flop, according to several accounts of the rally. It may have something to do with the fact that organizers listed the protest on Facebook more than a week ago — giving the tech companies plenty of time to set up new routes, which they did. They even had police escorts.

Protesters had planned to disrupt the commute to draw attention to the “unprecedented wave of gentrification” in several Oakland neighborhoods where low-income families and minorities have lived but that are now being “colonized” by the rich, according to the organizers. They blame tech companies for the demographic shift.

“Their tech buses, their pricey cafes, and their luxury apartments have begun to appear with alarming frequency,” organizers posted on a Facebook page titled “Block the Tech Commute.”

“Let them know that they are not welcome, that their high-priced world is not welcome, and their terrible world of surveillance and alienation must end. Bring all of your creativity, joy and anger to the streets. Together, we can deliver a clear and undeniable message.“

The message seems to have missed its mark—because of the advanced notice, particularly the one posted on the website of one of the companies the protestors were planning to disrupt, the tech companies...

(Excerpt) Read more at vocativ.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: luddites; mayday; siliconvalley; technology

1 posted on 05/02/2015 6:11:30 AM PDT by Mellonkronos
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To: Mellonkronos
oh! oh! a chance to export more Luddites,
to the graceful shores of North Korea.

2 posted on 05/02/2015 6:22:15 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass ("Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." Hedy Lamarr)
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To: Mellonkronos

wait til the robots replace most workers...


3 posted on 05/02/2015 6:23:16 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: Mellonkronos

Silicon Valley does not have rent control...it aint NYC


4 posted on 05/02/2015 6:24:48 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: Mellonkronos

considering the success the Producers...had in avoiding the fiasco due to SOCIAL MEDIA....I have to wonder why the city of Baltimore couldnt have short circuited their RIOTS by perhaps taking note of the threats on “social media”....

evidently they lacked the WILL


5 posted on 05/02/2015 6:24:52 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: Mellonkronos
“unprecedented wave of gentrification” in several Oakland neighborhoods where low-income families and minorities have lived but that are now being “colonized” by the rich,

I guess both "white flight" where those with two nickels to rub together run from neighborhoods like that and "gentrification" where they move back in, spend money and improve the neighborhood are both evil. I'll just move to somewhere where I can have a few acres of land and not have to deal with your whining.

6 posted on 05/02/2015 6:26:00 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Darth Obama on 529 plans: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.)
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To: Nifster
Silicon Valley does not have rent control...it aint NYC

What's happened is that the young techies are living in the urban areas - San Francisco and Oakland, and commuting in company sponsored buses to the Silicon Valley.

San Francisco does have rent control. I don't know if Oakland does.

7 posted on 05/02/2015 6:41:05 AM PDT by BigBobber (`)
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To: KarlInOhio

[several Oakland neighborhoods where low-income families and minorities have lived but that are now being “colonized” by the rich]

Oakland ain’t the only place that’s been colonized by metrosexual yuppy hive-dwellers.

I always get a good laugh at how Colorado Governor Chickenlooper’s cronies delivered themselves a heaping cup full of profit... in what used to be 5-points.


8 posted on 05/02/2015 6:43:46 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionaly blank.)
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To: Nifster

Here is an old Cato study that shows San Francisco and San Jose both having very bad rent control. I don’t know how bad it is now. But rent control probably hurt the Bay area market for a long time. But the big issue making prices high in the region now is probably Silicon Valley prosperity. Better that then Baltimore economic depression!
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa274.pdf


9 posted on 05/02/2015 6:50:34 AM PDT by Mellonkronos
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To: BigBobber

I know exactly what has happened to Silicon Valley ( and for the record it has done so more than once over the decades). Similar protests and complaints were made during each ramp up of ‘dot com’ booms and busts.

The ‘rent control’ in SF is nothing like what NYC has and is easily avoided by various tactics ( which for the record I think is fine). See for example here :http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/16/longtime_rentcontrol_tenant_shocked_to_discover_6700_rent_hike_is_totally_legal.php


10 posted on 05/02/2015 7:35:12 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: Mellonkronos

Don’t know where you lived but San Jose ‘rent control’ merely limits rate increases (I believe that is the same in SF). There are many ways around it and many exemptions.

“Under the Apartment Rent Ordinance, annual rent increases are set at a maximum of 8% over the past 12 months or no greater than 21% if the increase was more than 24 months prior to the current increase. Also, rent may not be increased more than once in a 12 month period”

A 21% increase in rent costs over a 24 month period hardly seems draconian to the owners


11 posted on 05/02/2015 7:39:29 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: BigBobber

Rents in SF are crazy,so, the hipsters have run to places like Oakland which ,at this time, does not have rent control.
Yes,many of the neighborhoods were white,and those folks fled to the burbs when Oakland started to change and now the whites are moving back and there are many that are not happy with the newcomers.
The hipsters are now moving into Richmond ,Calif and rents there are starting to pop.
Berkeley is the only city that I know of in the East Bay ,that has rent control.It will be coming to the other cities.


12 posted on 05/02/2015 7:40:04 AM PDT by peteyd (A dog may bite you in the ass,but it will never stab you in the back.)
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To: Mellonkronos

“Bring all your joy and anger”? Who other than someone suffering from debilitating mental illness could write that?


13 posted on 05/02/2015 9:13:18 AM PDT by wideawake
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To: peteyd

Oakland which ,at this time, does not have rent control.

Oakland does have rent control, and more importantly, eviction control, which is necessary to make the rent control effective. Oakland’s rent control goes back decades. Measure EE, which came in about ten years ago, added eviction control, using much of the language of San Francisco’s eviction control ordinance. The law in Oakland is now similar to that of San Francisco.


14 posted on 05/03/2015 2:10:26 AM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

Gosh,I didn’t know that.
I thought Berkeley and SF were the only immediate Bay Area cities with such.
I work in Oakland and that’s about the only time I go over to the “badlands”.


15 posted on 05/03/2015 9:14:54 AM PDT by peteyd (A dog may bite you in the ass,but it will never stab you in the back.)
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