14 DAY TRIAL // The situation over in San Francisco is getting ridiculous. The hate against tech companies nearby is growing at an alarming rate, even though they can’t really be blamed for the city’s gentrification.
After street protests have taken place against Google’s shuttle busses and some cars even getting vandalized, now, activists are suing the city hall for allowing the shuttles to use bus stops, writes the San Francisco Examiner.
Basically, they’re saying that city leaders should be held accountable for letting these shuttles use public bus stops, and allowing them to operate without any consideration for the environmental impact on the city and its residence.
Of course, this last part completely disregards just how much more pollution there would be if thousands of tech workers used their own cars to get to work or just how congested San Francisco’s streets would be.
As a matter of fact, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency claims that more than 35,000 private shuttle boardings occur each day.
The main thing people aren’t happy with is the pilot program proposed by the city. The program was born because of the protests happening in the city and its purpose was to calm spirits down.
City leaders thought that if the people of San Francisco saw that Google and other tech companies paid to use the roads, they’d calm down a bit and leave them alone. Of course, that didn’t exactly happen.
Instead, they kept up their protests, showing the mayor and the world that they weren’t happy even if the companies paid millions of dollars. Basically, they just want the companies to go away, which is unrealistic.
After all, they reasoned, since a single passenger has to pay $2 to use public buses, why should tech companies only pay $1 for each bus stop that shuttles station in?
The group that’s suing the city, a coalition that includes Service Employees International Union Local 1021, says that members are concerned that the shuttles have caused an increase in highly paid workers into the city, which drove up housing costs.
“We know that these buses are having devastating impacts on our neighborhoods, driving up rents and evictions of long-time San Francisco residents. We've protested in the streets and taken our plea to City Hall to no avail. We hope to finally receive justice in a court of law,” said Sara Shortt from San Francisco’s Housing Rights Committee, which helped file the lawsuit.