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Comment by eshvk | Hacker News Reader

> 2) simple feelings of being left out...that's what people don't like about Google shuttles. They're mysterious. Let people in them, see what they are, see how they're really not that amazing or great: but then that would hurt recruiting.

So your proposal is that people who don't work in tech, say someone who spend upwards of $100000 on an expensive liberal arts education and has a good sense for making good soundbites but not enough money should be allowed to enter the Google bus and drive down to the South Bay and back? It is a fucking bus that moves from point A to point B. There will be people who will hate you for anything you do. Always.

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I'm saying show people the interior on a "google bus open house day in the mission" so the google bus isn't like a red velvet rope and bouncer protected nightclub --- looks pretty fancy from the outside, but not much really going on inside.

Disambiguify it and say "we're not trying to be a bunch of nightclub bouncers... we just have a large car pool"

Yes, but who are the "people" that you show things to? There is no clear split between "tech people" on one side and "locals" on the other side. Just like there are people who have been living in the Mission for 30+ years, there are people who moved in at the same time as I did (two years ago) but are getting priced out. Why am I less of a real "San Franciscan" than they are? This is as another commenter pointed, half parts bigotry too. This has always been happening too. Hell, the Mission was once occupied by poor German and Italian families. They fled with white flight when the Latinas moved here. Then, now the Mission is gentrifying. This is a process that will keep happening throughout the years in every neighborhood. A Google open house day will not help people who want to manufacture outrage for their pet causes.

Simply the people who aren't taking the shuttles. People like all my friends in SF who aren't in tech.

This post is hilarious because it's earnest.

> we just have a large car pool

I think there are people who would complain about a car pool too. Really, they just want the tech people to stay out, and anything that enables them to move in (like carpools or buses) is going to get complaints. The buses are a visible symbol, but not the root cause.

You're speaking as if it were an ego issue alone, of not wanting to be "excluded" from the Google buses. No. These people have justifiable anger at what is happening to their neighborhood and rent levels. That is why they hate Google buses-- not because they want a ride in one. Don't make them out to be children just because they're not well-off. (I'm not saying you are, but that's a common sentiment these days.)

On the contrary, children need their own buses so they can be shuttled to school despite an existing public transportation infrastructure.

These children are paid above median income, espouse libertarian ideals, refuse to participate or share, and require their own shuttle service separate from 'the natives'.

It says something that to draw 'talent', you have to implement a separate transportation system to appease their fragile sensibilities.

Uhh...way to go on stereotyping people. Because everyone who is in tech does this. There are countless tech people who take the Muni and Caltrain to work in Mountain View. Also, the shuttles are an option, designed by companies to optimize the amount of time you work. Quite a lot of people get work done in shuttles. I am not sure how this makes it the fault of the employee because they are using a benefit which exists. What is next? Complain because someone is not refusing a higher pay package just because of your silly conceptions of equality.

No, the strawman constructed to represent these people espouses libertarian ideals and refuses to participate or share. Actual shuttle riders require the shuttle (to the degree that they really "require" it) because it drives them to work. There isn't much more to it than that.

If Caltrain or BART made the same trip and was even a tiny bit faster or more reliable most would switch in a heartbeat.

It says something about San Francisco's housing density and public transportation system that Google needs to create their transportation alternative. It's not that Google employees have "fragile sensibilities" and cannot mix with the rest of the general populace. Rather, it's that everything is spread out and it's difficult to get around using the public transportation system. There are no Google shuttles in NYC because it's more attractive to live closer to the workplace and sufficiently fast to take the existing transportation. The local residents need to accept that high tech workers are there to stay and start solving these problems.

While I support the San Francisco backlash-- it's the immune system of the city's soul-- I would normally think the Google buses are a good thing. First, it's better for the environment to have a bus than to have a bunch of people driving. Second, car commuting is awful and being able to replace the commute with useful work hours is a major plus for the workers. If I had a 1.5-hour commute each way, I'd be very appreciative of a program that allowed me to get something done with that time.

The problem isn't Google buses. It's that these tech companies don't pay any fucking taxes. The right way to solve this problem is to make them pay their damn taxes like normal people, and to use that money to build housing until it becomes affordable again (and then everyone can leave the buses alone). And if a corporation is bussing people in from San Francisco, it should pay SF taxes as well instead of being a fucking tax-evading suburbanite.

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