<story><title>Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland </title><url>https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/20/18748143.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>9999</author><text>Re: The port shutdown:&lt;p&gt;The longshoremen&amp;#x27;s union supported the Occupy shutdown, but were contractually obligated not to participate in the protest. Source:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cbsnews.com/news/occupy-oakland-shuts-down-port/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbsnews.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;occupy-oakland-shuts-down-port&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since almost everything else you said is anecdotal, it&amp;#x27;s hard for me to respond to, but your statement about the longshoremen, that&amp;#x27;s certainly wrong.&lt;p&gt;In general, the people that you are deriding and caricaturing represent the first wave of gentrification, and those people actually do make meaningful contributions to the areas they move into. Think of the excellent restaurants, concert venues, boutiques, bars, etc. that exist in Oakland now--that&amp;#x27;s first wave gentrification. Those people are also historically more aware of their surroundings and the culture that they are moving into and tend to show solidarity with the lower income residents that they are paving the way towards displacement for. On the other hand, the second wave of gentrifiers tends to dramatically increase the cost of living, rate of displacement, and tends to care very little about the plight of their fellow citizens.&lt;p&gt;The Google buses are a convenient symbol for economic disparity though, and I often wonder why Google doesn&amp;#x27;t try to do a real public works project instead of simply creating a segregated system of buses. Why not add wi-fi to public buses? Why not extend the light rail system into the valley? Why not donate a whole lot of money to a public mental health project so there aren&amp;#x27;t so many deranged lunatics screaming on public transit? If they did that, then they will have created a more comfortable environment not only for their own employees, but for the entire community.</text></item><item><author>jessedhillon</author><text>&lt;i&gt;West Oakland is a traditionally black neighborhood that surrounds the Port of Oakland. It has been heavily gentrified, developed, and restructured over the past three decades. Now there is an upper class enclave that has been established near the West Oakland BART station, in Jack London, and in the city of Emeryville.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh fuck you and your dreadlocks.&lt;p&gt;There are only two photos on that page, so I don&amp;#x27;t definitively &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; who these protesters were (although there are no &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; blacks in those photos) -- but I know (I have a strong suspicion, I don&amp;#x27;t factually know) that the protesters were not drawn from the group mentioned above. These are Burning Man hippies, self-styled artists, people who graduated from great schools with useless majors, and the usual constituent of the Bay Area&amp;#x27;s overprivileged poverty tourists: 20-30 y&amp;#x2F;o white kids from middle class families.&lt;p&gt;The actual, &lt;i&gt;working&lt;/i&gt;, poor people in West Oakland were at their first of the two or three jobs they hold. Or they were spending a few rare moments resting, or with their kids. Or they were lining up to get a meal at community kitchen. Actual &lt;i&gt;black&lt;/i&gt; people were not part of this protest, because a mob of black people attacking a bus would be getting wall-to-wall coverage on every channel. It would have been responded to with a swift and overwhelming police presence.&lt;p&gt;The same thing happened a few years ago when these same non-workers shut down the Port of Oakland in the name of workers. The people who actually work the port asked that they not disrupt the port, but in the end these dreadlocked, shiftless complainers cost those longshoremen a day in wages -- &lt;i&gt;Viva El Proletariado!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;What we have today is a group of young, electively poor white kids who are upset that the price of unheated lofts and dingy Victorians are being driven up by people who have the means and motivation to actually own and improve them. That they wrap themselves up in the image of the poor (and yes, mostly black) -- whom they &lt;i&gt;themselves&lt;/i&gt; displaced by rushing in to bid up rents with mom and dad&amp;#x27;s money -- makes this appeal all the more ludicrous. At least the tech gentrifiers will actually improve the fucking place, unlike these leeches!&lt;p&gt;(Source: I live and own property in Oakland)&lt;p&gt;Edited as suggested below by bonemachine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jessedhillon</author><text>&lt;i&gt;...but your statement about the longshoremen, that&amp;#x27;s certainly wrong.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, it&amp;#x27;s right. ILWU (the union) leadership has made statements such as&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another and one that is destructive to our democratic process and jeopardizes our over two year struggle in Longview.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;So I may not have been right about them speaking out specifically against the Oakland shut down, but in general the union leadership is against strikes. Although, of course, they take great pains to not alienate potential ideological allies while rejecting calls to shut down ports.&lt;p&gt;The sentiment is at least mixed, as you can see from other coverage: [2]&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Leaders of the ILWU, which represents thousands of longshoremen, spoke out in recent weeks against the coordinated effort by Occupy protesters to blockade ports from Anchorage to San Diego&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;This is joke. What are they protesting?&amp;quot; Christian Vega, 32, who sat in his truck carrying a load of recycled paper from Pittsburg said Monday morning. He said the delay was costing him $600.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;It only hurts me and the other drivers. We have jobs and families to support and feed. Most of them don&amp;#x27;t,&amp;quot; Vega said.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/12/occupy-oakland-west-coast-port-shutdown&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.motherjones.com&amp;#x2F;mojo&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;occupy-oakland-west-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/occupy-oakland-ports_n_1144476.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.huffingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;occupy-oakland-port...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Bus blocked, window smashed in West Oakland </title><url>https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/20/18748143.php</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>9999</author><text>Re: The port shutdown:&lt;p&gt;The longshoremen&amp;#x27;s union supported the Occupy shutdown, but were contractually obligated not to participate in the protest. Source:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cbsnews.com/news/occupy-oakland-shuts-down-port/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbsnews.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;occupy-oakland-shuts-down-port&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since almost everything else you said is anecdotal, it&amp;#x27;s hard for me to respond to, but your statement about the longshoremen, that&amp;#x27;s certainly wrong.&lt;p&gt;In general, the people that you are deriding and caricaturing represent the first wave of gentrification, and those people actually do make meaningful contributions to the areas they move into. Think of the excellent restaurants, concert venues, boutiques, bars, etc. that exist in Oakland now--that&amp;#x27;s first wave gentrification. Those people are also historically more aware of their surroundings and the culture that they are moving into and tend to show solidarity with the lower income residents that they are paving the way towards displacement for. On the other hand, the second wave of gentrifiers tends to dramatically increase the cost of living, rate of displacement, and tends to care very little about the plight of their fellow citizens.&lt;p&gt;The Google buses are a convenient symbol for economic disparity though, and I often wonder why Google doesn&amp;#x27;t try to do a real public works project instead of simply creating a segregated system of buses. Why not add wi-fi to public buses? Why not extend the light rail system into the valley? Why not donate a whole lot of money to a public mental health project so there aren&amp;#x27;t so many deranged lunatics screaming on public transit? If they did that, then they will have created a more comfortable environment not only for their own employees, but for the entire community.</text></item><item><author>jessedhillon</author><text>&lt;i&gt;West Oakland is a traditionally black neighborhood that surrounds the Port of Oakland. It has been heavily gentrified, developed, and restructured over the past three decades. Now there is an upper class enclave that has been established near the West Oakland BART station, in Jack London, and in the city of Emeryville.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh fuck you and your dreadlocks.&lt;p&gt;There are only two photos on that page, so I don&amp;#x27;t definitively &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; who these protesters were (although there are no &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; blacks in those photos) -- but I know (I have a strong suspicion, I don&amp;#x27;t factually know) that the protesters were not drawn from the group mentioned above. These are Burning Man hippies, self-styled artists, people who graduated from great schools with useless majors, and the usual constituent of the Bay Area&amp;#x27;s overprivileged poverty tourists: 20-30 y&amp;#x2F;o white kids from middle class families.&lt;p&gt;The actual, &lt;i&gt;working&lt;/i&gt;, poor people in West Oakland were at their first of the two or three jobs they hold. Or they were spending a few rare moments resting, or with their kids. Or they were lining up to get a meal at community kitchen. Actual &lt;i&gt;black&lt;/i&gt; people were not part of this protest, because a mob of black people attacking a bus would be getting wall-to-wall coverage on every channel. It would have been responded to with a swift and overwhelming police presence.&lt;p&gt;The same thing happened a few years ago when these same non-workers shut down the Port of Oakland in the name of workers. The people who actually work the port asked that they not disrupt the port, but in the end these dreadlocked, shiftless complainers cost those longshoremen a day in wages -- &lt;i&gt;Viva El Proletariado!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;What we have today is a group of young, electively poor white kids who are upset that the price of unheated lofts and dingy Victorians are being driven up by people who have the means and motivation to actually own and improve them. That they wrap themselves up in the image of the poor (and yes, mostly black) -- whom they &lt;i&gt;themselves&lt;/i&gt; displaced by rushing in to bid up rents with mom and dad&amp;#x27;s money -- makes this appeal all the more ludicrous. At least the tech gentrifiers will actually improve the fucking place, unlike these leeches!&lt;p&gt;(Source: I live and own property in Oakland)&lt;p&gt;Edited as suggested below by bonemachine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pslam</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Think of the excellent restaurants, concert venues, boutiques, bars, etc. that exist in Oakland now--that&amp;#x27;s first wave gentrification. Those people are also historically more aware of their surroundings and the culture that they are moving into and tend to show solidarity with the lower income residents that they are paving the way towards displacement for. On the other hand, the second wave of gentrifiers tends to dramatically increase the cost of living, rate of displacement, and tends to care very little about the plight of their fellow citizens.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;First wave? Only if you define &amp;quot;first wave&amp;quot; to coincide with the current discussion. There was a wave of bio-tech (e.g Genentech) shortly before the &amp;quot;tech&amp;quot; (e.g Google) wave.&lt;p&gt;This goes back all the way to the founding of California, the state. The &amp;#x27;49ers were the first wave. Since then there has been a sadly repeating history of picking on a group to blame for any ill in society - usually racist - but it appears this time around it&amp;#x27;s a soft target.</text></comment>