Google Donates $6.8M to SF Youth Transit Program
It was Christmas in February for working-class San Francisco youth when Google gifted them two years of free public transportation.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-donates-68m-to-sf-youth-transit-program
The $6.8 million donation is undoubtedly a move to soften the search giant's reputation in the city, where people are protesting the tech industry's use of public bus stops for their private shuttles.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee hopes this is just the beginning of a series of charitable moves by Google and other local organizations.
"They said, 'This is the first step we want to make,'" Lee told SFGate(Opens in a new window) about a recent meeting with a senior Google executive. "This is so dramatically exciting because it's a catalyst for other companies."
Google's endowment is being funneled through the year-old Free Muni for Youth Pilot Program(Opens in a new window), which provides low- and moderate-income students in San Francisco free access to public transportation run by the Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) for 16 months.
According to SFGate, this sum is the largest amount ever given by a non-government agency to the SFMTA, which spends about $3 million a year on the program for kids ages five to 17.
"San Francisco residents are rightly frustrated that we don't pay more to use city bus stops. So we'll continue to work with the city on these fees, and in the meantime will fund MUNI passes for low income students for the next two years," a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.
In recent months, Google has come under fire, alongside companies like Apple and Facebook, for shuttling workers in luxury, Wi-Fi enabled buses from San Francisco to Silicon Valley campuses. The buses sparked a heated debate, with activists arguing that organizations should be fined for picking up employees at city bus stops without paying to use the stops and disrupting local public transit.
Putting its creativity to use, Google launched a 30-day water taxi pilot program, transporting workers between its peninsula facilities to and from San Francisco and Alameda, instead of using public bus stops. Facebook has been testing a similar alternative transportation scheme for employees this month.
There is no word on whether either company will move forward with their ferry services.
The public outreach and willingness to address concerns by companies like Google and Facebook show they "are starting to take steps in the right direction," San Francisco-based communications specialist Sam Singer told SFGate.
"There is tension right now that shouldn't exist. The technology companies need to do more, which I think they're starting to do, but the people who are haters need to stop hating, too."
SFMTA did immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
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