During the whole debacle regarding tech shuttles in SF, I did a lot of thinking. I came to the conclusion that the shuttles are a positive -- they solve problems of gas and traffic, which is inherently good for the city. But they also are the single biggest markers of the way that tech money has changed how SF works. To me, it all comes down to housing costs -- and as they rise, the citizens who already live here suffer. Banning shuttles wont change that. My rant usually ends with me saying something like, if you live in SF but do not work in SF, so that your company is not contributing to the citys tax base, you should probably be charged an extra income tax by the city. But they dont do that (yet). So what it comes down to is that its on me to help address these issues. Accordingly, I decided to match Bobs contribution of $5000 to the Eviction Defense Collective ( evictiondefense.org/about.html ), a nonprofit org that supports poor people who are facing illegal evictions due to the insane housing market that tech workers like myself helped to create. Unjust evictions are the shittiest part of the housing crisis. Id guess there are close to 100 SF residents on my friend list who were with FB prior to the IPO and who would literally feel no pain from dropping $5k on this. Honestly it feels pretty good. Try it. If you regret it, dont do it again. If just handing someone money makes you feel weird, consider this: $5k is less than the amount of money you save by taking the shuttle 4 days a week (compared to driving yourself): At the IRS rate of $0.55 / mile, to work and back would cost me $6,864 / year. So feel free to tell people that you donated your tech shuttle money to ACTUALLY help solve the SF housing crisis for lower- and middle-class residents of the city. They are a huge part of why you choose to live here.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 02:19:49 +0000
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