Google donates $6.8 million to Muni

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Photo by cjmartin

Looking to stop San Franciscans’ stooping so low as to use Bing, Google announced Thursday that it is donating enough money to cover Muni’s free passes for youth program for the next two years. SFGate has the details:

The donation, the largest ever from a nongovernment entity to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, will fund an existing pilot program that allows low- and middle-income San Francisco kids ages 5 to 17 to ride Muni for free. It costs about $3 million a year. So far, more than 31,000 youths have registered and received passes.

It comes as tech companies are facing a backlash from city residents upset about rising housing costs, gentrification, a wave of evictions, and perceived aloofness from those companies and their employees.

LOL, that’s putting it mildly. Read the rest of the story at SFGate.

Unless you’ve been living under one of those rocks that don’t come with WiFi, you know that those large shuttle buses kickin’ it at Muni stops all over town have been, uh, stirring up quit a shitstorm. Will Google’s gift to San Francisco and Muni cause you to feel any differently?

2 comments

  • Michael Cheney

    Something rings hollow here… don’t get me wrong the monies from Google are great, the poorer kids in our City get a much needed break. But let us not forget how it all happened, and take a look at a similar sort of event that took place in another state.

    Republicans were beating their breasts at turning back vicious minded Arizona Legislation that would have made it legal to deny homosexuals full rights.

    Let us not forget… It was the Arizona Republican led State Legislators that put this outrageous act before their Governor. It clearly showed the ugly underbelly of right wingers in the GOP… Probably ill timed considering the 2014 elections drawing near. Probably why the GOP leaders stood up in the 11th hour against it

    Now… left wing San Francisco hoists it’s own version of political hypocrisy.

    Google has gifted San Francisco $6.8 million to provide two free years of Muni bus rides for low income youth. One of the largest private contributions in our Cities history. Mayor Lee, Supervisor Wiener and others are beating their breast on Googles largesse for the poorest amongst us.

    Let us not forget… It was Google who simply ‘took over’ the bus stops as their own without so much as a ‘by your leave’, setting off a firestorm against these modern day ‘Aristocrats’.

    The press defended Google ‘They are keeping cars off our streets and reducing pollution’.Responding to the growing anger at the outright unfairness… from all sides, Mayor Lee and Supervisor Wiener, amongst others, hiding behind Prop 218, charged $1.00 per stop per use and Google accepted it without question. The press, compliant, including SF Weekly, said essentially “Ok… guess there is nothing to be done, it’s all legal’.

    But the worm has turned, this has been Googles worst PR disaster since cooperating with the Federal Government in turning over our private emails and search patterns.

    Then another shoe dropped… FaceBook bought WhatApp for $19 Billion dollars, a company with less than 50 employees. Unfairness now had a face… and Google had a change of heart.

    $6.8 million from Google, we are not ungrateful, but they can collect this money from beneath the seat cushions in their employee lounge.

    What about the rest of the dotcom bus Yahoo’s? (Pun intended). Time to take them to task. Fine them for illegally parking in Muni bus zones… Or they can do the right thing… contact Googles PR department for instructions.

    Down to brass tacks, the hundreds of high rise office buildings and hotels in San Francisco need to also step up. Hiding in plain sight for years, their workers and even their guests ride on back of Muni, they couldn’t operate without it… But do not pay their fair share.

    While were on the subject of ‘fair’, lets widen the field.

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