Re: Context
I'm not sure it could have happened the same way in NYC. This story is partly about Google Glass-- and in that respect, the confrontation could have happened in any bar in any town. But it's also partly about the perception of tech companies and their employees in San Francisco.
According to the SF Chronicle's account, the people in the bar were upset not only because they thought they were being recorded, but also because they don't like the influx of tech industry employees into the city. The attackers evidently said as much during the confrontation in the bar.
On Tuesday night, in fact, tech workers and housing activists attempted some kind of happy hour in the Mission, a neighborhood where gentrification battles are currently raging. The event evidently turned ugly in less than an hour. Stories like this (or about Google Bus protests, or anti-surveillance protests, or whatever) are in the local news daily.
I wouldn't say that the city is in uproar or anything; it's San Francisco, so there are always protests about something. But a lot of people are upset about rising local inequality, especially since San Francisco now features the most expensive real estate in the country. It's never been an inexpensive city-- but when the median studio apartment runs more than $3,000 per month, you can imagine how many people are on the verge of being priced out of the area. A subset of upset people are directing their anger at the tech industry, whose highly-paid employees are one force driving up rental costs.
I think the city's tech companies are certainly influencing the pace and direction of gentrification, so I understand some of the discontent-- but I don't see how lashing out at techies helps the upset factions to improve their situation. It seems like they've identified the wrong target. A recent editorial in the Chronicle asked what it would be like if the anti-tech activists got their way, and companies like Twitter and Salesforce left the city. I don't think that would be an improvement.
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2/26/2014 | 10:47:36 PM
That's no excuse for getting robbed and roughed up. But this incident does illustrate that Google Glass is pushing people's privacy buttons. And the reaction to Google Glass isn't always going to be "Gee Whiz."