By Tim Redmond
SEPEMBER 11, 2014 – Here’s a telling moment in tech-crazy San Francisco:
Last night Tech Crunch held the awards show at the end of its local conference, titled “Disrupt 2014.” A woman named Claudia Tirado, a local schoolteacher who is getting evicted by a Google lawyer, showed up with tenant activists and labor organizers to raise awareness about the horrible human impacts of the tech-driven housing crisis and to ask tech workers to support a minimum-wage hike and the anti-speculation tax, Prop. G.
And the Tech Crunch folks called the cops and had her evicted – from public property.
The Tech Crunch event was at Pier 48, which is owned by the Port of San Francisco, which means you and me. The party was supposed to be some exciting thing, but I walked in and it was totally lame and boring: A bunch of mostly young, mostly white men, drinking free beer and either playing on their phones or with their laptops.
The room where the awards ceremony was going to be held was pretty empty. Nobody seemed to care much.
Tirado walked around for a while with her sign calling on Google to ask its lawyer to stop the eviction. Members of SEIU Local 1021 handed out fliers urging support for Prop. G.
Then we went outside, where the Ant-Eviction Mapping Project and Eviction-Free San Francisco had set up with banners and a bullhorn.
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They weren’t in anyone’s way. They were standing on what, the last time I checked, was public property. Across the street, Giants fans were starting to gather for the game against the Diamondbacks.
Nobody was violent, difficult, or, well, disruptive. People who entered or left the event had to see a modest demonstration; some of the activists politely approached them to ask if they knew about the eviction epidemic, the minimum-wage campaign, or Prop. G. Fliers were handed out. Basic First Amendment stuff; happens every day in this city.
Frankly, there weren’t that many people at the party. Many were from out of town. The protests were no threat to Tech Crunch or anyone else.
And yet, after a few minutes, two cops showed up and told the protesters they had to leave. I asked why; isn’t this public property?
Yes, said one of the officers – but Tech Crunch has leased it out for the night, and the people there called us and asked us to get rid of the protesters.
Yes: The folks at Tech Crunch couldn’t handle even the most mild reminder that there are costs to what Big Tech is doing to the Bay Area. So they had the folks with the banners and bullhorn thrown out.
If anyone had made an issue of it, the cops would have had to back off. I don’t care who leases what – the area in front of Pier 48 (outside) and the street next to it are public space. Nobody interfered with anyone going in or out; the Tech Crunch attendees didn’t seem a bit upset.
But the protesters had no interest in getting arrested; they made their point. And it goes like this:
If you are rich and work for Google, you can throw a teacher out of her home. If you dare to make a fuss about it, Big Tech will call the cops on you and throw you off public space.
Hell of a message for San Francisco, 2014.
