
Protest at SF City Hall After Soccer Conflict with Dropbox, Airbnb Employees - VuongN
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/16/soccer-dropbox-airbnb/
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x0x0
Selling reservations for fields that often are in use by locals is guaranteed
to start fights; what on earth was the parks department thinking?

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msie
Why can't the locals deal with a reservation system? The fields are a shared
resource paid for by all SF taxpayers, not just the local community. It seems
the city did its best to inform everyone of the reservation system but some
people will just ignore the rules. Not that I think it's right that the kids
can't use the fields in the evening. I don't know all the details. Maybe there
are some evenings blocked off for unreserved use. Maybe the locals want no
reservation system at all. There has to be some give and take here. This has
been turned into another anti-gentrification, anti-tech issue. At least some
of the tech-workers are SF citizens and "locals" too. In some other parts of
the world reservation systems work.

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esturk
The point you're glossing over is the kids have no representation in the local
city council. Yeah, people go on making laws and claiming they know what's
best for children, but no one ever bother to ask them. In another extreme
case, some adults entirely dismiss the kid's perspective claiming these issues
go over their head.

This didn't turn into a gentrification issue as it is very much a class
struggle issue from the beginning. (And as such, a gentrification issue.) Kids
don't have money to pay to play, so they can't even share the field?

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wtbob
> The point you're glossing over is the kids have no representation in the
> local city council.

Nonsense; they have the same representation anyone else in San Francisco has.
The fact that they cannot vote doors not mean that they are not represented.

Moreover, this being America, their parents or guardians can vote.

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x0x0
If you seriously believe that poor people, middle class, and upper class
people all get the same representation in sf -- or anywhere in America -- and
the same returns to their tax dollars, you're a willfully blind idiot. After
all, whose kids just got prime hours in the local parks auctioned off?

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jack-r-abbit
So... let me get this straight. A group of people (it doesn't make any
difference that they were Dropbox/Airbnb employees) show up to play a game on
a field they reserved through the proper channels and they find the field
occupied so they ask them to leave. Why are they the bad guys here? If a
neighborhood family had reserved the field for a soccer themed birthday party
for a 6 year old, would they have been blasted like this? Doubtful. But oh
snap... we have some techies so let's blast them for following the rules.
Stupid.

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ericclemmons
I've always seen the ability to reserve parks for usage like kickball leagues
and the like, but only a few days out of the week were reservable.

It looks like this was a similar situation, so why would anyone feel
"slighted" because someone made a reservation?

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phesse14
I've just read this and the whole story sounds extremely weird to me... I
don't know how things are done over there in SF, but from my point of view
there's no need to go to a City Town Hall to solve this...you book online,
show up and play. It looks more a way to feed the Tech Hype rather than a real
problem but...

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DanBC
Pretty clueless of Dropbox employees to kick people out of the park.

Give up the game, but let people know about the reservation system; offer
company funding to book community sessions; get someone else to do the
enforcing so it's them who look bad.

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jbob2000
This is a good lesson in economics for the kids. When something is in demand
and it has limited supply, the price increases. Simple as that.

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ollysb
Do you believe that every aspect of life should have a price tag on it?
(Serious question). In a wealthy country is it not desirable to redistribute
some wealth to the young, old and sick? Communal park areas have been a
standing feature of western countries. By supporting pay for access you belie
not your wealth but a sense of entitlement.

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mynewwork
Did you read the article? "As part of that, there was a new reservation system
on certain nights of the week for a $27 permit...left the park open for drop-
in play 96 percent of the time".

So 96% of the time, the park is open to everyone and 4% of the time the park
can be reserved for a price which is equal to 2.5 hours of work at the local
minimum wage.

One could easily argue that the people showing an unreasonable entitlement are
the ones who think they should get to use the park in the tiny sliver of time
where someone else has paid the city to reserve it for an organized game.

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ollysb
>> One could easily argue that the people showing an unreasonable entitlement
are the ones who think they should get to use the park in the tiny sliver of
time where someone else has paid the city to reserve it for an organized game.

Your argument seems to be based on the idea that people with money
intrinsically have more right to something than those who do not. I understand
this is the prominent view in the US but there are other ways to do it(there's
a big gap between communism and ultra-capitalism). Look to the scandinavian
countries for instance where they place a far great emphasis on wealth
redistribution and community support through better schooling and healthcare.

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mudil
Look, I am a doctor in San Francisco, cardiac anesthesiologist, did my
residency at Harvard and fellowship at Mount Sinai. So, I am not a piece of
crap. But everywhere I go I repeatedly see smug and condescending behavior
from techies toward everyone else, including me. This behavior is everywhere:
in bars, restaurants, bus stops, etc, etc. Get a grip, people, you are no
better than everyone else!

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ASneakyFox
Must be a slow news day

