Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers are striking for a second consecutive day in order to win a new contract from management. Among their demands: improved safety conditions and a long-awaited raise. Roughly 2,400 workers have taken to the picket lines to demand better treatment by a transit agency that’s been operating with an economic surplus in recent years.
But as Sam Biddle at Valley Wag put it, one Silicon Valley company, Avego, is offering frustrated commuters a chance to literally fly over society’s problems by offering up helicopter rides.
Forget about the inordinate number of San Franciscans who’ll struggle to get to work because of the strike. Forget about the striking BART employees who want a better deal from their employers. In Valleythink, "crisis" is just another way to push downloads–and so Avego cannily registered BARTstrike.com to exploit the mess.
Insensitive? Yes. Out of touch? Definitely. It’s an example of the vast gulf — in income and logic — that’s separating the have’s and have nots in Northern California.