I always find it amusing that American companies, be it Amazon or Google, are surprised that people don't want them here. They seem to really believe people love them, whereas in fact people use them because they have to, and put up with problems caused by them also because they have to.
I don't think that anyone is surprised here. The quote is:
> I think Google were surprised that they came up against opposition,” says Stefan Klein, a local activist with the GloReiche neighbourhood group at one of their twice-weekly open sessions.
So, one activist thinks that Google is surprised (which sounds quite naive IMHO).
Then later in the article:
> A Google spokesman in Berlin says that the company has spoken to residents about their concerns and is incorporating their feedback into its plans. “We live in Berlin ourselves, we understand the concerns of neighbours about gentrification and know how Kreuzberg has been developing in recent years.”
People who work in Tech usually love Google though. They produce usable software, pay well, offer real career opportunities. The only thing Techies don't like about Google is their very american way of doing work. Although the pay might be _much_ worse, the working conditions in pure German software dev companies is usually better.
Good question. And the answer is the difference between companies who just want to make a profit (won't pay above market rate and hire anybody) and companies who want to dominate the world (will pay above market but will take only limited set of ppl).
They are also moving right into the most radical left-wing area of Berlin, perhaps Germany, SO 36. When the protest there will die out, there won't be any other, and this seemingly unstoppable gentrification will just continue as elsewhere and the lower class will be quietly pushed further out to make way for the global tech class.
Perhaps that is what it is on a philosophical level, a new class is being born and asserts itself and creates its own living space and gentrification is the tool that makes this happened (global tech companies are just another "innocent" manifestation of this). It segregates them and us and just like all former classes also preferred to live segregated and monocultural.
