It’s our Austin too
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Today while driving down Enfield, I saw another No on 1 sign, and my blood started to boil. “Don’t let Uber bully OUR Austin,” the sign said. It’s clear that the corporate bully messaging is resonating heavily with Austin voters, but it’s the last two words — OUR Austin — that really pisses me off. Make no mistake: OUR Austin is not the city I — and many other Austinites — live in.
Enfield between MoPac and Lamar is a beautiful neighborhood. It’s old Austin, and old money. A lot of OUR Austin seems to live on that side of town. OUR Austin is awash in nostalgia because OUR Austin was an amazing place to be. OUR Austin was the laid-back little city where the two biggest employers are the university and the government. OUR Austin was the city where you can get anywhere in 15 minutes, and the Springs are clear and clean with plenty of free parking. OUR Austin was the city where a musician can rent a room for $50 and work a few hours a week slinging beer to make ends meet. OUR Austin didn’t go to South Congress because it was full of hookers who rent rooms by the hour at Hotel San Jose. And, of course, OUR Austin saw so many amazing bands at Liberty Lunch.
And like Liberty Lunch, OUR Austin no longer exists, and the people who live in OUR Austin aren’t happy about it. They don’t like what OUR Austin has become in the past few years. OUR Austin especially hates those damned Californians who are coming in and turning the freeways into parking lots. Lyft and Uber are both headquartered in California.
I’ve had a chance to interact with OUR Austin about Proposition 1, both online and in person. I’ve noticed a few similarities with many of the loudest critics of Lyft and Uber. OUR Austin tends to be older, white, well-educated and has lived here for 20+ years. OUR Austin lives close to downtown. OUR Austin might be retired, or has a career that allows them tons of flexibility, maybe the ability to work from home. OUR Austin doesn’t drive much in rush-hour traffic because they don’t have to. In many cases, OUR Austin may use Lyft or Uber once a month when they decide to go out downtown. Indeed, OUR Austin might have never even taken a ride in a Lyft or Uber, (and in the case of one of my neighbors, refuses to try it for free, on principle). OUR Austin isn’t going to put up with corporate bullying, nosiree.
OUR Austin is a very different place than our Austin. Many of the people who live in our Austin have limited transportation options, and one of the best of those limited transportation options is Lyft and Uber.
OUR Austin doesn’t seem to think much about our Austin, or care about what happens to our Austin. To be honest, I suspect our Austin isn’t even on their radar. I know I didn’t think much about our Austin until I started driving part-time a year ago.
I drive a lot of people who live in our Austin. I never drive the party people at night; I’m home before the sun goes down (the reason I normally give is that I don’t want people throwing up in the back of my car, but I did have one narrow miss driving a pregnant woman with morning sickness). Most of my driving is morning rush hour. During this time, I’ve met lots of people who live in our Austin.
our Austin is made up of people like one of my regular passengers: a single father who lives in the projects on the east side and has to be at work at 7:30 down at Ben White and South First. He doesn’t own a car and sometimes oversleeps. Or the woman who has to get a ride to work the HEB waaay down on Slaughter because her boyfriend wasn’t home from his graveyard shift job with their one car. Or the guy who lives off of William Cannon and I35 and works up by Kramer and MoPac at a temporary customer-service job that pays about $10/hour.
While I have met many folks who have moved to Austin specifically because they can use TNC’s and don’t have to own a car, the people I drive who live in our Austin don’t own a car because they can’t afford one. I know full well that when I drive someone from our Austin, the 10–15 minutes they spend in my car may be the only time they get to sit down before standing on their feet all day at not one, but two, jobs. I will likely be the only stranger who smiles at them and asks them how they are doing. A ride with Lyft and Uber allows them to be quiet and not answer to incessant demands from customers, bosses and kids. Lyft and Uber drivers make the daily grind just a little bit easier for thousands in our Austin every day.
But it’s more than a respite. Lyft and Uber literally get hundreds of people to work on time every day, and many in our Austin have the kinds of jobs where being late could mean getting fired. OUR Austin doesn’t have to worry about stuff like that, but our Austin does. Because hey, cars break down, kids get sick and alarm clocks don’t work. Don’t even get me started on the non-existent public transportation (does OUR Austin ever ride the bus?).
There are also the 10,000 or so citizens of our Austin who drive for Lyft and Uber. Most of them are part-time and doing it for some extra cash, to pay off debt or put themselves through college, but there are many full-time drivers. Some of them enjoy the work, but plenty of them were downsized or laid off. There are many who would much rather have a day job with benefits and steady, solid income than drive drunk college students home at 2 a.m. or take people to the airport at 4 a.m. I know some drivers who work 70 hours a week to take care of their families. It may seem like easy work, but sitting in a car for 10 hours a day in rush-hour traffic is grueling, and dangerous. After doing this for the past year, I can definitely understand why cab drivers are surly.
Lyft and Uber may be spending millions on this election, but the drivers who live in our Austin are like many of the passengers of our Austin: struggling to survive. I’ve seen countless messages in our driver forum from people who are being evicted, or who don’t have enough cash to pay for gas to drive and make money to pay their bills the following week (I’ve coughed up $10–20 on more than one occasion to help some of them out).
Driver opinion is all over the map when it comes to Proposition 1: some complain about the liberal elitists not allowing the free market do its thing, some don’t have a problem with being fingerprinted, some don’t understand why Lyft and Uber are against fingerprinting, and some think that fingerprinting is a good idea. There are more than a few drivers who agree that Lyft and Uber are acting like bullies, and we are painfully aware that these companies treat their contractors like shit. (Aside: please stop mansplaining to us drivers about the wear and tear on our cars, okay? We know.) But the drivers really have no control over the situation (other than to talk to passengers and vote).
But when you’re living hand-to-mouth, as many drivers are, you’re willing to make a deal with the devil, even if the devil is a corporate bully. Principles don’t pay the bills. OUR Austin has complained vociferously about the endless phone calls and canvassing, but many of the drivers in our Austin are doing that oh-so-fulfilling work not because they adore their corporate overlords, but because they desperately need the money. Many drivers are terrified of losing their opportunity to keep cash coming in every week and have no clue what they will do if Proposition 1 fails and ridesharing leaves town. While OUR Austin might have their homes paid off and money in the bank, most of our Austin does not.
Nor does our Austin have many other employment options right now, although I hear Wal-Mart is hiring (of course, OUR Austin would never be caught dead in a Wal-Mart — not only do they sell tacky, cheap shit, but Wal-Mart wrote the book on corporate bullying). Even if Lyft and Uber left town for a week or two, the consequences would be disastrous for thousands of financially insecure families (it was six months in Houston and San Antonio).
As for the new rideshare services that are predicted to pop up like mushrooms to fill the gaps left by Lyft and Uber, I would argue that they will arrive too late for a lot of people in our Austin to keep roofs over their heads (and who wants to sign up to drive in the back of a dingy van in a parking lot anyway?) Come to think of it, where are the other rideshare services? Personally, I would love to drive for a company that treats its contractors better, and I think many passengers would like that. Competition will go a long way toward improving the industry.
Of course OUR Austin can afford to make a choice about Lyft and Uber leaving town, because it doesn’t really affect them. Or so they think. Because whether they think about our Austin or not, our Austin takes care of OUR Austin in thousands of ways, big and small. our Austin is populated by people who make lattes, cook Sunday brunch at swanky restaurants, and teach children for OUR Austin. The people who live in our Austin mow OUR Austin’s lawns, ring up OUR Austin’s groceries, and answer OUR Austin’s customer service calls when their shiny new iPhones are acting up. OUR Austin gets to enjoy the benefits of living here in large part because our Austin busts their asses. Every. Single. Day.
It seems, though, that really doesn’t matter. If Proposition 1 fails, OUR Austin will sleep better, knowing that they made those evil corporate bullies bow to the will of some of the people. Better yet, they will have made Austin so much safer because drivers will now be fingerprinted! (I don’t think OUR Austin rides in cabs much either, or at least haven’t for a long time, but I’ve never met a passenger of either gender who feels safer in a cab because of fingerprinting.) But if Lyft and Uber make good on their promises to leave town, our Austin will be a little more exhausted, a little hungrier, a little more stressed, a little less safe and secure…and a lot bigger.
It’s no secret to anybody paying attention that the gap between the haves and the have-nots is turning into a chasm in our country. Progressives claim to care about the working poor, but OUR Austin’s stance on Proposition 1 is bizarrely out of touch with the day-to-day struggles of our Austin and how ridesharing affects them. If economic inequality is an issue that bothers you at all, think long and hard about whether standing up on principle to a corporate bully whose services you rarely use is more important than thousands of vulnerable families potentially losing their safety net. I would also think that allowing people to take “personal responsibility” for supporting themselves and their families is a pretty damn good principle. Because while OUR Austin is angry that Uber and Lyft are acting like corporate bullies, our Austin is caught in the crosshairs. And if possibly losing an option to keep a roof over our Austin’s head isn’t bad enough, we have to deal with being incessantly shamed by OUR Austin as well for fighting hard to keep it.
And the really sad part? Voting NO on Proposition 1 will not bring OUR Austin back. It’s gone forever, and what’s left of it is sitting in gridlock on I-35. People in our Austin don’t really mourn the passing of OUR Austin because they never lived in that city, even if they were born and raised here. It is increasingly difficult to survive in our Austin, and it’s getting harder by the day. We have to move forward together, and Lyft and Uber are a solid lifeline for our Austin do it.
Because while OUR Austin was a glorious place, it’s our Austin now.
