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Comment by choppaface | Hacker News Reader

To be fair, while some parts of the peninsula saw outages, essentially all of SF City (and County) has had uninterrupted power. Moreover, in the Los Angeles area, neither power outages nor fires have touched the most affluent areas of West LA / Orange County / Santa Monica (besides the brief Getty fire, which triggered a couple of celebrity tweets).

The governor, Gavin Newsom, does have principal residence at his wife's family's house in the North Bay, which lost power, but since becoming governor he's there less frequently.

So the issue is that the power outages and fires really haven't affected the wealthy or tech elite. There's a lot of California outside of those circles.

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You have no idea of NorCal geography do you? Los Gatos and Woodside both were without power. I qualify in your definition of wealthy tech elite and I did not have power from Saturday until Tuesday. This goes the same for a number of friends.

Well, did you do anything to support the firefighting / evacuation efforts? Or the effort to improve PG&E's rotting infrastructure? Did you buy a generator? Or did you just sit it out? If you had the chance to just let it blow by, congrats! Many were not so lucky.

If you want your experience to be known, consider writing Gavin Newsom to tell him what you think about PG&E's failing infrastructure, or about what it's like to have a zombie hiding behind bankruptcy power your home: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/

The point is that the vocal "tech elite," in particular those who live and/or work in SF City and County, had no outage and thus have no incentive to pressure positive change. Those affected the most have essentially no leverage against PG&E's negligence.

I have had 4 different solar companies come and look at the roof, including Tesla. Being on the side of a mountain covered in large trees makes it hard. I have 2 quotes for a generator attached to the propane tank. One of these will be sorted by end of the year. I have paid over 6k per year every year or the last 5 for tree trimming and brush clearing on the property. Oh and my wife and I donate to the charities around fire prevention and relief every year. I really find a level of unpleasantness in your post that is had to explain. Your judgement of the “tech elite” is jaded. There are ass hats in every subculture not just the well off. Fundamentally we need to fix the problem as if effects everyone. A large number of of my friends and co-works were effected by this also. The fact that we can write a check for a generator does not make the fact it caught us any less valid. The targeting of the tech community is unfair. The fact that PGE had what 564m in profits in Q3 2018 and 1.6b in 2016 and our government gives them this monopoly is the issue. There are more votes in CA from people that cannot buy a generator to fix their issue then there are from those that can, so why do you call us out? Is it our responsibility to fix everything because we happen to have been successful?

Yea, the amount of power that PG&E has is terrible. But don’t preach to the choir, write Gavin https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/ or somebody else in office.

While I certainly respect your claim of personal liberty, the reality is that the State’s power infrastructure isn’t going to get any better without a major outside influence. The “tech elite” have the disposable time, income, and, well, technological knowledge to make that happen. (PG&E’s bankruptcy has also essentially stonewalled any sort of democratic effort). But the majority aren’t going to get up and do something unless it’s a conspicuous piece of the puzzle they’ve laid out before them. Especially not the new grads doing coke, making $300k per year, and spending two hours a day in a bus on the 101.

> So the issue is that the power outages and fires really haven't affected the wealthy or tech elite

And this is always the problem! As soon as someone rich/techie gets burnt there'll be a social media outburst and something will happen. While it's just happening to the "little people" and money's still coming into the company coffers it's no big deal.

Sounds like you're not familiar with the north bay. Marin is one of the richest counties in the state.

... and was, as far as I can tell, shut off completely unnecessarily.

Forecasted and actual winds during this entire period, in Marin, did not exceed normal, seasonal winds and I don't believe the populated areas of Marin (San Rafael, Mill Valley, Ross Valley, etc.) get their transmission through the wildland.

I will be interested to learn the rationale for the Marin shutoff when I call my county supervisor and state reps, etc., next week.

There were downed power lines in West Marin, near Woodacre. Tons of dry fuel out there, and a transmission line runs through the area: https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/maps/infrastructure/3P_Mid.pdf

While I don't support the outage or PG&E's analysis, their argument is likely that they had to shut down a few key sites in Central / Eastern CA, and thus they couldn't figure out how to power the Bay Area. "Stupid isn't illegal."

Props to contacting the State. This situation won't get any better if there's no pressure on them. Marin has independence with respect to water, perhaps they'll get power, too, somehow.

> So the issue is that the power outages and fires really haven't affected the wealthy or tech elite.

Between that and the favel... homeless camps, California is really looking foreign. Perhaps they can secede and join the BRICS club. /s

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