Huge Crack Problem at Salesforce Transit Center Forces Shutdown
The Salesforce Transit Center has a crack problem. It became abundantly clear to authorities shortly after Dreamforce attendance arrived that the new 2.2 billion Transit Center was unsafe for the public, and would need to be closed immediately.
A load bearing steel beam at the Transit Center was found to have a big crack in it, so structural engineers shut the whole center down, diverting 30+ bus lines and all foot traffic. The transportation hub has been open to the public a mere 6 weeks.
Buses are being diverted to the old Temporary Terminal, located at Howard and Beale streets. Fremont St. between Howard and Mission streets is closed according to the SFMTA. Also, Chad from Salesforce had to cancel his ‘Sales Synergy Workshop’ in the new transit center rooftop park this week because of the dangerous crack problem.
This is a dramatic recreation of the Salesforce bro ‘Chad’, a guy we made up to illustrate that this conference is full of dudes wearing the same Patagonia vest and talking about CRM software being ‘disruptive’. Gross.
Salesforce did not have a great opening to their big annual #Dreamforce2018 conference this year. For starters, someone began flying a blimp around the Dreamforce grounds Tuesday that read #failsforce. (We can only assume to warn people that the new Salesforce building was not safe to enter, because of the crack problem.)
There’s a blimp circling #Dreamforce2018 that reads #failsforce @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/EJuJ7UXu4G
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 25, 2018
Then, things got really awkward, when protesters started reminding all the sales bros that their employer still makes software for the government agency that puts children in cages. Protestors wheeled a huge wooden cage down the street outside the busy conference center to rally against Salesforce signing a multi-million dollar contract to supply software to the US Customs and Border Protection agency – best known for separating small kids from their asylum-seeking families at the American border.
I talked to some of the people protesting @salesforce @Dreamforce today. “It’s a matter of continuing to pressure these investors and executives at these tech companies that are making billions at the expense of immigrants," one of them said. https://t.co/0235HklKYz pic.twitter.com/3O5X1aU0vM
— Kate Clark (@KateClarkTweets) September 25, 2018
To make matters worse, Lars Ulrich of Metallica got on stage and started talking about how cool salesforce software is, instantly making Salesforce software less cool, and nobody thought that was possible. (We’re still looking into whether Lars was invited to the event or if he’s also just another victim of Salesforce’s crack problem.)
Watching Lars Ulrich on stage talking about how @Metallica uses @salesforce software for customer engagement and thinking that adult life hasn’t turned out exactly the way I thought it would. #Dreamforce2018 pic.twitter.com/IHbXygU7BF
— Phil Libin (@plibin) September 25, 2018
In all seriousness, the cracked beam in the new transit center that forced its closure weeks after it’s opening should not come as a big surprise to SF residents. San Francisco definitely has a construction problem. Between the 58 story ‘leaning tower of San Francisco’, the SFO construction fraud, to the faulty steel used in the new Bay Bridge, to the contractors laying the wrong track in the new subway line, we are no strangers to construction projects going way over budget, taking much longer than promised, and then closing due to incompetence, corruption, or both.
This is just the second construction scandal involving the Salesforce Transit Center since it opened, the first was when the contractors clearly used a faulty version of cement/asphalt in the park’s pathways, as potholes began developing almost immediately after the parks opening.
The pathways in the new rooftop park began crumbling after people started walking on them
SF’s new Transit center is expected to open again later this week, after they’ve fixed the crack problem. You can expect nightmare traffic beyond what you’re used to in the surrounding area until this is resolved.
