— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Following all the damage done to some 30 Valencia Street businesses on the May Day Riots, Wells Fargo (a bank known for foreclosing homes of San Francisco residents) is donating $25k to aid the businesses vandalized in said riot. SF Weekly reports:
Tired of being the 99 percent's enemy, Wells Fargo released the money along with this statement from Michael F. Billeci, president of Wells Fargo's San Francisco Bay Region:
“As San Francisco's hometown bank, Wells Fargo is passionate about supporting the communities where we live and work, and it's important to help our local merchants make the repairs they need to reopen for business and serve their customers again. Helping small businesses right here in the Mission is a win for everyone in the community.”
No matter how angry they are personally with Wells Fargo, merchants were pleased with the bank professionally. In fact, some merchants went as far as to call the big bank “caring,” and “generous.”
“Many small businesses in the Valencia Corridor don't have the cash reserves to handle unexpected expenses like vandalism,” said Deena Davenport, president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association. “Wells Fargo's generosity will provide timely access to capital to help our merchants open for business again.”
Good on Wells Fargo for helping out, but the fact they're injecting politics and public relations into a community issue is a tad unsettling, if not disingenuous.
Comments (5)
Hey man,
So you have a quote in your headline, who said it? I could not find it in either of the articles you link to. Seems like a weird thing for Wells Fargo to say.
I think this is awesome. I mean, I don’t love Wells Fargo, but after they fucked up my block, I hate those black bloc idiots significantly more. And this is probably the worst possible outcome that they could have imagined for their stupid riot. So, awesome. Good work, Wells Fargo. Fuck you, rioting teenagers.
Kevin, isn’t all PR basically just point scoring, self-interested, manipulation? WF played this very well and should be commended, but yeah, it feels greasy.
Wells Fargo got $25 Billion in the bailout. Thanks for the paltry $25k back.
I would have thought Chase would have tried to pay off the merchants so they can open on Valencia. Eiher way how excited are we we are letting a chain bank open in the bottom of the lux condos? Very, right?