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A bus shelter in San Francisco celebrates mayor Ed Lee’s life.
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee’s sudden death on Tuesday raises the prospect that the next mayor will not be as friendly as he was to tech companies — some such as Twitter have managed to gain huge tax breaks that critics say comes at the expense of city services in one of the poorest neighborhoods.
Lee died at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital – he was 65 years old. Top tech executives tweeted their sadness at the news including Twitter founders Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey; plus Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforc; and Max Levchin co-founder of PayPal.
Tax deals for rich startups…
Mayor Lee gave large tax breaks for tech companies promising to relocate to the Mid-Market Street/Tenderloin area of San Francisco — a very poor neighborhood hoping that it would boost local community and small businesses. However, Twitter and the other companies that accepted the tax breaks — offer their staff competing services to those of local small businesses such as food, haircuts, dentists, apartment cleaners, etc. There is little direct economic benefit to the local residents.
It will be many years before the city can reap the benefits of todays tax breaks — that’s if the tech companies survive that long — which they generally don’t. San Francisco could potentially lose hundreds of millions of dollars because of the tax deals. In 2014 alone, the city lost $34 million to the tax break.
New Breed mayor…
The interim mayor is London Breed, San Francisco’s first African-American woman mayor (Lee was the city’s first Asian-American mayor). Breed recently drafted a law that would regulate Airbnb rentals and which Lee had to veto. Lee’s veto is gone.
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee in 2014 at an event on mid-Market street.
Foremski’s Take: What’s the use of having tech companies in your city if they want special treatment? Twitter is located in one of the poorest districts– yet it insists on paying less than it should to the city — it would rather be a burden on its neighbors than ease the burden of others.
Tech needs to step up in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. Why do our cities face the same problems as all other cities? Why do our public schools have such high drop out rates?
Changing the world…
The future is bright but our infrastructure is falling apart?! It does not make sense– it’s all hot air — a stinking halitosis of hypocrisy. Silicon Valley needs to fix this. Our communities and institutions should be showcases — not basket cases.