Willie Brown's Sunday column in the Chron turns out to have been kind of prescient with regard to the tech industry's growing PR problem. Just as he was suggesting that tech company's start to respect the hyper-liberal city they're moving into by, say, promising to do more hiring of locals, the New York Times chimes in about the wave of tech hate that we've been covering lo these many months.
Brown says that tech companies like Twitter, Google, Facebook and the myriad startups in their wake, don't seem be paying any mind to the political culture of San Francisco, and the fact that as they grow they're likely going to need favors from City Hall, where they haven't done any greasing of palms. The local hiring thing would help, but so would other good works and outreach, and offering some quid pro quo benefits back to the city that's embraced them.
What the tech world needs to do is nip this thorny plant in the bud. They need to come off their high cloud efforts to save Africa or wherever they take adventure vacations and start making things better for folks right here. They need to start helping in Hunters Point and in Chinatown... Otherwise, the next time it comes to a tax measure or a vote at the Planning Commission, they could find themselves getting skinned.
Also, Phil Matier echoed Brown in his own column, noting that the tech world seems to have been deaf to the fact that San Francisco still is, by and large, "a semi-socialist state that’s almost independent from the rest of the nation."
Brown's piece came just a day before the New York Times decided to tackle the topic, by way of all the examples of greed, tech-bro douchiness, and rent destabilization that we've been covering, item by item.
For instance, they note 38 Dolores and its ridiculous butterfly habitat, as well as the pending eviction of 98-year-old Mary Elizabeth Phillips who lives across the street, at 55 Dolores. They take note of the whole Startup Bro meme of several months ago and silly, misguided Peter Shih, who started it all. And they perk up at the fact that it's now S.F., not New York, that's the most unaffordable city in the nation.
Anyway, this "Backlash by the Bay" shows no signs of slowing, and Willie's probably right: Let's have less Peter Shih and more Warren Hellman going forward, shall we?
