Report: Activists Cheer as Tech Workers Flee San Francisco

A recent report from NBC News suggests that many residents in the San Francisco Bay Area are happy to see the tech giants that made the area so popular move to cities such as Denver, Colorado, and Austin, Texas.

NBC News reports in an article titled “‘Good riddance’: Tech’s flight from San Francisco is a relief to some advocates,” that not everyone living in the San Francisco area is a huge fan of the Silicon Valley tech giants that have operated in the region for years.

The article focuses on Chirag Bhakta, a San Francisco native and tenant organizer for the affordable house nonprofit Mission Housing. When he heard that many tech firms were leaving the area, his response was “good riddance.”

NBC News writes:

He [Bhakta] said the sudden departure of many tech workers and executives — often to less expensive, rural areas where they can telecommute during the coronavirus pandemic — reveals that their relationship with San Francisco was “transactional” all along.

“They used their capital to radically shift the makeup of poor, working-class communities,” Bhakta said. “We’re left with ‘for sale’ signs and price points that are still out of reach for most people.”

Many urban centers have seen residents move out in large numbers since the start of stay-at-home orders in March, but the shift has been especially dramatic for San Francisco, a city that was already experiencing rapid change because of the tech industry.

Software engineers, CEOs and venture capitalists have chosen to jump from the Bay Area to places such as Denver, Miami and Austin, Texas, citing housing costs, California’s relatively high income tax and the Bay Area’s general resistance to rapid growth and change.

John Elberling, executive director of Todco, an affordable housing nonprofit that operates in the South of Market neighborhood, commented: “The motivation got to this get-rich-quick attitude. And that isn’t what our city is about. You can make a lot of money here, obviously, but that’s not the persona of San Francisco.” He added: “If all you care about is money, I suggest you go to Texas.”