Landlords in San Francisco can evict tenants simply because they want to renovate or sell the property. The vast bulk of San Francisco evictions happen within 4 blocks of a tech company bus stop, says the Anti Eviction Mapping Project. Rents are soaring as a result. Most additional new housing in SF is luxury and immediately gets bought for cash by speculators wanting to keep prices high.
Protests are now targeting Google employees like Jack Halperin, who is also a SF landlord, demanding he rescind eviction notices, as well as against noxious double-decker private Google buses which use public bus stops, clog traffic, and mess things up for everyone else.
TechCrunch hs a long, thoughtful article about the lack of affordable housing in SF.
Today, the tech industry is apparently on track to destroy one of the world’s most valuable cultural treasures, San Francisco, by pushing out the diverse people who have helped create it. At least that’s the story you’ve read in hundreds of articles lately.
It doesn’t have to be this way. But everyone who lives in the Bay Area today needs to accept responsibility for making changes where they live so that everyone who wants to be here, can.