Forget the rampant crime, squatting retailers and homeless encampments that plague San Francisco — tech moguls are confident the city will hit its stride.
The Golden Gate City has experienced cyclical booms and busts and has spent the past few years stuck in the latter, meaning a boom is just on the horizon, several Silicon Valley leaders told the Los Angeles Times.
“It feels like this is a very optimistic and exciting moment,” said Angela Hoover, who recently moved her AI search chatbot company, Andi, from Miami to San Francisco.
“People want to be in San Francisco, and the people on my team who live here are in love with the city.”
Although Hoover, who described the move to the Bay Area as “rocket fuel,” was a newcomer to the area, many of San Francisco’s longtime tech moguls were eager to acquiesce even as the Bay Area’s fledgling reputation was tarnished.
Frisco has made national headlines for its rising crime, drug use and homelessness — which even prompted one man to famously start a “Doom Loop Walking Tour” that highlights his city’s decay.
San Francisco has been plagued by homelessness, rising crime, drug use and more in recent years. AP Widespread urban decay has caused many major retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue, to close their doors. ZUMAPRESS.com
Many business leaders are trying to fight the bad image San Francisco has acquired, while others are demanding that the government step up its efforts to clean up the streets — last week JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon declared that “San Francisco is in much worse shape than New York.”
Many tech leaders, however, say the city continues to stand above others across the country despite its myriad social issues.
“There’s no better place to do it than SF,” said Catalin Voss, a native of Germany and co-founder of Ello, a company that uses speech recognition technology, powered by artificial intelligence, to help struggling students improve their reading skills.
Tech leaders believe San Francisco will experience a boom in prosperity. Getty Images
“If you want to be the best in the world in finance, you move to New York. If you want to be the best in the world at acting, you move to LA. If you want to be the best in the world in technology, you move to San Francisco.”
While the crime and homelessness data are skewed in the negative direction, other figures point to a more prosperous future.
The Bay Area maintains its national ranking of No. 1 last year for venture capital investments, according to an October report by Ernst and Young.
San Francisco and other Bay Area counties posted a net gain of thousands of residents and enjoyed declining housing prices that are expected to continue into 2024, according to the LA Times.
“San Francisco is excited. It’s an amazing city,” Russell Hancock, president and chief executive of the Silicon Valley think tank Joint Venture, told the newspaper.
“There’s a reason it has appeal. And part of the appeal, let’s never forget, is that it’s a bit weird and kooky and progressive.”
“These things come in waves. And this seems to be the next wave. And it seems to be true,” Hancock continued.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
