Mid-Market sinks back into blight

Is the much-vaunted Tech revival over? Probably

There are probably people who are happy about this.

I am not one of them.

But the facts seem inescapable.

The much-promised revival of Mid-Market Street is dead. Or, if not dead, it is on a ventilator and gasping for breath.

You probably saw the announcement last week from Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter. Because of the Coronavirus, he said, Twitter employees could work at home. In fact, he said, Twitter workers can make it permanent. They don’t have to come to the office. They can stay home from now on.

And just a quick show of hands, how many of the roughly 1,500 SF-based Twitter employees are likely to return to the Twitter Building at 10th and Market? I’ll take “not many” and you can have “only a few.”

My guess is they will prefer to avoid either a long commute or sky-high SF housing and choose to work remotely. And if they are still waffling on what to do, they can call up a mental picture of grungy and druggy Market Street, where headquarters is located.

And Twitter-people aren’t the only ones. Another Dorsey company, Square, announced permanent work-at-home options. Google has extended the option to the first of the year and Microsoft allows at-home work until October, 2020. For Mid-Market purposes, that’s suboptimal.

You’ll remember our story goes back to 2011, when Twitter announced it was going to move out of the city. The company was particularly unhappy with a payroll tax that was only collected in San Francisco. If they moved out of SF, they’d avoid the tax.

In response, the late Mayor Ed Lee orchestrated the “Twitter tax break.” If Twitter (or other companies) moved to the blighted stretch of Mid-Market Street, it would not have to pay payroll tax on new local hires for six years.

Thus began the great tech-war. As other companies — Spotify, Dolby, Square, ZenDesk — arrived to take advantage of the tax break, indignation grew. Google buses were spit upon. Techies were vilified. There was lots of talk about the wildly wealthy tech companies “paying their fair share.”

City officials complained bitterly and consistently. The Board of Supervisors proposed new taxes, including one on stock profits. Asked if they weren’t worried the negative vibe could drive the tech industry away, one supervisor said, “I don’t see that happening.”

And here’s the real takeaway. The city never held up its end of the bargain.

 Twitter moved in, leased and refurbished an eyesore of an essentially empty, nine-story building. As part of its community benefits requirement, it built a $3 million NeighborNest, a place where homeless families could get internet access and child care. There were millions spent by other firms, like Zendesk, for the area.

But the city criticized the community service efforts. Not enough.

And while the city lost some $70 million in tax revenues over the first eight years — a small percentage of an overall budget of $11 billion — there were benefits. According to the Chronicle, Ted Egan SF chief economist found:

“Mid-Market generated $6 million more in payroll and gross receipts taxes and $750,000 more in sales taxes to the city’s general fund than it would have without the tax break.”

But the real promise was that an injection of new, wealthy companies into Mid-Market would revitalize the city’s main boulevard.

Instead, the Market Street never improved. It is still an open air drug market. Mentally unstable people roam the street. The sidewalks are filthy. Civic Center is well known as a market for stolen goods, some of which may have been stolen from the new residents.

It’s so bad that Hastings Law School sued the city over the terrible street conditions.

The techies have to wonder why they are here. Market Street is a mess and people rag on them constantly.

And now the pandemic has given them an out. Twitter was the linchpin to the whole Market renaissance. I’ll bet this opportunity to work remotely — along with an economy that is deeply underwater — is the beginning of the end of tech in Mid-Market. I doubt they are coming back.

Remember the guy who was asked if the constant carping from the city would drive tech out? And he said, “I don’t see that happening?”

Do you see it now?

Do you want penetrating commentary that changes and improves your world view? Trenchant opinions that will get you thinking? So, read a book. However, if you’d like a quick take with a few laughs, sign up for this newsletter. It’s free, after all. So you really can’t afford not to.

Is Steve Kerr the funniest guy in sports? Uh yeah he is.

Seeing the youthful, tow-headed Steve Kerr on the Bulls in the “Last Dance” documentary, reminds us that he actually played professional basketball at an extremely high level.

And he’s won eight championship rings as a player and coach.

So there is no good reason for him to be funny. And yet, here he is in a YouTube skit for the famed Second City comedy group:

And once you have watched that, maybe you’d like to read my conversation with him about making the video and how he made a connection with Second City. It is in my Santa Rosa Press Democrat column this Sunday.

And by the way, Kerr is not only funny, he’s one of nicest and most cooperative people in sports.

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A conspiracy theory about re-opening baseball

At this point it seems it is only about dotting i’s and crossing t’s. Baseball looks certain to come back this year.

The main points of the plan are pretty well known. After a three-week “spring training,” teams are likely to start a shortened season around the Fourth of July. (The optics of a red, white and blue Opening Day for America’s pastime is too perfect.)

There is one wrinkle though, and I’m wondering if there may be a story behind the story. Just keep an eye out for this. If it happens I will take the credit. And if it doesn’t, what are you talking about? I never said that.

As you know, the original idea was to find one or two sites with plenty of baseball fields. Teams would pack up and move to Arizona, or Florida, where they would quarantine in a secure “biosphere” complex of hotels, restaurants and ballparks.

But now the new plan has teams playing in their own ballparks — without fans of course. For starters, it is a much easier way to open the season for individual teams. Players probably already had housing lined up.

But I also wonder if MLB is taking the long view. And, if the early games without fans go well, maybe . . . just maybe . . . they will be able to convince everyone that a limited number of spectators wouldn’t be that dangerous. And maybe, we would see a move to allowing the stadiums to be, say, half full?

Because, as we are learning, ticket sales for baseball are a huge part of the revenue stream. And if you could get even half if the gate receipts, it would be an help. Also, the home fans are already here, presumably raring to go to a game. Giants fans have to be dreaming about walking down the Embarcadero waterfront to a ball game.

Can’t do that in Arizona.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and comments cheerfully accepted. Complaints not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius

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