Contents page 1 — the fight to the streets page 2 — The mayor is skeptical On a page to read
Nowhere in the USA is the social inequality more visible than in San Francisco. The city on the West coast has company thanks to its technology and the proximity to the Silicon Valley with the most billionaires in the country. More than $ 3,500, the residents will have to pay residents in the average rent.
But on the streets a different picture: people rummaging in dustbins, and ask passers-by to eat, sleep in doorways, or cardboard boxes. Approximately 7,500 homeless now live in San Francisco. In many corners you have built all the tent cities. “Cruel” and “unacceptable,” called for the United Nations, the living conditions of the homeless this year.
the Problem is the Tech companies which, in the opinion of many citizens largely responsible for the development, is to solve now. Last Tuesday, when US voters chose the inside and the voters a new Congress, voted in San Francisco almost 60 percent for Proposition C, The initiative provides for an additional tax for companies that have settled in the Region and more than 50 million US dollars in total sales. Between 250 and 300 million dollars will be spent every year in projects to combat homelessness. This corresponds to the annual budget of the city, which is currently used for the creation of housing, psychological care or rehab programs available.
The plans of the columns of the Tech world
kindled Long ago, the measure has a national debate about the responsibility of the industry. Also in other big cities like Seattle or New York, the salaries of the employees of Facebook, Amazon or Google drive, the cost of living upwards, and depend on all the others – so the accusation. Residents would be displaced from the centers at the city edges, because they could no longer afford the rising Rents. Workers from industries, from Start-ups to the head, is deprived of the basis of life. Confirmed the critics see the daily view in the news: In New York, drivers in the past few months, several reports of suicides by taxi, allegedly because they could not keep up with the competition from Uber and Lyft.
Also in San Francisco will be discussed further on, Proposition C, because in spite of the vote’s success last Tuesday is unclear whether the measure will actually be implemented. Currently, several lawsuits, to make a taxation in favour of a specific purpose are invalid to run in the U.S. state of California and the Initiative could tilt. Until a decision is reached, it was said, in the meantime, those responsible, will the money collected but not spent.
“We gave everything,” said Marc Benioff recently. The billionaire and CEO of the software company Salesforce, the largest private employer in the city – is one of the most prominent and powerful proponents of the special tax. Benioff had pumped in the month before the election, seven million dollars in the Initiative. In a guest post for the New York Times, he campaigned for the project. “These companies have made it to San Francisco, on the backs of the people here,” wrote Benioff.
the mayor is against the tax
again and again, Benioff laid out in the Public with other well-known names of the Tech industry, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus. The two technology leaders have spoken out vehemently against the tax. Also companies like Lyft, the Payment Start-up Stripe, and Visa disclaim the homeless tax and threatened to relocate their headquarters. Officially, the opponents of the tax argue that there is too little control over how the money would be used. Just spend more money, is not a solution. “If homelessness would be a question of money, then the Problem would be long in the handle,” wrote Stripe CEO Patrick Collison blog in October on the company.