{"id":7240,"date":"2017-12-22T18:12:24","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T02:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7240"},"modified":"2017-12-22T18:12:24","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T02:12:24","slug":"ed-lee-1952-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/12\/22\/ed-lee-1952-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Lee (1952\u20132017)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BY\u00a0<a class=\"po-hr-cn__author-link\" style=\"font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/author\/meagan-day\">MEAGAN DAY<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0(jacobinmag.com)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"po-hr-cn__dek\">Under Ed Lee, San Francisco was remade into a playground for tech capitalists and real estate developers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"po-hr-im prt-x\">\n<div class=\"po-hr-im__frame\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"po-hr-im__image\" src=\"https:\/\/images.jacobinmag.com\/2017\/12\/14121803\/GettyImages-131925739.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3000\" height=\"2001\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"po-hr-im__caption\">\n<p class=\"po-hr-im__description\">San Francisco mayor Ed Lee smiles as he campaigns in Chinatown on November 8, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan \/ Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"po__container\">\n<aside class=\"po-tg stk prt-x\">\n<div class=\"po-tg__container\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"po__main prt-y\">\n<aside class=\"po-sr-sb prt-x\">\n<div class=\"po-sr-sb__container\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"po-sr-ed prt-x\">\n<article class=\"po-sr-ed__article\">\n<div class=\"po-sr-ed__content\">\n<div class=\"po-sr-ed__authors\">Ed Lee\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2017\/12\/12\/570104228\/san-francisco-mayor-edwin-lee-dies-at-age-65\">died<\/a>\u00a0suddenly this week at age sixty-five, while still in office. As San Francisco mayor for nearly eight years, Lee presided over the city\u2019s tech boom, doing more than perhaps any other individual to transform it into a Xanadu for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2016\/12\/trump-silicon-valley-tech-apple-facebook-google-thiel\/\">tech capitalists<\/a>\u00a0and the real estate developers who followed on their heels.There will be laudatory eulogies for Lee, who shattered precedent to become San Francisco\u2019s first Asian American mayor. But it\u2019s crucial, too, to examine the legacy of his signature corporate-friendly policies, which are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/12\/23\/from-its-promising-high-tech-corridors-to-its-new-urban-niches-denver-looks-like-a-winner-in-2016-builders-and-developers-say\/\">being replicated<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2017\/10\/27\/seattle-is-the-new-san-francisco\/\">across the nation<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/grist.org\/cities\/austins-african-americans-are-being-pushed-to-suburbs-and-away-from-parks-and-grocery-stores\/\">little regard<\/a>\u00a0for the consequences.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The first thing Ed Lee did when he took office in 2011 was provide a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/business\/article\/Companies-avoid-34M-in-city-taxes-thanks-to-6578396.php\">massive tax break<\/a>\u00a0to tech companies in exchange for their setting up shop in the city\u2019s downtown area. \u201cI was very wary of the Twitter tax break,\u201d says former city supervisor John Avalos, who lost the mayoral race to Lee in 2011, \u201cbecause we had the whole experience of the dot-com boom in San Francisco that led to a huge amount of displacement and gentrification.\u201d Eight years later, Avalos is vindicated: the city is seeing\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.antievictionmappingproject.net\/FINAL%20DRAFT%204-20.pdf\">eviction<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/aboutsfgate\/article\/Despite-money-and-work-homelessness-in-SF-as-bad-11242946.php\">homelessness<\/a>\u00a0on a mass scale, and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com\/2015\/03\/23\/san-franciscos-gap-between-rich-and-poor-among-largest-in-nation-study-finds\/\">gap between<\/a>\u00a0San Francisco\u2019s rich and poor residents is notoriously wide and growing.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Lee made an effort to secure funding programs for the city\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2016\/02\/homeless-nyc-cuomo-de-blasio-housing-shelters-mental-illness\/\">homeless<\/a>\u00a0population and set up\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/SF-Mayor-Lee-aims-for-three-temporary-Navigation-12405371.php\">navigation centers<\/a>\u00a0to help people get on their feet. But he remained committed to a capital-friendly policy approach \u2014 one that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2016\/10\/housing-crisis-rent-landlords-homeless-affordability\">exacerbated<\/a>\u00a0the same problems he made an effort to solve. Lee saw his primary task as concentrating large businesses in San Francisco and keeping them there, and he consistently removed obstacles for real estate developers and tech companies to make it happen. \u201cHe was a strong adherent of the growth machine model for cities,\u201d says Jennifer Fieber of San Francisco\u2019s Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, \u201cbut I never saw him make the link between his trying to attract\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2017\/05\/tech-workers-silicon-valley-trump-resistance-startups-unions\">tech workers<\/a>\u00a0and the obvious displacement it would cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, the board of supervisors unanimously passed a tenant protection law. Fieber points out that while Lee did not veto it, he also\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/mayor-ed-lee-does-not-veto-eviction-protection-2-0-but-leaves-it-unsigned\/\">refused to sign it<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s like, who are you trying to not offend if it\u2019s not the real estate industry?\u201d she asks. Lee similarly refused to sign an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/politics\/article\/Supervisors-No-unregistered-hosts-on-short-term-7969444.php\">ordinance requiring<\/a>\u00a0Airbnb hosts to register with the city, though that passed unanimously as well, and he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/6c6606b15aa44fd5af1960154f23cf0a\">vetoed legislation<\/a>\u00a0that would require a sixty-day cap on short-term rentals. Short-term rentals like Airbnb units\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/equity\/2017\/08\/where-airbnb-is-raising-rents\/535674\/\">contribute to soaring rents<\/a>, which in turn increase evictions and exacerbate the problem of homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToward the end of his tenure he was trying to resolve the homeless situation,\u201d says former city supervisor and state assemblyman Tom Ammiano. \u201cWhile the gesture was appreciated, there was a lack of connecting the dots. He wanted to be there for the homeless, but when you looked at the housing policies he supported or his approach to Airbnb or what have you, his actions were often in contradiction to the gesture of funding homeless programs more and setting up navigation centers. You often see that in politics, where someone will adopt an issue but they\u2019re not really paying attention to the things that they\u2019re supporting that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2017\/02\/new-york-housing-gentrification-affordability-de-blasio\">undermine<\/a>\u00a0that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Avalos echoes the concern about Lee\u2019s attention to cause and effect, saying, \u201cThere was a greater emphasis on attracting businesses and wealthier interests to the city rather than dealing with the impact of growing inequality that those interests brought to San Francisco.\u201d Lee tried to facilitate the concentration of corporate wealth within the city\u2019s borders, Avalos says, presumably guided by the belief that the wealth could be harnessed for the greater good. Yet he was unable to harness that wealth effectively through taxes without getting crossways with the corporations he\u2019d empowered, who gained a greater foothold in San Francisco politics with each passing year of Lee\u2019s tenure. \u201cLike the sorcerer\u2019s apprentice,\u201d says Avalos, \u201che lost control of what he was trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his campaign against Lee, Avalos proposed a $500 million housing bond to secure affordable housing, offset rental prices, and keep San Franciscans housed. As mayor, Lee went with a $310 million bond, after Avalos\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/S-F-voters-to-decide-whether-Lee-s-housing-6545821.php\">pressured him<\/a>\u00a0to raise the amount. Lee also jousted with Avalos over corporate taxes, with Lee opting for the lower tax rate on businesses. \u201cLo and behold, years later Ed Lee came forward with a sales tax, which was regressive, to pay for the same services that he could have paid for with the business tax,\u201d says Avalos.<\/p>\n<p>Avalos sees both of these policies as a failure to prioritize the needs of low-income residents and a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2016\/05\/gentrification-homeless-broken-windows-police-de-blasio\/\">mistaken<\/a>\u00a0belief that wealth eventually spreads around, enriching everyone in its vicinity. \u201cEd Lee\u2019s idea was that if we serve these tech companies and corporations,\u201d he says, \u201cthey will bring economic success and vitality to San Francisco, and the rest of the city will be able to benefit through some version of trickle-down economics. Well I don\u2019t think a trickle is significant enough. When it came to actually trying to create revenue streams that could be used for uplifting all of San Francisco, and dealing with the inequality that increased with the tech companies coming in, Ed Lee fell short.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lee took a permissive approach to tech corporations and real estate developers alike \u2014 and the relationships between the two were laid bare over the course of his time in office. \u201cReal estate developers know that people working for big tech companies make more than the average resident,\u201d explains Erin McElroy, also of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, \u201cso they cater to them. We\u2019ve seen them rebrand parts of neighborhoods as places for tech workers to reside and take private buses to and from Silicon Valley. We\u2019ve seen apartment complexes specifically built for tech employees go up right next to their office buildings. Of course those new condo developments raise the price of rent in the surrounding areas. We\u2019ve even found that there are more evictions proximate to tech bus stops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Worse yet, many of the condos developed on Ed Lee\u2019s watch remain vacant while people sleep in tents on the city sidewalks. There are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.antievictionmappingproject.net\/vacancy.html\">more than 30,000<\/a>\u00a0vacant units in the city \u2014 most of them luxury condos owned by speculators, second or third homes owned by affluent jet-setters, or short-term rentals in partial use. Meanwhile, it\u2019s estimated that nearly 8,000 people in San Francisco are without homes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe perception was that Ron Conway had too much of a say on Ed Lee,\u201d says Ammiano. Conway is an angel investor who has backed Airbnb, Square, Twitter, Zynga, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/04\/01\/us\/as-mayor-edwin-m-lee-cultivates-business-treatment-of-backer-is-questioned.html?_r=0\">sixty-five other<\/a>\u00a0San Francisco-based tech companies. He was the single largest donor to Ed Lee\u2019s campaigns; news reports called the two a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2012\/09\/11\/mayor-ed-lee-and-ron-conway-plot-to-keep-sf-the-innovation-capital-of-the-world\/\">power couple<\/a>. Lee followed Conway\u2019s lead in encouraging private philanthropy to boost the public sector. \u201cIf you\u2019re talking about Salesforce donating\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/09\/12\/technology\/culture\/salesforce-school-donation\/index.html\">seven million dollars<\/a>\u00a0to the schools,\u201d Ammiano says, \u201cthat\u2019s not the solution. It\u2019s the tax structure that\u2019s the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conway encouraged Lee to pursue\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/opinion\/editorials\/article\/The-Bay-Area-s-Long-Road-to-Ending-Homelessness-11259388.php\">public-private partnerships<\/a>\u00a0in response to the housing crisis \u2014 that is, to let real estate developers build their condo complexes and trust that the private sector will provide for the public. \u201cLee believed that the real estate industry was the champion to fix all of our problems,\u201d says Faiq Raza of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, \u201cand that liberalizing the sector, getting rid of various requirements, and streamlining development were the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a strong economy in our city, we can\u2019t help anybody,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/2017\/12\/12\/ed-lee-legacy-san-francisco-booming-economy.html\">Lee said<\/a>\u00a0last year. This outlook led Lee to put private profits first, and deal with the externalities of corporate wealth concentration down the line.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cthe more you harness the power of wealth to grow the economy,\u201d says Avalos, \u201cthe more inequality is created if there aren\u2019t structures to create equity.\u201d When asked what kind of political leadership is required to undo the damage Lee\u2019s policies have done, Avalos replies, \u201cI think we need someone who has an anticapitalist perspective. Our capitalist market is not going to bail us out of growing inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY\u00a0MEAGAN DAY\u00a0(jacobinmag.com) Under Ed Lee, San Francisco was remade into a playground for tech capitalists and real estate developers. San Francisco mayor Ed Lee smiles as he campaigns in Chinatown on November 8, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Ed Lee\u00a0died\u00a0suddenly this week at age sixty-five, while&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/12\/22\/ed-lee-1952-2017\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7249,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}