{"id":27770,"date":"2023-08-05T12:11:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T19:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27770"},"modified":"2023-08-05T12:11:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T19:11:30","slug":"elon-musk-says-he-loves-san-francisco-heres-how-he-can-show-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/08\/05\/elon-musk-says-he-loves-san-francisco-heres-how-he-can-show-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk says he loves San Francisco \u2014 here\u2019s how he can show it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Owen%20Thomas\">By Owen Thomas | Examiner columnist<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aug 4, 2023\u00a0<em>Updated\u00a0<\/em>16 hrs ago  (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/8\/79\/879ea6e8-3255-11ee-8054-9bfc59946b79\/64cc383e61db7.image.jpg?resize=400%2C279\" alt=\"X_citylights\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Examiner Illustration<\/em><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve all felt it \u2014 that moment when you fall in love with The City, when it becomes a part of you. The late Tony Bennett gave us an unforgettable song, \u201cI Left My Heart in San Francisco,\u201d about the phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It happened to Elon Musk on a Saturday in July after a giant and apparently illegal \u201cX\u201d sign went up on top of the headquarters of the company formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSan Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1685437228967686144\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Musk posted on X<\/a>, which is what he\u2019d recently renamed the San Francisco company he bought for $44 billion last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a marked change in tune for Musk, who has decried San Francisco\u2019s rough streets and unhoused population, calling The City a \u201cderelict zombie apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, Musk is urging other employers to come back to The City\u2019s downtown and bring their workers with them. And he vowed not to move X headquarters out of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The X on the roof of the Market Street headquarters building didn\u2019t last long. The sign came down Monday after drawing complaints from the Department of Building Inspection, neighbors who had the brightly lit symbol flashing in their windows all night, and X\u2019s landlord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Will Musk\u2019s newfound loyalty to San Francisco endure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twitter was generous to its hometown, giving millions of dollars in corporate charity. Some of that was in exchange for a tax break for which it and other Mid-Market area companies were eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musk could make X\u2019s corporate predecessor look chintzy. Heck, he could easily become The City\u2019s biggest philanthropist. His&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/projects.propublica.org\/nonprofits\/organizations\/852133087\/202233199349106528\/full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Musk Foundation had $9.4 billion<\/a>&nbsp;in assets as of the end of 2021, the last year for which it reported data, and he gave it another $2 billion last year. That\u2019s more than Marc Benioff\u2019s entire net worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Benioff has given more than $100 million to Bay Area schools over the past decade. Musk has given far more modestly, and his foundation reported mostly small grants to school systems, largely in south Texas near the location of a launch site for SpaceX, another of his companies. (<a href=\"https:\/\/muskfoundation.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to its sparse website<\/a>, science and engineering education is a priority.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the Musk Foundation starts giving the 5% of its assets a year that the tax code requires \u2014 that would be roughly $570 million, including the more recent donations Musk made \u2014 it would instantly launch into the top&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tgci.com\/funding-sources\/all\/top\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">10 largest grantmakers, according to The Grantsmanship Center<\/a>, ahead of Bay Area philanthropic institutions like the Hewlett and Packard foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that the area around X\u2019s Market Street headquarters is a pulsing heart of need. One-third of the Tenderloin\u2019s residents live below the poverty line, and it\u2019s also host to many of The City\u2019s burgeoning open-air drug markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amid Musk\u2019s chaotic takeover of Twitter, the company abandoned the NeighborNest community hub, which provided internet access and child care to unhoused parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Erica Kisch, the executive director of Compass \u2014 the nonprofit that operated the NeighborNest for Twitter \u2014 is still optimistic, despite not hearing anything from her former corporate partner in the months since Musk\u2019s takeover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe would hope that, like the previous incarnation of the company, they would be excited and motivated to make a strong commitment to the social needs of the community,\u201d Kisch told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA high-visibility company like [X] could really move the needle with strong messaging to counteract all the very negative messaging that is flying about The City,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Musk were to engage more with the community, he\u2019d have the support of his district supervisor, Matt Dorsey \u2014 who, in some cosmic irony, did PR for a startup called&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/x.com\/\">X.com<\/a>&nbsp;run by a young entrepreneur named Elon Musk during the dot-com boom. (Musk, who has long been fascinated by the rare one-letter domain name, used it for an online banking company that became PayPal and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/884580654117076992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bought back the domain from that company<\/a>&nbsp;in 2017.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to be supportive of X as a large employer because I am supportive of the Mid-Market neighborhood,\u201d Dorsey told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the sign incident bothered Dorsey because it \u201cstruck me as trolling The City.\u201d He anticipates The City will fine X for the unpermitted construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, Dorsey applauded Musk\u2019s declaration that he was keeping X in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI appreciate that he\u2019s not giving up on our city; I think that\u2019s good news,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d like to extend an olive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>X, too, seems to be slowing its troll. Instead of a poop emoji, which is what I got the last time I asked the company a question through its press inbox, I got a promise that I\u2019d hear back from it soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I haven\u2019t gotten an answer about X\u2019s plans to give back. But staying put is a good first step. And for the rest? Once San Francisco gets in your heart, it\u2019s there for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve all felt it \u2014 that moment when you fall in love with The City, when it becomes a part of you. The late Tony Bennett gave us an unforgettable song, \u201cI Left My Heart in San Francisco,\u201d about the phenomenon. It happened to Elon Musk on a Saturday in&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/08\/05\/elon-musk-says-he-loves-san-francisco-heres-how-he-can-show-it\/\"> 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":[890,21,908],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27774,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27770\/revisions\/27774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}