In an open letter to the city’s mayor Ed Lee, entrepreneur Justin Keller said he is ‘outraged’ that wealthy workers have to see people in pain and despair 
 
 Super Bowl protests flare up over plight of San Francisco’s homeless residents Read more 
 
 In only the latest cultural altercation between San Francisco’s tech workers and the city’s impoverished population, one tech worker has declared the homeless are “riff raff” whose “pain, struggle and despair” shouldn’t have to be endured by “wealthy” people commuting to work. 
 
 It’s a familiar story. A male entrepreneur (some might even call him a “tech bro”) – flush with the sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction that comes from living and working in a city and industry that treats him and his friends as the most important and intelligent human beings ever to grace a metropolitan area with their presence – takes a moment to think about homelessness. Not content to wrinkle his nose and move on with his day, he types those thoughts out. He publishes them on the internet. 
 
 And, there, with the click of a button, he enters the pantheon of infamous San Francisco tech bros. 
 
 Justin Keller, an entrepreneur, developer and the founder of startup Commando.io, joined those exalted ranks on 15 February when he published an open letter to San Francisco mayor Ed Lee and police chief Greg Suhr: 
 
 I am writing today, to voice my concern and outrage over the increasing homeless and drug problem that the city is faced with. I’ve been living in SF for over three years, and without a doubt it is the worst it has ever been. Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town … Worst of all, it is unsafe. 
 
 The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city Justin Keller, tech entrepreneur 
 
 Keller explained that he had been moved to action by his experience over the holiday weekend, when his parents and relatives came to visit. Three encounters with “a homeless drunken man” in the street, a “distraught, and high person” outside a restaurant, and a man who “took his shirt off and laid down” in a movie theater left him angry and frustrated with the city’s homelessness “problem”. 
 
 While Keller is not alone in his frustration that there are nearly 7,000 people living in San Francisco without homes, his letter is distinctive for its total lack of sympathy for the plight of those in difficult circumstances, focusing instead on the discomfort of the “wealthy”: 
 
 The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe. I know people are frustrated about gentrification happening in the city, but the reality is, we live in a free market society. The wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city. They went out, got an education, work hard, and earned it. I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted. I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day. I want my parents when they come visit to have a great experience, and enjoy this special place. 
 
 Keller does not propose a solution to San Francisco’s complex and intractable civic conundrum, though he does seem to cite approvingly the controversial “sweeps” of the homeless during the recent Super Bowl festivities: 
 
 I don’t have a magic solution … It is a very difficult and complex situation, but somehow during Super Bowl, almost all of the homeless and riff raff seem to up and vanish. I’m willing to bet that was not a coincidence. Money and political pressure can make change. So it is time to start making progress, or we as citizens will make a change in leadership and elect new officials who can. 
 
 After facing significant backlash against the post on Twitter, Keller appended an apology for his use of the term “riff-raff”, writing that the word choice was “insensitive and counterproductive”. 
 
 As of publication, however, he has not reached the next stage of the tech bro homeless rant cycle. First comes the deletion of the post. In 2013, startup founder Peter Shih deleted his 10 Things I Hate About You: San Francisco Edition rant from Medium after the backlash reached such a fevered pitch that posters featuring his photograph were posted on telephone poles around the city. 
 
 Next comes the apology tour. In 2015, startup CEO Greg Gopman attempted to make amends for his own anti-homeless screed (he described the homeless as “the lower part of society” and “degenerates [who] gather like hyenas” and bemoaned the “burden and liability [of] having them so close to us) by launching a program of his own to “solve” homelessness. 
 
 (Gopman’s plan never went anywhere. One city hall official told the Guardian in 2015 that the entrepreneur’s plan to house homeless people in domes “remind me of a dog house”.) 
 
 In an email to the Guardian, Keller said that he was writing an additional blog post about the issue. 
 
 “The thesis of the post was that inaction by the city and officials is not working. We all as citizens of San Francisco need to figure out how we can improve the city and address the homeless and drug addiction problem straight on,” he said. 
 
 “I in no way meant to vilify homeless or drug users, my frustration was that we as citizens don’t feel safe. The amount of violent crime is increasing, and it affects everybody. What specific measures is the city taking to proactively help the homeless and drug addicted? 
 
 “Instead of crucifying me, we all as citizens should be crucifying the city and elected government officials for ineptness. The status quo is not working.” 
 
 They don’t care about nobody but themselves ... If you got money, you just want to grab anything you can get Bercé Perry, homeless resident 
 
 Of course, Keller will likely only be the pariah of the internet for the next few days, while San Francisco’s homeless people are made to feel like the pariahs of the city every day. 
 
 
 
 “Being homeless is like being the germ of the city. That’s how they treat you,” said Bercé Perry, a homeless resident of San Francisco. Perry was standing outside his tent in an encampment underneath the Highway 101 overpass. The 42-year-old said he had been homeless for about one year, and he has little patience for the distaste some people have for his presence in the city. 
 
 “They don’t care about nobody but themselves,” Perry said about the wealthy tech workers who’ve moved into San Francisco. “If you got money, you just want to grab anything you can get.” 
 
 A few blocks away, Michael Jones, who has been homeless for about three years, was frustrated that people are homeless and hungry in a city with so much wealth. 
 
 “I see all the food that they throw away,” Jones said. Still, asked about how he feels about wealthy tech workers, he would only say, “I don’t judge anyone.” 
 
 Madeleine McCann, 27, had some more pointed words for tech bros who disapprove of her. McCann has been living in a tent under the highway for about a month, ever since her van was towed, leaving her without a roof. 
 
 “They need to be a little more tolerant”, she said. “It’s not like they’re going to let us come shower at their house.” ||||| click to enlarge Justin Keller/Twitter 
 
 Man has blog, internet bites him. 
 
 
 
 I am telling you, there is going to be a revolution. People on both sides are frustrated, and you can sense the anger. The city needs to tackle this problem head on, it can no longer ignore it and let people do whatever they want in the city. I don’t have a magic solution… It is a very difficult and complex situation, but somehow during Super Bowl, almost all of the homeless and riff raff[1] seem to up and vanish. I’m willing to bet that was not a coincidence. Money and political pressure can make change. So it is time to start making progress, or we as citizens will make a change in leadership and elect new officials who can. 
 
 the marketplace of ideas 
 
 @FitzTheReporter @RoyMcKenzie look at the headlines of your paper. We as citizens are concerned about out safety. pic.twitter.com/RAodbFVbhP — Justin Keller (@johnny5sf) February 17, 2016 
 
 @MadMaxFlapper @FitzTheReporter @RoyMcKenzie I'm not a rand rich dude. I ride the bus 2 work. I went to a state coll. I live in a studio apt — Justin Keller (@johnny5sf) February 17, 2016 
 
 @edzitron @w2crystallake I am asking for change. I am asking for the city to address the problem. No longer ignore it. Your vilifying me? — Justin Keller (@johnny5sf) February 17, 2016 
 
 Justin Keller is no Greg Gopman. He did not live in city-subsidized affordable housing while calling the city's homeless "hyenas," all before morphing into the self-appointed savior of San Francisco street people.He's not even a Peter Shih — he did not write a listicle calling the city's women "49ers" (in Shih's world — that is: 2013 — that could have been a compliment; it's every kind of bad now).But Justin Keller, startup founder , is a tech guy. And he has a blog. And he's a tech guy who on Monday typed out an ill-advised lament in which he states, in the three years he's been a San Franciscan, he has become increasingly alarmed by the "homeless and drug problem that the city is faced with" — which means that he's now and forever in the same category as Gopman and Shih, whose rants about city life earned them internet scorn."I’ve been living in SF for over three years, and without a doubt it is the worst it has ever been," he wrote, in what he describes as an "open letter" to Mayor Ed Lee and SFPD Chief Police Suhr (because homelessness is a political and law enforcement problem, natch)."Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town… Worst of all, it is unsafe."He went on. And so did the rest of us , on Twitter and elsewhere, where Keller has earned the all-too predictable scorn. First, a reminder: while anecdotes and the number of tents on 13th and Division streets suggest that San Francisco's ever-present homeless problem has become noticeably worse in the past several years, statistically, things are the same: The "official number" of street people in our fair city has hovered around 6,500 for the past decade. (Plenty of homeless advocates beef with that figure; considering that the city's school district counts over 2,000 homeless kids in public school, it's almost certainly low.)But that's not news to you. And it wasn't news to Keller, who says that his motivation for the post was to draw attention and take action — and not sit silently by, like all of us hardened San Francisco citizens now taking him to task.Keller, he writes, had his parents and other family in town for the long weekend. While he reports "countless times that we were approached for money and harassed," Keller was driven to the blogging point by a series of incidents: one at the Tadich Grill, one outside, and the denouement at the Sundance Kabuki movie theater. You can read it for yourself, but the gist is: Keller encountered people, who may have been intoxicated, who were yelling or taking their shirts off or shoving people, and he and his people were "terrified."He makes no mention of the causes of homelessness or what San Francisco has done in the last decade to address it, only to be stuck at the starting point — he just asks someone to please do something.There's a real possibility that Keller is trolling us. We are, after all, easily trolled, and our reaction is a total troll's reaction, bro. But there's an earnestness about Keller that leads us to believe he's being honest... even as he slogs through unintentional irony (such as his Super Bowl comment below.)Showing off his liberal arts education, he finishes with a flourish, name-checking Plato'sand noting that Socrates warned us that we're headed towards tyranny. Or something.He has, predictably, spent the last 14 hours or so defending himself onTwitter. Now that's tyranny.Can a startup guy install blog software that comes with a warning that noticing and then blasting a longstanding, well-noted, and clearly difficult-to-solve societal ill is neither original nor wise nor productive? We'd invest in that.At press time, Justin Keller was still a tech guy, Mayor Ed Lee was still mayor, and neither homelessness nor mental illness had been solved. Check back in the next decade for updates. ||||| San Francisco (CNN Business) Two of San Francisco's wealthiest tech leaders clashed on Twitter over the best way to address the city's homeless problem. 
 
 Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is pushing for a tax on San Francisco's largest companies to raise money for homeless efforts. Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is against the tax, and wants to let the city's new mayor, London Breed, come up with alternative plans. 
 
 "These tech CEOs, they need to realize if they want to do business in San Francisco and use all of our civic resources, and in some cases have gotten mid-Market tax breaks, then they should be more than happy to give a small amount — which is what it is for these companies — to help us focus on our number one issue," Benioff told CNN Business in a phone interview Friday afternoon. 
 
 Benioff is spending money to promote ballot Proposition C , which would tax large companies based in the city. The tax would vary, but come out to about 0.5 percent on businesses' gross receipts above $50 million a year. 
 
 It would raise up $300 million annually to address homelessness by building more housing, increasing mental health treatment, and adding shelter beds. That is double what the city currently spends a year on the issue. 
 
 Salesforce is the largest employer in the city, and Benioff, a San Francisco native, is very active in local issues. He has been a major donor to San Francisco and Oakland public schools, and recently helped raise $37 million for the Heading Home Campaign, which aims to get families with children off the streets. 
 
 "I want to help fix the homeless problem in SF and California. I don't believe this (Prop C) is the best way to do it," said Dorsey in a Tweet reply to Benioff on Friday. 
 
 I want to help fix the homeless problem in SF and California. I don't believe this (Prop C) is the best way to do it. I support Mayor @LondonBreed and @Scott_Wiener's commitment to address this the right way. Mayor Breed was elected to fix this. I trust her. https://t.co/EsxapfDvtI — jack (@jack) October 12, 2018 
 
 Benioff replied by asking for examples of how Dorsey has helped and what donations he's made. Dorsey called the question a "distraction" and said he wants to support Mayor London Breed's efforts. 
 
 Mayor Breed has come out against the proposition, citing concerns about oversight and accountability for how the money is used. There are also concerns it could lead to layoffs or cause businesses to relocate, Breed has said. Breed wants to know more about how it will impact the local economy. 
 
 "I do not believe doubling what we spend on homelessness without new accountability, when we don't even spend what we have now efficiently, is good government," said Breed in a statement. "I absolutely do agree business can pay more to address our homeless crisis, which is why I will lead the effort to do this the right way as Mayor, and I look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Marc and others do that." 
 
 In a statement, a spokesperson for Square said: "Homelessness in San Francisco is a humanitarian crisis. We support Mayor London Breed, Senator Scott Wiener, and Assembly member David Chiu's calls for a consensus response to homelessness, and we are eager to collaborate with City Hall, local organizations, and other businesses on a unified approach to this issue. Prop C is not that approach." 
 
 Benioff says he recently got a call from the mayor asking for $8 million to fund a new shelter. 
 
 "If she had Prop C, she wouldn't have to call for that money. It would already have been given to her. Seems pretty straightforward to me," said Benioff. 
 
 The debate mirrors a similar contentious battle in Seattle this past summer. The city had proposed a new corporate head tax to raise money for homeless service. Amazon led the charge to stop the tax from being passed. 
 
 San Francisco's tax could fare better. A local homeless advocate group raised the signatures to get it on to November's ballot. It has support from other large companies like Cisco, as well as Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier. And Benioff is ready to fight for it. 
 
 "I didn't realize until this morning that Jack Dorsey was not going to support it," said Benioff. "The question is how much is he giving back to our public hospitals and schools and to our homeless programs. The only way we're going to make our city better is if we tap the incredible wealth that it's generating." 
 
 Benioff, who says he talks to Dorsey regularly, has been paying to promote tweets supporting the proposition. 
 
 "I'm glad that Jack tweeted that because we need to have a pubic discussion about homelessness and how we're going to solve it." 
 
 Dorsey tweeted late Friday that discussions were under way. 
 
 "Marc and I talked on the phone. Also talked with Mayor London this afternoon. We're all talking now and aligned to fix this issue as fast as we can. Will keep everyone updated," he said.
– A group in San Francisco has launched a petition urging the mayor to get the city's cost of living under control—and $4 toast is at the heart of it, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. This all started several weeks ago with a blog post in Venture Beat by Jolie O'Dell who complained about shelling out $6 for a piece of toast and a cup of coffee at a local eatery. O'Dell blamed the city's well-paid tech community for driving up prices at the expense of middle- and working-class families, laying out a cycle that involves the rise of "bourgie businesses." The concept of $4 toast has resonated since, and Eddie Kurtz of the group Courage Campaign said it inspired the recent petition. "It feels like there's a widening sense that this is out of control," he says. "It feels like there's just a widening gap, and regular people who often don't think about these things are having sticker shock about trying to find an apartment and pay the bills." The petition criticizes Mayor Ed Lee for not taking "meaningful action," though a spokesperson for Lee counters that his support of the tech industry will save the city, not doom it.