London attracts the largest number of them
Escalating crime in San Francisco pushes tech pioneers into mass exodus
Homeless tents on both sides of the road on a city street. Archival
San Francisco's bustling city center has once entered the "cycle of doom." Archival
Bob Lee was stabbed to death in front of his home. Archival
The exacerbation of problems in the city frustrated its inhabitants. Archival
San Francisco residents are concerned about poor public safety. Archival
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At a time when many dream of immigrating to the United States and working in Silicon Valley, many tech pioneers are leaving San Francisco for Europe, in order to work and live there. Private bank Coats warned San Francisco's residents that their once-vibrant city had changed and they were "disappointed" by what had hit the city in recent years. The use of opioids, and the disproportionate rate of homelessness and increasing crime, have spread alarmingly. As a result, an unspecified number of tech entrepreneurs working in San Francisco have left the city for London amid rising crime rates in Silicon Valley.
The San Francisco Police Department has counted 20 homicides so far in 2023, up 25 percent from the same period last year. Thefts also increased by 15%. The most recent high-profile crime involving CashUp founder Bob Lee, was allegedly stabbed to death.
After Lee's death, Twitter chief billionaire Elon Musk called the "violent crime" in San Francisco "horrific." Twitter is headquartered in San Francisco, along with major tech companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Sails Force, while Facebook's and Instagram's Meta is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Last year, U.S. buyers became the largest group of foreign buyers in central London, snatching the top spot from Chinese and French buyers in 2020. In the year ending April 2023, U.S. buyers accounted for 7.6% of total overseas sales. That was up from 3.9 percent in the previous 12 months, according to real estate agency Knight Frank.
Less secure
Coats Bank and Knight Frank said the influx of tech workers from San Francisco was one of the main reasons for the boom in U.S. purchases in London. Annie Ingram, a banking expert at Coats, says: "Tech workers have become frustrated with San Francisco."
. The expert attributed this to a combination of crime rates in wealthier regions, chronic homelessness, which is higher than in the rest of America, and a rising level of unemployment, which has risen by about 1% over the past year.
Police reportedly found the founder of the cash up app stabbed and unconscious outside a luxury apartment building in Rincon Hill, an area of San Francisco where the median household income is about $208,<>.
Ingram said living in San Francisco now "seems less safe" for Coats' high-income customers, who she said are "looking beyond the United States, now." Experts said London's vast main property market, six airports and a much-needed education system for those with children are just some of the attractions for San Francisco's tech workers.
Ingram argues that "political challenges" in the United States could play a role in this displacement. "The difficulties in the UK now seem minor compared to those of other countries," she said.
Robert D. Forge, president of central London developer Knight Frank, said Grevznor Square in Mayfair, central Britain, was one of the popular locations among American tech buyers. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the complex is currently on the market for £11.5m.
Increasing demand
Other popular destinations for technology buyers include St. Wood, Regents Park, Lexington and Belgravia. "The demand for buyers from America's west coast is certainly a factor in London's major property market in a way that wasn't five years ago. Once you get a bunch of owners in London, their friends come."
"In fact, a lot of buyers are lower than CEOs, too. "The best performing developers can make fortunes too soon, compared to stocks." "While borrowing to buy property is feasible when it comes to taxes, all of these (American) buyers can conduct these transactions in cash."
The youngest member of the buyers' group, a technology pioneer who came to London through Knight Frank's mediation, was just 21 years old.
Last year, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri moved to Lexington to work in Meta's new offices in King's Cross, reportedly motivated by a desire to live in London. Later, his employer asked him to return to the United States. DDE Global's real estate agent, founder Daniel Daggers, said he had seen a lot of people leaving San Francisco for Britain. London is the first port of communication outside the United States.
• 7.6% of total overseas sales, in London, were for Americans in the year ending April 2023.
Enormous advantages
According to observers, international tech entrepreneurs are more mobile than ever. They have had the opportunity, and enormous advantages, to raise their children in a global setting, and London seems to be their ideal transit point to Europe.
DDE Global's real estate agent founder Daniel Daggers said many tech chiefs in San Francisco are worried about the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House. This, he said, would "accelerate" the decisions of liberal tech workers to leave America.
A city in trouble
Recent reports suggest that San Francisco's previously bustling downtown has entered a "cycle of doom," an economic term when it feeds separate, but interconnected, forces in an unstoppable recession. The lack of public resources for San Francisco's homeless and drug-abusing residents has intensified those crises in recent years, with the cost of living continuing to rise and the city flooded with powerful drugs such as fentanyl.
Meanwhile, The San Francisco Chronicle recently warned that the city could be in a negative spiral and explained how the city could "die."
As businesses leave, tax revenues are falling, and people are using mass transit less until they go bankrupt, making it more difficult for low- and middle-income workers to get to work. Labor costs are still rising further, and the city has less money to tackle problems such as crime and disorderly behavior.
The mayor responded by saying it was easy to make terrible predictions about downtown death, but "that's not our reality, and it's not going to happen."
The city boasts incredible talent, according to its officials. In many ways, it has a lot of features. However, many people are still leaving. Last year, the U.S. Housing Survey found that about 18 percent of San Francisco's residents plan to move in 2023. Almost half said they planned to move to a different city. Unless San Francisco can stem the tide, it is in trouble.
Long way
San Francisco County District Attorney Brooke Jenkins admitted last month that crime statistics don't tell the full story about public safety. "I think San Franciscans are still very concerned about public safety, and we still have a long way to go to make San Francisco as safe as it needs to be," she said.
It's not always about data, according to Jenkins, but "it's about the way our residents, business owners and even visitors feel."
Scenes of outdoor drug abuse and dirty camps for the homeless are still tragically common in Golden Gate. Recent data from the city's medical authority revealed a 41 percent increase in the number of drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same time last year, as fentanyl devastated the city's homeless population.
San Francisco saw 200 people die from overdoses between January and March, compared to 142 in 2022. This means death by overdose every 10 hours. The victims were disproportionately black and Latino men, often residing in the Tenderloin area, a downtown neighborhood where a drug treatment center was closed in December.