Tech exec blasts San Francisco: ‘Worst run city in the United States’

A prime tech govt who uprooted his firm from the Bay Space blasted San Francisco as “in all probability the worst run metropolis in america” throughout a convention of Silicon Valley bigwigs.

Drew Oetting, the president of 8VC, a enterprise capital agency that was as soon as headquartered in San Francisco however has since pulled up stakes and relocated to Austin, Tex., mentioned that rampant homelessness, rising crime, COVID lockdown measures and excessive taxes led him to say good riddance.

“San Francisco might be the worst run metropolis in america,” Oetting advised fellow contributors at Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Aspen, Colo., this week.

Oetting mentioned that he and his firm opted for Austin resulting from its “vitality” and its considerably decrease price of dwelling.

However Oetting received pushback from one other fellow tech govt, Bloomberg Beta head Roy Bahat.

Bahat, a San Francisco resident, mentioned the Bay Space will stay a hub for tech companies resulting from its plethora of top-flight schools and universities.

“Lots of people made some huge cash in California, solely to go away for tax causes,” Bahat mentioned. “I really assume that’s despicable.”

Bahat additionally added that the current Supreme Courtroom choice to overturn Roe v. Wade, strict anti-abortion statutes in Texas and the newly handed “Don’t Say Homosexual” legislation in Florida will deter predominantly liberal tech employees from dwelling there.

“I’ve heard from lots of girls who aren’t very comfortable about Texas’s stance on every little thing associated to girls,” he mentioned.

Oetting, nevertheless, mentioned that price of dwelling outweighed considerations over social points.

“I don’t owe the federal government my taxes, the federal government owes me providers,” he mentioned.

Final 12 months, greater than two dozen California-based corporations, chief amongst them Tesla and Oracle, moved their headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin.

One other tech govt on the panel, Second CEO Lucy Guo, mentioned her present hometown of Miami has been welcoming to the LGBTQ group.

Guo, who identifies as bisexual, mentioned Miami is “the happiest place I’ve ever been.”

“It’s among the best locations you possibly can construct an organization,” she mentioned.

Apart from Tesla and Oracle, Infrastructure engineering large AECOM, telecom agency DZS, monetary providers supplier Charles Schwab and actual property funding agency CBRE Group all relocated from the Golden State to the Dallas-Fort Value metroplex.

For the reason that begin of 2018, some 300 corporations have relocated their house base from California to locations like Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Tennessee, based on the Hoover Establishment.