Low-tech method is used to encourage Bay Area techies to relocate to Miami
Shervin Pishevar, a former Uber investor; AdQuick, a firm owned by Alexis Ohanian; and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez were behind billboards promoting Miami.
Two billboards over the streets of San Francisco are urging Bay Area residents to come on down. And they didn’t cost Miami taxpayers a dime.
One takes the form of a mock tweet by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. It reads: “Thinking about moving to Miami? DM [direct message] me” — encouraging users to send him a private message via Twitter.
The other billboard shows a picture of a laptop on a beach accompanied by the caption,
“You might as well code from here.” It also says to message Suarez on Twitter.
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IT’S ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE HUSTLE FACTOR — THAT WE’RE NOT SHY ABOUT WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO DO.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez about the billboards, which the city did not pay for
Both billboards went live in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday.
Miami finds itself in the grips of a tech mania as startup founders and venture capitalists turn to the Magic City for what they believe is a more welcoming business environment. For those who have made the move, Suarez’s outreach efforts on social media, many of them say, have played a critical role in their decision-making.
Though the city did not pay for the billboards, Suarez knew well in advance that they were coming. In an interview, he called the campaign an innovative way to get people’s attention and increase the migration volume that the city has already seen.
“It’s another example of the hustle factor — that we’re not shy about what we’re trying to do,” he said.
The billboards were paid for by Shervin Pishevar, an early investor in Uber and Airbnb. Pishevar paid $17 million for a 13,000-squarefoot Miami Beach home in 2018. The average cost for a four-week run on a San Francisco billboard is $2,744, according to AdQuick, the advertising technology firm that drew up and facilitated the billboards.
Reaction among some parts of San Francisco’s tech community to the billboards has been, surprisingly, positive.
“What Mayor Suarez’s billboards make abundantly clear is that Miami welcomes new residents and new businesses,” Jennifer Stojkovic, executive director of sf.citi, an advocacy group representing various San Francisco-based tech firms, said in a statement. “That will certainly be appealing to tech leaders and employees who have not experienced the same warm reception from policymakers in San Francisco.”
Stojkovic said that while San Francisco Mayor London Breed “has always shown leadership in her willingness to work with the business community, the same cannot be said of all of San Francisco’s elected officials.”
“Our hope at sf.citi is that they see what Mayor Suarez and many other leaders do — that tech companies and tech workers are a crucial part of the recovery and growth of our cities and communities,” Stojkovic said.
Gabe Bernstein, enterprise account executive at AdQuick, said he, Pishevar, Suarez and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian began discussing the campaign via email in December. Ohanian, an investor in AdQuick and a South Florida resident, is married to tennis legend Serena Williams.
“It was definitely one of the most interesting (email) threads I’ve been involved in,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein said the initial motivation for the campaign was to help venture capitalists like Pishevar convince other tech titans in the Bay Area to leave, capitalizing on the momentum created by a December tweet from Suarez asking relocation-minded tech giants, ‘How can I help?’
The locations of the two billboards were purposefully chosen to have the maximum impact, and they ended up being placed near the headquarters of both
Uber and Airbnb. Bernstein estimated the ads could reach as many as 4 million passersby over the course of the four-week campaign.
The group chose static billboards in tweet format for maximum online virality, he said. By Thursday, it seemed to be working: One vulgarity-laced tweet depicting a billboard, by a startup founder in Austin, had received nearly 3,000 “likes” along with more than 200 “retweets.”
“We wanted people to be able to take pictures of them and post them online,” Bernstein said.
Pishevar and Ohanian could not be immediately reached for comments.
Earlier this month, Pishevar listed his Miami Beach home for $35 million and is now seeking to purchase another local property for as much as $50 million. Both developments were first reported by The Real Deal.
Pishevar’s South Florida move followed 2017 allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a Bloomberg News report. He subsequently resigned from Sherpa Capital, the San Francisco-based venture firm that he co-founded. He has denied the allegations. London police stated that a supposed police report outlining allegations against Pishevar in that city was falsified.
Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday reported 5,117 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the fewest since Nov. 16, when 4,663 were reported. South Florida’s counties also all reported fewer than 1,000 new cases.
Also reported were 166 total deaths, 163 of which were Florida residents. MiamiDade, which usually reports the most new deaths, reported fewer than Broward and Palm Beach counties on Thursday.
During pandemic, Florida has had 1,849,744 total cases, 29,474 resident deaths, 516 non-resident deaths, and 29,990 total deaths.
As for the positive test rate, Wednesday’s was 6.4%, a decrease from Tuesday’s 6.42%.
The state reported 79,239 people were tested on Wednesday, down from 112,922 a day earlier.
More than 1.2 million Floridians have been vaccinated, having received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
VACCINES
Florida: The state’s vaccination report said another 22,105 people have received the first vaccine dose and 22,055 received their second dose, meaning 1,319,799 people are halfway through the vaccine process and 1,232,083 are fully vaccinated.
Miami-Dade County: The state reported 2,077 people completed their vaccinations, meaning 139,689 in Miami-Dade have received both vaccination shots.
Broward: Another 2,360 people completed their vaccinations, putting Broward’s completed vaccine total at 124,487.
Palm Beach: After 2,501 people completed their vaccine treatment, 111,448 in Palm Beach County have received both shots.
Monroe: Another 74 people completed their vaccine shot treatment. Overall, 5,227 have done so.
SOUTH FLORIDA CASES
Miami-Dade County reported 817 more people who tested positive and 13 more COVID-19 deaths, putting its pandemic totals at 398,043 cases and 5,242 deaths. The positive test rate on Wednesday was 6.01%, down from the previous day’s 6.32%.
Broward County reported another 601 cases and 14 deaths, moving its totals to 187,432 cases and 2,297 deaths. Broward’s positive test rate was 6.58%, an increase from 6.49%.
Palm Beach County reported 415 new cases, bringing its total coronavirus cases to 116,209 and 21 new deaths to bring its cumulative toll to 2,383. Palm Beach’s positive rate was 6.22%, down from 7.71%.
Monroe County reported seven new cases and no new deaths. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 5,633 cases and 44 deaths. Monroe’s positive test rate Wednesday was 2.43%, down from 11.61%.
HOSPITALIZATIONS
Government officials use current hospitalizations to decide the next action in dealing with the pandemic.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports the number of patients hospitalized statewide with a “primary diagnosis of COVID.” The data, which is updated at least every hour, does not distinguish between the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive-care units and those in acute-care beds, which require less attention from nurses.
As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the agency said there were 4,373 people hospitalized. Of these, Broward reported 583; Palm Beach, 348; and Monroe, three.
Thursday, Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard said hospitals reported 744 COVID-19 patients, a decrease from Wednesday’s 769. The number of patients in ICU beds was 165, a decrease from 162.
POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR THE GUNMAN WHO KILLED HARRY GARCON. VIDEO HAS BEEN RELEASED.
Miami man Harry Garcon thought he was confronting a car burglar, Fort Lauderdale police say. Whether they were burglars or not, Garcon definitely was conThird fronting his murderer.
Surveillance videos released by Fort Lauderdale police show Garcon being shot in the back of the head on Valentine’s Day around 4:25 in the afternoon. Garcon was in front of his girlfriend’s apartment in the 1100 block of Northwest Avenue.
The video shows Garcon coming out of the apartment and appearing to call to two men who had just walked past the apartment. Police say he thought one of them had gone through his car when it was parked in the driveway the day before. On Sunday, the two men walked back to Garcon and, after a few words, all three look as if they’re walking back toward the apartment. Suddenly, the one directly behind Garcon pulls a gun out of his shorts and shoots him in the back of the head.
Garcon was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died. He was 31.
Police said both the shooter and the guy walking with him might be minors.
Anybody who knows anything about this should contact Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-4938477 (TIPS), or Fort Lauderdale police Detetive Jason Wood at 954-8285344, or Detective Elijah Thomas at 954-828-6093.