Tech not as big a villain for many voters

S.F. survey ordered by mayor’s campaign finds support grows

San Francisco’s tech boom has sent real estate values soaring and priced many longtime residents out of the city. But most San Franciscans aren’t mad at the tech industry about the city’s lack of affordable housing, according to a survey of likely voters.

Nearly a year removed from the peak of highly publicized protests of tech buses and demonstrations in front of the homes of tech executives, the survey found that more than two-thirds of San Franciscans want city leaders to encourage the industry to expand.

“Tech isn’t the bogeyman here,” said Sean Clegg, a consultant for Mayor Ed Lee’s re-election campaign, which commissioned the December survey of 501 likely voters. “It’s like blaming the ocean for the sea level rising.”

There’s no question what’s the biggest issue in the city. “Affordable housing/cost of housing” was by far the most frequent response given when respondents were asked the openended: “What would you say is the most important problem facing San Francisco today?”

When that response is combined with those who cited “economy,” “income inequality,” and “gentrification” as San Francisco’s largest problem, affordability emerged as the biggest worry for more than half of the respondents. San Francisco has the nation’s fastest-growing gap between the income of its wealthiest residents and its poorest, according to a 2014 study from the Brookings Institution.

Still, at least in political terms, the tech industry appears to enjoy a level of support any office-holder would love to have. The survey by EMC Research of Oakland found that 65 percent of respondents had a favorable impression of the industry, 20 percent had an unfavorable one and 15 percent had no opinion.

And attitudes toward tech appear to be softening.

In March, an EMC Research survey of likely voters found that 29 percent of respondents said it was “extremely important” or “important” to “limit the growth of the technology sector.” In the most recent survey, that level dropped to 21 percent.

The latest poll reported that 68 percent of the respondents thought the mayor of San Francisco should support “the growth of the tech industry.” That’s good news for Lee, who has received much support from the tech industry throughout his tenure. Venture capitalist Ron Conway, one of the top campaign contributors in Lee’s first mayoral run, has been mining the tech community for money for Lee’s re-election effort.

Tax breaks

Lee has also been criticized for supporting tax breaks for technology companies. In 2011, Lee supported a payroll tax break for companies like Twitter that moved into the MidMarket Street area. But critics of that move say it is not a reflection about how they feel about the industry.

“We’ve never said that we are antitech,” said Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Mission District, a neighborhood that has been at the forefront of the city’s gentrification battles. “We just think that companies that are part of the sharing economy should pay their fair share.”

Campos is referring most pointedly to Airbnb, the shortterm rental company based in San Francisco. Campos and other opponents of legislation that made short-term rentals legal in the city, which Lee signed in October, estimate that Airbnb owes San Francisco $25 million after not collecting the hotel tax during the past few years.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, the local Democratic Party’s governing body, overwhelmingly passed a resolution that Campos coauthored, calling for Airbnb and its competitors to pay back taxes to the city.

The resolution is largely symbolic, because the committee has no enforcement power. But insiders say it will help build momentum for a November ballot measure seeking to require collection of back taxes and place further limits on short-term rentals.

Concerns over ‘collusion’

Housing activist Erin McElroy said that she and others concerned about the city’s affordability are not opposed to the tech industry. She is more concerned about the city giving tax breaks to wealthy technology companies while the some of its poorest residents struggle to remain in their homes.

“It is not about being antitech” said McElroy, founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. “It’s more about the collusion between tech and government and developers.”

The survey’s margin of error was 4.3 percent and interviews were conducted in English, Spanish and Chinese.