The epicenter of the income inequality debate has shifted 2,600 miles west, from Wall Street to Market Street.

Whether it’s protesters targeting Twitter Inc.’s new San Francisco headquarters and Google Inc.’s buses or the criticism against these agitators by former venture capitalist Tom Perkins, the Bay Area’s technology industry is attracting the kind of attention often reserved for New York’s moneyed elite.

Concern about the growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest Americans is erupting across San Francisco, where an influx of newly minted dot-com millionaires is boosting rents and property prices, putting affordable housing that much further out of reach. Rage over inequality has spilled into the streets, where demonstrators have blocked buses transporting Google employees, breaking the window in one in Oakland.

“All booms have their winners and losers,” said John Elberling, executive vice president of Todco, a San Francisco- based builder of affordable housing. “Even if you have a good job, it’s very likely you can’t afford to buy a place in the city.”

Calling income inequality “the defining challenge of our time,” U.S. President Barack Obama will make it the main theme of tonight’s State of the Union Address.

From a jobs perspective, San Francisco is excelling. While New York City’s unemployment rate is stuck near 8 percent, adding to scrutiny about Wall Street’s lavish bonuses two years after the Occupy movement, the San Francisco area’s jobless rate fell to a record low 4.6 percent last month from 6.1 percent a year earlier, according to preliminary data from California’s Employment Development Department.

‘Willy-Nilly’

All jobs aren’t created equal, and some residents see the city’s progressive history threatened as those not in the technology industry get priced out. Trulia, a real estate listings site, said only 14 percent of homes up for sale in San Francisco were affordable for the middle class. Prices rose 13 percent last month to a median $813,000, DataQuick said Jan. 15. About 6,400 residents are homeless, the city’s Human Services Agency said in a biennial report released in June.

“San Francisco is a liberal, community-caring city and we’ve gotten a little bit away from ourselves,” said Steve Humphreys, chief executive officer of Flywheel Software Inc., a mobile application for hailing taxis. With too many of his peers living in a bubble and not paying attention to the city’s economic issues, “things went a little willy-nilly,” he said.


Resented Wealth

First « 1 2 3 » Next