Bloomberg recounts San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s first crisis as interim mayor. The folks that run the technology company Twitter told him that it wanted to stay in San Francisco, but was considering taking its 400 jobs and plans to hire 2000 more elsewhere because of the city’s high payroll tax.
Lee quickly told the start up to give him some time to come up with a plan. The longtime city administrator would later offer to exempt Twitter from the payroll tax if the company agreed to relocate in the Central Market, an area of the city a stone’s throw away from the core of Downtown San Francisco and long a decaying and neglected part of San Francisco.
Twitter agreed, as have numerous other technology companies. Bloomberg reports since Lee took office, the number of technology jobs in San Francisco has increased 50 percent to 42, 326 and the number of technology companies has increased 20 percent to 1826.
Lee is now serving his first full term as mayor after becoming the first Chinese American ever elected to the position in San Francisco. A poll released by the Chamber of Commerce earlier this month gives him an approval rating of 65 percent.
However, as to be expected, he is not without his critics. Board President David Chiu, who waged an unsuccessful campaign against Lee, says the mayor has neglected to address the city’s high health costs. He is thinks the mayor can do more to bring jobs to the city.
You can read about the humble beginnings of Mayor Lee in Bloomberg.