🐦 Will Twitter leave?

Plus: JFK Drive meeting

Apr 27

Hey there, San Francisco.

Outside Twitter’s HQ on Market Street / Getty Images

We knew that if Elon Musk bought Twitter, there’d be a chance that he’d move the company’s headquarters outside of San Francisco.

Tesla, afterall, is now stationed in Texas.

But for me, I hadn’t seriously considered the prospect of a Twitter move until the news dropped yesterday of Musk’s $44 billion deal.

Will Twitter actually leave San Francisco behind?

It would be the end of an era in many ways, as the SF Business Times wrote on Monday, including the city’s effort to revitalize the Mid-Market area.

Twitter arrived at Market and 10th in 2012, and soon after, helped attract companies like Square and Uber to move-in next door.

But the pandemic, and the rise of remote work, took its toll on the area. And as one real estate researcher told the Business Times, a Twitter exodus could “have a meaningful negative effect on a market already sliding.”

Another source went further and said that “without Twitter, the whole area could implode.”

Time will tell.

Or, as Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees yesterday: “Over time the uncertainty will decrease.”

With that… onto the news…

Top story: Public comment continues

A screen shot of today’s meeting, which has now passed the 8 hour mark.

We expect a vote on JFK Drive’s future at some point today, but it hasn’t happened yet (as I write this around 5pm).

Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting kicked off at 9am, and public comment has continued throughout the afternoon. The highlight, at least for me, was Outer Richmond resident John Elliot, who brought his guitar and sang a song about keeping JFK car free.

Community Spaces SF @CommunitySpace_

The fantastic @thehereafter serenades the Board of Supervisors with a song in support of car-free JFK Promenade.

In all seriousness, the Chronicle reported the mayor’s plan to keep cars off the Golden Gate Park roadway should have enough votes to pass.

We’ll see if that holds up.

Quick bits: News to know

📚 A San Francisco charter school allegedly put an eight grade social studies teacher on leave for bringing cotton plants to class for a lesson meant to “illustrate the hardships of slavery,” the Chronicle writes. In a letter to parents in March, the school’s director apologized for the “unacceptable, harmful” teaching, saying it went against its “anti-racist, progressive-minded curriculum.”

Some parents, however, disagreed with the school’s response, telling the Chronicle: “It feels like it was a lesson in sensitivity and empathy. That’s why my mind is so blown and I can’t stop being angry about it.” (Chronicle)

😷 BART president Rebecca Saltzman wrote a letter to San Francisco’s health director Grant Colfax on Monday, asking him to reinstate mask mandates on public transportation similar to a recent order in Los Angeles. (Twitter)

🍹 With the weather warming up a bit (Maybe? Before summer hits?), Eater updated its guide for the best places to eat and drink outside in San Francisco.

Notable spots include Biergarten, Rintaro, um.ma, Mission Rock Resort, Prubechu, and All Good Pizza. (Eater)

What else I’m reading: Links to browse

Broken Homes: San Francisco spends millions of dollars to shelter its most vulnerable residents in dilapidated hotels. With little oversight or support, the results are disastrous. (Chronicle)