Saturday, October 20, 2018

San Francisco's narrowing middle-class

I found this article from this past summer from Newsalert, San Francisco have some much more serious problems and it involves the proliferation of excrement on public sidewalks. Regardless it shouldn't be a huge surprise that it's expensive to live in San Fran.
San Francisco’s narrowing middle class, already squeezed by the high cost of living could take another hit if a new business tax is approved in the November election, according to the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

The measure, approved for November’s ballot last month, would levy an average of about 0.5 percent gross receipts tax on companies that make $50 million or more in revenue. In return, it would roughly double the city’s funding for housing and homeless services, such as 1,000 extra shelter beds and services for the mentally ill.

Homelessness activists, nonprofits and community groups strongly support the measure, saying it’s time for the city’s businesses to do more to alleviate San Francisco’s homeless population.

But, according to a memo sent to the mayor’s office by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development last week and obtained by The Chronicle, the extra tax would disproportionately impact employees in mid-level jobs, such as administrative staff in retail companies and grocery store workers.

“There is a limit on how high taxes can go before you decide to go to Oakland, where the taxes are much, much lower,” Jim Lazarus, senior vice president of public policy for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said of businesses located in the city. “There are companies in San Francisco that pay more San Francisco tax than they pay in other states.”
One of the main points of this blog is to talk about urban middle-class issues and as I share this my hope is that Chicago doesn't begin to have those issues. Our city should be for everyone low-income, middle-class, or wealthy.

I'm sorry that I didn't share a timely article as it was published in the San Francisco chronicle in August almost a month before Mayor Emanuel's surprise announcement to forgo running for a third term. One of the issues hopefully mayoral candidates could address in 2019 is whether or not there is a plan to make Chicago affordable for any middle-class families or people.

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