Hundreds Protest Tech Tax Breaks At Twitter Headquarters In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Protesters, including some who dressed up like Cupid, congregated at San Francisco's Twitter headquarters on Wednesday to voice opposition to the tax breaks several tech companies have received.
A crowd of several hundred demonstrators, including members of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, marched down Market Street Wednesday. The Cupids, who wore red tights and white feathered wings, bows and arrows, aimed suction-cup, tipped bows and arrows with tags that read: "Affordable housing or tax breaks for Ron Conway and no sweetheart deals for CEOs," at Twitter's front doors.
Conway is a Silicon Valley-based investor.
"We've been focusing on all the millionaires that haven't been paying their fair share of taxes," said SEIU's Daloria Russel-Benson.
Supervisor John Avalos spoke through a microphone while standing in the back of a pickup truck parked outside Twitter and said he's afraid of a repeat of the 2000 "dot bomb."
"We were going to see the heart of San Francisco get taken out of this city and get replaced by new people who don't have a long-term connection to the city, who actually make it their playground and don't contribute the way they really need to," Avalos said.
Mayor Ed Lee said the tax breaks, which passed the city's Board of Supervisors in 2011, have proven to be a powerful tool to create needed jobs in what have largely been considered the once downtrodden Mid-Market area.