> the Civic Center area where Twitter wants to move is a toxic waste storage area Maybe, but I thought this corporate welfare is supposed to instantly turn it

> the Civic Center area where Twitter wants to move is a toxic waste storage area Maybe, but I thought this corporate welfare is supposed to instantly turn it into a paradise for young urban professionals, right? Or did I miss something? Nobody ever woke up in the morning and said "you know where I'd really like to get a job today? Brisbane!" Anyway, mid-Market sucks far less than Brisbane on a number of axes. You can walk or bike to work if you worked in mid-Market and lived in SOMA (as many Twitter employees do); have fun doing that in Brisbane. On Market Street, you can walk to lunch; in Brisbane lunch would be a 10 minute car ride away. Mid-Market also has excellent public transit to get to and from work and other places in the city. In other words, SF is a real city, with real city amenities. Real city amenities cost money. Taxes are how those things get paid for. If you don't see that, then you (and the rest of the tea party) have some growing up to do. A 1% tax that amounts to "thousands of dollars" means your annual income is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Congratulations on that, but let's get real for a minute -- someone with an income in that range is going to have a bigger problem with an extra 15-30 minute commute each day than the few dollars they never see in their paycheck. And anyway, if the absolute dollar amount were really an issue, market forces would easily compensate for this (that is to say, people who work in San Francisco would be paid more as they flee the city in droves).