Will San Francisco become Wall Street’s sanctuary city?
Maybe New York City stockbrokers and investors who fear a new democratic socialist mayor’s election in November could seek asylum in our city, where the mayor recently proposed a “billionaire’s budget” and has no plans for a wealth tax or a freeze of stabilized rents, as mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani does in New York.
For those venture capitalists who no longer want to occupy Wall Street, there’s room – plenty of office space – in San Francisco.
Occupy Wall Street photo taken in 2011 by David Shankbone (Wickimedia Commons)
After Mamdani’s primary election victory last week, hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb wrote on X: “This will be the end of New York as we know it,” and “It’s officially hot commie summer.” Loeb wasn’t referring to the summer heat wave in New York (well above 90 degrees), only to the summer electoral campaign of a candidate who wants to tax wealth. Mamdani is not a Communist, but an advocate of democracy and affordable living, and (as noted already in 48 Hills), his tax increase wouldn’t go as high as that levied by Republican President Eisenhower.
In the primary race Mamdani won, his opponents backing disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo raised more than $20 million but failed to stop the 33-year old New York Assembly member; wealth was no obstacle, or not enough of one. The democratic socialist still has to win the multi-party race in November, but already rumor has it that tax increases he wants to impose on wealthy New Yorkers will result in an exodus of Wall Street executives and some corporate headquarters.
Among those executives who plan ahead, the search for a more wealth-friendly city is on. And if a venture capitalist wants an urban center where the mayor has no plan to tax the wealthy or increase corporate and stock profit taxes, the refugee just might move to San Francisco.
At the risk of tempting New York stock brokers and corporate raiders to move here, I can’t help wondering if Manhattan and Brooklyn billionaires will notice that the city by the Bay has plenty of empty office space and luxury housing available, many with ocean and bridge views. Perhaps it is for the sake of these prospective residents that Mayor Lurie is attempting to “clean up” downtown streets by moving the unhoused out of sight. There’s also plenty of expensive, private transportation available in our city, with Waymo’s autonomous cars, and Uber and Lyft for those who can’t stand crowded subways and buses, although the buses and subways here aren’t crowded either, not by New York standards.
San Francisco even has some luxury shops downtown, despite the precipitous decline in their number. I am confident the remaining jewelers, hatters, and tailors would welcome New Yorkers, and help them spend all the money they saved by moving across the country.
San Francisco’s mayor and the Chamber of Commerce have not yet issued an open invitation to wealthy asylum seekers; but can it be far behind? Already a sanctuary city for refugees from other parts of the world, San Francisco could soon become the place New Yorkers move for cooler weather in the summer, relatively warm winters, and low taxes all year round.
Those who don’t want to see San Francisco become a haven for New York billionaires might look to other New Yorkers—Mamdani and the thousands who campaigned with him to make the Isle of Manhattan affordable. The next mayor of San Francisco, or the Board of Supervisors, could promise to stabilize or freeze the costs of rental housing, secure free childcare and free bus transportation, share Mamdani’s goals.
To pay for these improvements it could be necessary to create a wealth tax (which the Board of Supervisors recently, quietly raised as a possibility); if that ever happens, the New Yorkers who moved here after the Fall 2025 election might have to pack up and go elsewhere. Before that time, however, the wealth tax refugees might discover that they can afford that tax increase, still afford a second yacht, and even contribute to a campaign fund supporting our city’s future Democratic Socialist candidate for mayor, whoever he or she or they may be.
Joel Schechter has written several books on satire
