Elon Musk says more people need to come to work in San Francisco or the city will struggle to survive
- Elon Musk is encouraging workers to move to San Francisco to help the city survive its doom loop.
- The billionaire said Twitter's headquarters would remain in the city despite its ongoing struggles.
Elon Musk is encouraging people to move to San Francisco and work there because he says the "city can't survive" unless it overcomes the urban doom loop.
The billionaire owner of Twitter tweeted on Monday that it was "important for more people to come to work in San Francisco or the rest of the city can't survive."
Musk recently had the Twitter sign removed from Twitter's headquarters in San Fransisco. The company recently changed its logo to X, and a giant sign was put on top of the building that has irritated some neighbors.
Musk tweeted on Sunday that he wouldn't move Twitter's headquarters out of the city despite ongoing reports about the city's deterioration.
He wrote in the tweet: "Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not.
"You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend."
The urban doom loop refers to negative beliefs about a city deterring people from living there and causing those issues to proliferate. San Francisco is struggling with a huge homeless population and increased crime, including theft and assault, according to retailers.
In May, Musk said that downtown San Francisco was a "once beautiful and thriving" area but that it had become a "derelict zombie apocalypse."
The city has seen retailers such as Walgreens, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, and Nordstrom close stores because of rising crime and concerns about employee safety. Critics said these store closures were also a result of changing consumer-shopping habits and retailers closing pricier locations.
Major tech firms such as Meta, Snap, Salesforce, and Paypal have also reduced office space in the city because employees continued to work from home after the pandemic.