Tech-rooted groups seek to shake up San Francisco politics

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The tech entrepreneurs who flocked to San Francisco two decades ago bringing jobs and wealth, and also soaring housing prices and gentrification, are becoming a rising political force in a city they say is woefully off track. “In San Francisco there’s a lot of political ideology that holds people back from working together for the things that they actually agree on,” said Kanishka Cheng, who co-founded TogetherSF in 2020 with billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, a former journalist who also started the San Francisco Standard news website and was among the initial investors in Google. “We want to be part of the solution.” Tech has had a huge presence in San Francisco since the early 2000s, when major companies including Google, Twitter and Uber began renting office space downtown as the Silicon Valley expanded north. “They’d rather have public fights and try to exploit those wedge issues for electoral gains.” Emily Lee, co-director of the nonprofit San Francisco Rising, also is skeptical of the tech-backed groups, saying they do not work with those most affected by homelessness and addiction to understand the root causes.