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A version of this problem has sprung up in San Francisco — and, because it’s San Francisco, it’s been heightened by the influence of tech money. My colleague Mike Isaac, who covers tech, wrote about the fight:
It began as a disagreement between homeowners and the city.
By late last week, that disagreement swelled into a full-fledged battle between groups of San Francisco residents over what to do with a center intended to provide shelter and resources for the homeless.
The debate is centered around a plan by Mayor London Breed, who has proposed the city should erect a Navigation Center for the homeless on a stretch of vacant land near the city shoreline.
The center, which would offer roughly 225 beds and other resources to the homeless, would be situated at Seawall Lot 330, a 2.3-acre parcel currently being used as a parking lot, sitting off the Embarcadero near the Bay Bridge.
But a group of homeowners in nearby luxury apartments aren’t having it. Residents in the Rincon Hill and South of Market areas have banded together to oppose the Navigation Center, claiming that it would turn the area into a “dirty, dangerous” neighborhood. Members of the group have flooded into community hearings and meetings to voice concerns.
To further the cause, the group started an online crowdfunding page under the name “Safe Embarcadero for All.” The group’s GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $80,000 to hire a lawyer to push back against the city.
As news of the GoFundMe hit the internet in a San Francisco Chronicle article last week, other San Francisco residents took umbrage with the group’s goal. William Fitzgerald, a local community activist and supporter of building resource centers for San Francisco’s upward of 7,000 homeless citizens, decided to build his own GoFundMe. Fitzgerald’s competing campaign, “A Safer Embarcadero for All,” intended to raise funds to support the building of the Navigation Center in the area.
Fitzgerald’s GoFundMe page went up Thursday. By Friday, the group had raised tens of thousands of dollars, and was steadily gaining more supporters as word of the effort spread virally.
Marc Benioff, the tech billionaire and founder of Salesforce, donated $10,000 to Fitzgerald’s campaign. The co-founders of Twilio matched Benioff with thousands of their own. Hours later, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, donated $25,000 of his own money to the project.
The issue is far from settled, as both groups continue to jockey for support both for and against the project. But at least one of them has pulled ahead: By Monday afternoon, the “Safer” campaign had managed to raise $145,000, outraising the opposing campaign by $60,000 in roughly a third of the time.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.