Miami Mayor Makes Pitch To San Francisco Tech Workers -- 'Thinking Of Moving To Miami? DM Me'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has launched a billboard and social media campaign designed to lure tech workers forced out of their San Francisco offices by the COVID-19 pandemic to move to the Sunshine state.
Since last March, thousands of tech workers have relocated out of San Francisco to work remotely from other areas of California and the country.
In late November a group of Hawaiian business leaders launched a campaign , promoting the islands as an appealing location for a remote office with a view.
Texas had also been actively recruiting workers and tech companies. Software giant Oracle has announced it will be moving its headquarters to Texas as has Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Over the summer, Palantir, a tech firm with ties to the military and intelligence agencies, moved from Palo Alto to Colorado.
Now, Miami is joining the siren call for workers with a massive billboard above the 9th Street exit off westbound I-80 that leads to Twitter's massive San Francisco headquarters. The tech giant has told its workforce they will be working remotely until at least the summer.
The billboard carries a simple message -- "Thinking of moving to Maimi? DM me." -- along with Suarez's twitter address.
While the San Francisco COVID-19 exodus has gained national notoriety, a recent study by the San Francisco Chronicle of new data from the United States Postal Service has revealed that while workers are leaving the city, most are staying local.
The postal service analysis of change-of-address requests during an eight-month period between March and November showed the number of households leaving the high-priced San Francisco housing market had skyrocketed by more than 77%.
More than 80,300 households relocated in 2020. But the majority relocated to other Bay Area counties including Alameda, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Sonoma.
The postal service data showed that Los Angeles, San Diego, Napa and Riverside rounded out the top 10. The Lake Tahoe area has also become hugely popular with soaring estate prices for those seeking a mountain view from their home office.
