Creating jobs, supporting business growth, and putting people back to work have also been my top priorities.  To be able to have a safe city, a solvent city and a successful city, we need a City that is positioned to compete in the global business marketplace – creating and retaining jobs and creating the conditions for businesses to start, grow and prosper in San Francisco. 

 

While the past several years have been challenging, San Francisco has been resilient and proven that it can still compete and win business even in these tough times.   We’re home to more than 500 technology companies, 74 biotech and life sciences companies and more than 200 cleantech and green businesses.

 

2010 was a strong year for all three sectors:

• Zynga signed a new lease for 270,000 sq/ft at 650 Townsend, in one of the largest office leases in years.  The new headquarters can accommodate nearly 2,000 employees.
• Salesforce.com bought 14 acres in Mission Bay for their new global headquarters in the biggest land deal in years.  This site could accommodate 2 million sq/ft of office. 
• Last November Nektar Therapeutics opened its Mission Bay headquarters.
• San Francisco is becoming a global center for the cleantech sector.  The top 5 solar manufacturers in the world all have a presence in San Francisco.
• San Francisco had more 32,000 tech jobs in 2010 according to real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

 

And 2011 is looking just as bright. This year, we've already announced a number of significant business relocations and expansions from a range of key sectors:

• Twitter – I made keeping Twitter in San Francisco a top economic development priority.  In April, Twitter announced they were staying in San Francisco and are moving to Central Market in 2012.
• Bayer Healthcare – In January, Bayer Healthcare opened its 50,000 sq/ft US Innovation Center in Mission Bay.  Bayer chose Mission Bay specifically because of the collaboration opportunities with UCSF, research institutes and San Francisco.
• Kabam – In March, Kabam, the growing social game developer, leased a 25,000 sq/ft office downtown and will create 150 new jobs.  San Francisco is a global center for the online gaming industry.
• Mozilla – In April, Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, announced they were opening their first office in San Francisco.  The 15,000 sq/ft office provides space for up to 125 paid staff and volunteers to gather and collaborate on developing Firefox.
• Tioga – That same month, Tioga Energy, a solar development company, announced that they had moved their headquarters from Silicon Valley to the Financial District.  They cited the City’s strength in financial services sector, robust talent and the City’s unmatched policy leadership on sustainability issues as the reasons.
• Autodesk – In addition, Autodesk, the 3D-design, entertainment and engineering software company announced it was expanding its offices at 1 Market street adding 75 new jobs bringing Autodesk’s total footprint in the city to 115,000 sq/ft and 525 employees that same month as well.

 

 
Thanks to ChinaSF – our ambitious business development initiative focused on attracting the North American Headquarters of Chinese companies entering the US Market – we have become a center for the Chinese solar industry. SF is home to Suntech, Yingli, Upsolar and GCL Solar.  ChinaSF has attracted or expanded 12 Chinese companies to San Francisco, which have resulted in over 120 jobs for the City. 

 

Local Hire Ordinance

Part of my commitment to jobs creation, fostering better economic opportunities, and improving the quality of life for all residents in San Francisco is ensuring that families stay working.  

 

The historic local hire policy, which went into effect on March 25, 2011, is one factor that will ensure investment in jobs for San Franciscans, now and for the future.  This is among the strongest local hire policies in the country, which will boost San Francisco’s economy and provide jobs for San Francisco residents, and I’m proud to have been one of its many supporters.

 

This Investment in San Francisco jobs is an important endeavor for the City, because it provides our working families with the financial tool and job training they need to contribute to our local economy and to be successful in the workforce. This ordinance will ensure that SF residents and businesses are committed to taking care of its own by providing them the job opportunities they need in the City. This local hire ordinance aims to increase opportunities for San Franciscans to work on public projects using an efficient, transparent and streamlined process.

 

We want to make sure that San Franciscans have access to the job opportunities that their taxpayer dollars are paying for while  implementing the plan in such a way that will make it easy for contractors to bid on public work projects.

 

The new law, an amendment to Chapter 6.22(G) of the San Francisco Administrative Code, will require contractors performing City public works or improvement projects to meet mandatory levels of San Francisco resident participation. The implementation plan calls for utilizing existing City resources and infrastructure to not only implement the new policy, but to streamline future contracting procedures, including taking advantage of technology to automate the process that used to be paper-driven, to achieve the Local Hire goals. 

 

The City is also working to ensure our residents are trained in the various construction trades and crafts. The policy can only succeed if there continues to be a skilled local workforce towards meeting the goals. CityBuild Academy, the City’s pre-apprenticeship training program, is our primary feeder into the union trades.

 

Local hire will not only boost our local economy and get San Francisco families back to work, but it will translate into a reinvestment in our City that will help pay for parks, public safety and social services. Local Hire will generate over 300 new jobs for San Franciscans every year and will infuse our general fund with nearly $177 million over the next 10 years. 

 

We want to make sure that we continue to invest in San Francisco jobs and do what we can to get qualified San Francisco residents the opportunity to work building their own communities.

 

Investing in our communities by providing residents with economic tools like local jobs offered by the local hire ordinance and the availability of job training programs will ultimately result in improving their quality of life and positively impacting the City as a whole.

 

Visit the following pages for more information:
Office of Economic & Workforce Development
Office of Economic & Workforce Development - Local Hire Ordinance
Office of Economic & Workforce Development - ChinaSF