As Dozens Of Businesses Flee San Francisco Amid 'Doom Spiral,' Elon Musk Says No – 'Though Others Forsake You, We Will Always Be Your Friend'

Over the weekend, Musk took to his X account (formerly Twitter) to say that he has no intentions to move the headquarters out of San Francisco, the city that has hosted the business since 2007.

San Francisco has been on a doom spiral in recent years with an increasing crime rate as well as an increasing number of people abandoning the California city. Major businesses like T-Mobile, Nordstrom, Whole Foods, and many others have had to shutter their businesses with more joining every single day, per the DC Enquirer.

“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,” Musk tweeted on Saturday evening. 

“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,” he finished.

Despite the intense crime rate, government officials have attempted to claim that there is not nearly as bad of a problem as many make it out to be. Back in April, Governor Newsom (D-CA) claimed that Dallas, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida have worse crime rates than San Francisco, though a notable amount of crime in the city goes unreported and unprosecuted, per The Center Square. 

As the city continues to fail to address the violent crime that has caused thousands of residents to leave, officials are only making matters worse by failing to properly fund the police. With fewer citizens contributing to the tax base, the budget will inevitably shrink, leaving less monetary room to fully fund a capable San Francisco police department. 

The city has also seen increasingly empty offices, with data reported by Fox Business showing that there was a vacancy rate of 31.6 percent for offices within the Golden Gate City for the second quarter of 2023. Of course, remote work has helped increase this rate, but that doesn’t change the incredibly high rate of empty office buildings within the city. 

The declaration from Musk is hard to understand. Loyalty is undoubtedly a good quality in a person but there is also a time when someone needs to realize that they need to give up on something. The city seems to have no intent of properly policing and establishing order, giving little hope that things will be much better in the near future. 

Nonetheless, X is Musk’s business solely and he has the final say on everything related to it. If he stands by the city, he can stay within it as it continues to descend deeper and deeper into chaos.