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Late in January, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan went online to post a death wish aimed at San Francisco politicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cF\u2014 Chan Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a label and motherf\u2014ing crew,\u201d Tan tweeted in the early-morning hours of Jan. 27, naming members of the city\u2019s Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you are down with Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a crew f\u2014 you too,\u201d he wrote in a since-deleted post. \u201cDie slow motherf\u2014ers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tan also posted a picture<\/a> of what he said was his private liquor cabinet. Responding to a user who suggested Tan was \u201chammered\u201d while writing the post, Tan said<\/a>, \u201cyou are right,\u201d and \u201cmotherf\u2014 our enemies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tan apologized<\/a> the next day, while deleting the posts, saying there was \u201cno place, no excuse and no reason for this language and this type of speech.\u201d Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Tan, told Fortune<\/em> \u201cGarry Tan made a terrible, terrible mistake in quoting rap lyrics and referencing members of the board of supervisors. He withdrew the tweet and apologized to the supervisors for his lack of judgment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The post was a reference to a Tupac Shakur track, Hit \u2019Em Up<\/em><\/a>. One of hip hop\u2019s most famous \u201cdiss tracks,\u201d it was a little over five minutes of expletive-laden fury that fueled the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry in the 1990s and, according to Mission Local<\/em><\/a>, contributed to Shakur\u2019s shooting death in Las Vegas just three months after the song\u2019s release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tan has been a loud and pugnacious commentator on the state of San Francisco, weighing in frequently on X<\/a> and recently pushing to get more tech entrepreneurs involved in politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n But despite Tan\u2019s regret over his Tupac tribute, he clearly still feels strongly about urban crime in his city. \u201cSan Francisco, to some extent, has gouged its own eyes out,\u201d Tan told the Wall Street Journal<\/em> earlier this month, while hosting a gathering of political donors in his condo. And Tan is not alone.<\/p>\n Indeed, wealthy tech executives dragging California politicians over the coals is nothing new. Sequoia Capital founder Michael Moritz has pilloried the city\u2019s drug issues and housing costs, writing a Financial Times<\/em> editorial<\/a> recently describing \u201copen-air drug markets and homeless encampments.\u201d Tech investor Nat Friedman last year said he moved out of the city after a break-in to his home by \u201ctwo meth addicts.\u201d<\/p>\n Moritz and Friedman have poured money<\/a> into an effort to start a new city in nearby Solano County<\/a>. Tan, on the other hand, is part of a group of wealthy residents spending heavily to move the city\u2019s politics in a moderate direction.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the last several decades, San Francisco politics in the Democratic Party has been controlled by progressive left-wing activists,\u201d Singer, Tan\u2019s spokesperson, told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cTheir policies have led to a rise in violent crime, in burglaries, in car thefts, and a significant threat to public safety.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tan has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the 2022 recall of San Francisco\u2019s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin<\/a>, and several members of the school board, according to Mission Local<\/em>. The gathering at his condo was \u201cpart of the evolution of a new San Francisco that is turning the page on the failed leftist politics of the past,\u201d Tan told the San Francisco Standard<\/em><\/a>. He is also on the board of a group called Grow SF, which is focused on cracking down on drug crime, cleaning up the streets, and building more housing, according to its site<\/a>.<\/p>\n But plenty of locals object to this overt show of power from an influential CEO who is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Five supervisors whom Tan called out in his rap-fueled tweet told local media<\/a> they received threatening letters<\/a> at their home, saying \u201cGarry Tan is right! I wish a slow and painful death for you and your loved ones.\u201d Several of them filed police reports after receiving the letters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tan is taking particular aim at supervisor Dean Preston, donating $50,000 to a political action committee called \u201cDump Dean<\/a>.\u201d Preston, the sole democratic socialist on the board of supervisors, has attracted criticism from the right and admiration from the left for his backing of higher taxes on luxury properties<\/a> as well as a proposal to tax vacant properties in the city<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Preston told Fortune <\/em>while he\u2019s received threats before, \u201ccalls for my death are a new level of toxicity from a tech executive, and are offensive and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTan\u2019s taking a page from Trump \u2014 encouraging political violence against those he demonizes,\u201d he said. \u201cNo person who cares about civility and decency should have anything to do with him, candidates should return his political donations, and the media should stop normalizing his toxicity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Preston previously told the Journal <\/em>that tech millionaires\u2019 political fundraising was \u201ca cynical effort to control the city\u201d and \u201cbuy political power and reshape the rules for their own economic benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n Singer, meanwhile, said that while the tech industry was backing the effort, it was \u201cbeing driven by neighborhood and community leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe revolt of the tech millionaires<\/h2>\n
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