17 February 2021
We've all seen countless stories about San Francisco tech workers decamping for Texas and Florida — but according to U.S. Postal Service change-of-address records, they're mostly moving to Bay Area suburbs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The big picture: The Chronicle analyzed postal service records and found that "the top six destinations for those fleeing the city were all Bay Area counties: Alameda, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Sonoma."
- After that came Los Angeles, San Diego, Napa and Riverside.
- The #1 destination — Alameda County, where Oakland is the biggest city — is directly across the bay from San Francisco.
- Austin and Denver were the "only two out-of-state destinations that made it into the Top 20," per the Chronicle.
Details: It is true that lots of San Franciscans moved away from the city during the eight-month period between March and November (which is what the Chronicle examined).
- "While the influx of new residents coming into the city remained constant between 2019 and 2020, the number of households leaving skyrocketed by more than 35,000 — from 45,263 in 2019 to 80,371 in 2020."
- Roughly 41% of the change-of-address requests were moves within San Francisco.
- Those movers were taking advantage of falling rents — and the lower-rent trend could be a happy and lingering outcome of the pandemic, San Francisco economist Ted Egan tells the Chronicle.
Between the lines: The tally is city-specific and doesn't capture all the people coming and going from the "Bay Area," which includes all the counties close to San Francisco proper.
- Numerous real estate, moving and transportation companies have been trying to capture the migration patterns and have been feeding reporters (like me) surveys that show where people are going.
- Those results don't always speak with one voice, but do show consistent patterns.
- For instance: "The No. 1 pick for people leaving San Francisco is Austin, Texas, with other winners including Seattle, New York and Chicago, according to moveBuddha, a site that compiles data on moving," Nellie Bowles writes in the New York Times.
Reality check: With companies like Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise moving headquarters out of the Bay Area (to Austin and Houston, respectively), it makes sense that some workers will follow.
- But, as Axios' Scott Rosenberg writes, "Silicon Valley's powerhouses aren't putting out the "moving sale" signs, even as a handful of high-profile departures raises questions about the region's status."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.