For younger readers, one of the book\u2019s most surprising insights might be just how optimistic people were about the internet in those early days. As Weber reminds us, many of its founders truly believed that it would be a force for positive change. Twitter was going to give power to the people; knowledge on the web would be free and freeing. \u201cThere was a sense that you could do well, and also do good,\u201d Weber says.<\/p>\n
Weber charts how the city eventually soured on the worst aspects of tech, from the toxic bro culture at Uber, personified in its disgraced CEO Travis Kalanick (who resigned in 2017 after revelations came to light that he ignored rampant sexual harassment at the company), to the controversial Twitter tax break of 2011, which exempted the social media giant from paying millions in payroll taxes to the city. And then there were the infamous Google buses, the employee-only luxury shuttles that became a visible symbol of the city\u2019s expanding gentrification. \u201cThey were big, and you\u2019d see the people standing in line for them every day,\u201d Weber says. \u201cAnd then you might notice, Oh, those people were evicted from that house so some tech guy could renovate that four-unit apartment building into his own mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book also reveals the warming ties between the tech companies and city leaders, and how social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter devolved from places supposedly meant to unite humanity to ones that appealed to all the worst impulses of human nature. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything evil per se about social media,\u201d Weber elaborates. \u201cBut the way that it has grown up, especially in the case of Facebook, is that it\u2019s been tuned to be a moneymaking engine, and that has led to the creation of mechanisms that encourage bad behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the challenges for readers will be determining who comes off worst: the tech moguls with their billions or the city leaders, many of whom spent much of their careers dogged by accusations of corruption and ethics violations, from Willie Brown to Ed Lee to London Breed. \u201cI would say the heroes of the book are the early internet pioneers,\u201d Weber says. \u201cI have a high regard personally for what those guys accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the politicians come off super well,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
The book ends with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collapse of downtown San Francisco\u2019s retail economy, and a wave of layoffs across the city\u2019s biggest tech companies. Much of the worst of it is laid out in a chapter aptly titled \u201cDoom Loop.\u201d So, is San Francisco doomed?<\/p>\n
Weber doesn\u2019t think so. \u201cThe AI industry has kind of bailed out the city for a moment,\u201d he observes.<\/p>\n
But even if AI revives the tech industry\u2019s fortunes, one has to wonder at what cost. Weber expresses concern. \u201cSan Francisco is a special place,\u201d he says. \u201cIts identity is built around tolerance and being welcoming to misfits and creative renegades. If you just prioritize the needs of the moneyed and their business, you squeeze out that creative element.\u201d\u2022<\/p>\n
![\"<i>CITY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781815895-0d7d932e-4261-4698-ae5a-cd9ebf74e7c7.jpg\" "\\"<i>CITY")
<\/a>CITY ON THE EDGE: TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, AND THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF SAN FRANCISCO, BY JONATHAN WEBERCredit: Atria Books![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782735070_844_bdab5626-0e53-493a-80be-3701d71cd359_1638469466.file.png\" "\\"Headshot")
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