With all the critical issues facing the city of San Jose – thousands of unhoused residents living in abject poverty, a lack of affordable housing, rising violent crime rates, ever-growing inequality – Mayor Matt Mahan took to Twitter last weekend and blasted the federal government for its slow response.
Finally, for the first time in his tenure, Mayor Mahan showed an extreme sense of urgency, and demanded immediate action. If only his tirade was on behalf of any of the issues on which he campaigned.
No, Mahan saved his Twitter tantrum for bankers and tech bros, following the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday.
While the US Treasury Department was racing last weekend to align the Federal Reserve, the White House and Congress around a guarantee of billions of dollars in deposits not protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and to do it within US law, the mayor of the self-proclaimed capital of Silicon Valley saved his advocacy for social media, unleashing a tirade of tantrum upon the federal government for its lack of urgency.
On Sunday, within just hours of Mahan’s tweetstorm, and well before global markets opened Monday morning, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin announced the federal government’s guarantee in what was an historically rapid response to shore up the financial sector after the largest bank collapse in 15 years.
Yet, apparently, two days was just too long for Mahan to wait for guarantees that tech companies wouldn’t lose a dime as a result of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse.
Meanwhile, there are 1,000 vacancies at San Jose City Hall while residents and businesses are screaming out for the timely delivery of essential City services. Our police department is the most thinly-staffed of any Bay Area city. Residents are forced to wait months to get permits for the most basic of home improvements. And whole neighborhoods are left waiting endlessly for help from code enforcement and vehicle abatement because of a lack of staffing.
Alas, Matt Mahan seems more consumed with racing to Twitter to aid the plight of bankers and tech bros than with placing any sense of urgency on the basic needs of San Jose’s residents and small businesses.
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